[deleted]
Absolute truths I unlearned as junior developer (2019)
31–40 of 269 posts
Re: Absolute truths I unlearned as junior developer (2019)
#32The truth I had to unlearn is that coding is a solitary activity, and that coding is the most important part of a senior software engineer’s job. Now I rarely have the chance to code for a few hours straight because if I have enough information to write code then all that’s left is the easy part. The hard part is coordinating, defining the problem, planning for the future, and communicating the current status of the…
I would have thought that job would be a higher level than senior. Team lead perhaps.
I’d expect team lead to be about senior level. A staff engineer should be doing more than that.
Re: Absolute truths I unlearned as junior developer (2019)
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is why a lot of people don't test or claim that testing takes more time since "we spend half our time fixing the tests" - a lack the experience to design code that's testable. I think it's also worth pointing out that up to a point, code that's testable tends to be more maintainable. This largely has to do with coupling and cohesion. Code that's hard to test in indicative of too much coupling and/or not enough c…
>I think it's also worth pointing out that up to a point, code that's testable tends to be more maintainable. This largely has to do with coupling and cohesion. Code that's hard to test in indicative of too much coupling and/or not enough cohesion. I feel like whenever someone complains that the code is hard to test, there's always someone who's quick to claim that it's just indicative of problems with the code itsel…
In my experience people who learn about “testing” learn an inflexible TDD based version where everything has to be covered in unit tests, meaning everything has to become overly complicated so dependency injection will work instead of merely creating the only thing you’d ever want it to use.
If you’ll allow other things like integration tests as the first level of testing, things get simpler. Unit tests aren’t the only kind of test and in fact they’re the least good kind.
Re: Absolute truths I unlearned as junior developer (2019)
#34I still reminisce about the first big project I ever built. As an intern I was told high level what to do and given two years alone in a room working eight hours a day to figure out how to build it, zero guidance from anyone. I didn’t really have any concept of importing libraries or using open source software, so literally every part of this huge and complex application was custom-written by me. All UI elements were…
What year was this?
Re: Absolute truths I unlearned as junior developer (2019)
#35I'll just repost these thoughts by Dave Cutler, designer of the kernels for Windows NT/XP(...) and (Open)VMS: “I have a couple of sayings that are pertinent. The first is: ‘Successful people do what unsuccessful people won’t.’ The second is: ‘If you don’t put them [bugs] in, you don’t have to take them out.’ I am a person that wants to do the work. I don’t want to just think about it and let someone else do it. When…
[deleted]
Re: Absolute truths I unlearned as junior developer (2019)
#36The truth I had to unlearn is that coding is a solitary activity, and that coding is the most important part of a senior software engineer’s job. Now I rarely have the chance to code for a few hours straight because if I have enough information to write code then all that’s left is the easy part. The hard part is coordinating, defining the problem, planning for the future, and communicating the current status of the…
> The hard part is coordinating, defining the problem, planning for the future, and communicating the current status of the problem.
Yeah the hard part about software engineering is being the henchman of your corrupt manager.
Re: Absolute truths I unlearned as junior developer (2019)
#37The truth I had to unlearn is that coding is a solitary activity, and that coding is the most important part of a senior software engineer’s job. Now I rarely have the chance to code for a few hours straight because if I have enough information to write code then all that’s left is the easy part. The hard part is coordinating, defining the problem, planning for the future, and communicating the current status of the…
I hate that this has become the norm. Sometimes, even most of the time, tight clean code and proper data structures and clean smart queries are vital for both cost and performance reasons.
That smart(experienced) people think up how to approach a problem and throw it over the wall to the juniors makes me sad, even if it has become somewhat commonplace.
I was actually offered a position doing exactly that for a rather successful, nonFAANG valley company. Literally 'decide how to solve the problem, then hand it off and never think about it again.' It sounded awful for everyone involved. I'd just write in abstracts and never code, and the coder just codes without thinking a ton. Sounds terrible for both party's growth.
Re: Absolute truths I unlearned as junior developer (2019)
#38I still reminisce about the first big project I ever built. As an intern I was told high level what to do and given two years alone in a room working eight hours a day to figure out how to build it, zero guidance from anyone. I didn’t really have any concept of importing libraries or using open source software, so literally every part of this huge and complex application was custom-written by me. All UI elements were…
> it was also the most beautiful and functional app I have ever used to date
I laughed at this because of course a software developer would think the best-ever UX is the one they built in complete isolation with exactly 1 user (who happpened to also be the developer and designer).
Re: Absolute truths I unlearned as junior developer (2019)
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's not a senior engineer's job.. that's a job that has scope creeped into many roles: project management, lead developer, project owner and a trainer. Are you doing QA and managing the production servers as well?
Wait.. you are supposed to only code?
You're supposed to deliver value. But your org structure is dysfunctional I'd say you're also supposed to say boundaries and flag when you're spending too much time on things outside your core role
Re: Absolute truths I unlearned as junior developer (2019)
#40For me, one of the things I learned early on is that there are a lot of salesmen in the software world that want to sell you something. Whether its tooling, methodology, classes or whatever. Cargo culting is rampant and everyone wants to sell you their version of a hammer to nail down any problems with your software.
This doesn't make them necessarily wrong or not have valuable things to bring to the table but much like everything else you should be careful not to fall into the trap of assuming that it works for them, therefore it works for you.