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The silent majority in software

vadimkravcenko.com

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Re: The silent majority in software

#191

Post by KptMarchewa »

BlargMcLarg wrote: post #162
cageface wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Back end seems to be changing quite quickly too. Docker, k8s, serverless, a million different specialized cloud services, all kinds of non-sql DBs etc. I'm sure you can find a job doing backend that doesn't involve following these trends but you can also still find plenty of front end jobs using jQuery.

If anything, it feels like frontend has slowed down tremendously whereas backend has sped up. That said, both are pushing for more cross-discipline experience in some form (fullstack, devops, UX/UI for frontend, etc.)

Data-related things are moving at least as fast as pre-react/typescript era javascript.

Re: The silent majority in software

#192

Post by ericwooley »

chrischattin wrote: post #189
azemetre wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you mind sharing some things that juniors have forced that you think are bad? I’ve recently switched jobs and my team doesn’t write integration tests for our services but rather manually test them with postman. It’s definitely odd and very inefficient.

Not OP, but front end JavaScript frameworks are the first thing that comes to mind as an inefficient antipattern that was forced into the dev mindshare by (effective) mega-cap marketing and jr devs who didn’t know any better.

The entire concept of fronted frameworks is an anti pattern?

This might be the oldest, grumpiest man on the front lawn yelling at childreniest take we on web dev, that I’ve ever heard

Re: The silent majority in software

#193

Post by progrus »

chrischattin wrote: post #189
azemetre wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you mind sharing some things that juniors have forced that you think are bad? I’ve recently switched jobs and my team doesn’t write integration tests for our services but rather manually test them with postman. It’s definitely odd and very inefficient.

Not OP, but front end JavaScript frameworks are the first thing that comes to mind as an inefficient antipattern that was forced into the dev mindshare by (effective) mega-cap marketing and jr devs who didn’t know any better.

I’ve been programming ~15 years, and from my perspective, those frameworks helped us move on from a world riddled with XSS, “better than fail whale”-level reliability expectations, and software ossification (Gmail, Facebook, etc).

Today, the frameworks bite me in the ass about once a week, but I think it’s worth it to get safe React with strict TypeScript, and plenty besides.

Caveat: All infrastructure requires a lot of maintenance, though! YAGNI still applies, and hopefully you have (or are on) a team dedicated to supporting the tools that you do need.

Re: The silent majority in software

#194

Post by citizenkeen »

cubancigar11 wrote: post #72
donatj wrote: post #59

> Sometimes I’ve seen Pull Requests from empty accounts with a brief explanation of what was implemented. They just submit bug fixes, no drama. Over half my coworkers including some very talented developers have no public repos. As someone with almost 200 that always blows my mind. How do you work in software for years and not find some little hole you want to fill. That’s not a judgment call, that’s an honest questi…

Because they have no love for the job. They are doing it for something else and so are only interested in working on things that have a visible and clear return. These people are also good at politics. There is a reason bill gates is rich and rms isn't.

This is the viewpoint of somebody who doesn’t have any other loves in their life.

I love my job. A lot. I also love my wife, my kids, my friends, my community, and a wide variety of time intensive hobbies.

Re: The silent majority in software

#196

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

camgunz wrote: post #81
jongjong wrote: post #52

I used to be part of the silent majority of software developers but that changed after I became disillusioned about the direction of the industry. Nowadays, I'm basically forced to use certain inefficient tools in order to get a job because a bunch of highly vocal junior devs who got their way. It's a bit like in politics; when times are good for the majority, most normal people aren't interested in politics; they ha…

While I admit to enjoying some of the debate aerobics on HN, this is the prime reason I try and give my voice to some of the discussion here. I kind of view it similarly to voting: you have to make your opinions known. It's had the pleasant side effect of also educating me on quite a lot--mixing in with people with different experiences and values has enriched my life, so I think it's a win-win. I just try and be car…

One of the [few] advantages of becoming a crusty old fart™, is that we tend to waste a lot less time, worrying about what others think of us, and just do what we need to do, to get the job done.

I was just talking about this, to someone, yesterday.

I'm often accused of being a "killjoy," or a "dreamkiller," by today's yutes. This is because I say 'orrible things, like "Have you considered what happens if..?" or "We tried that, a couple of years ago. It didn't work out, and here's why...".

In actual point of fact, I'm exactly the opposite. It's my job to Make Things Happen. I plan to ship everything that I do, and my work is generally focused around the endless practicalities and compromises, necessary to get products out the door.

This has often resulted in me being called every name in the book, as I try to avoid chasing shiny, and keep the eye on the ball. In my days of yute, this would keep me awake at night, worrying whether or not I had made the right decision, if I was an unintended, out-of-wedlock child, or if I really was a goose-stepping fascist.

But I have been getting stuff out the door, for pretty much my entire adult life.

These days, I sleep like a baby.

Re: The silent majority in software

#197

Post by vikramkr »

jongjong wrote: post #146
Existenceblinks wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah. This is happening, look around job board. A lot of job description look really dumb, tech stack doesn't make sense for their business at all.

It's so frustrating to find a nice job advert, then you read through the (very specific) list of requirements and you're thinking to yourself "JavaScript: Check, Node.js: Check, Postgres: Check, Docker: Check, REST: Check, WebSockets: Check, Redis: Check, RabbitMQ: Check, Distributed systems: Check, nginx: Check, Kubernetes: Check, GraphQL: DAMN IT! This was almost a match..."

Those requirements are almost always just a wishlist

Re: The silent majority in software

#198

Post by quietbritishjim »

lvturner wrote: post #64
ttpphd wrote: post #7

There's nothing quite like an author getting basic history completely wrong at the very beginning. Really builds confidence.

What color is the bike-shed?

If the colour of the bike shed is in the name of your nuclear reactor, maybe it actually does matter.
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