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The silent majority in software

vadimkravcenko.com

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Re: The silent majority in software

#251

Post by Existenceblinks »

danielvaughn wrote: post #182
jongjong wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. Also, back end tends to have fewer mega-trends. You usually have the option to stick to your old tools. There are still plenty of C/C++ back end jobs for example. The community keeps branching off. On the front end, the trends tend to be more extreme; people will not take you seriously unless you give up on whatever tools you use and go straight for React or VueJS... Then when TypeScript comes along, everyon…

As someone who really appreciates strong typing, I will die on this hill - I hate Typescript. Introducing a transpiled typing system on top of a dynamically typed language is a recipe for all sorts of insane complexity, which is what I experience whenever I try to use TS. If you consider all the time and effort it took to introduce types for every NPM project out there, all the development of the language itself, the…

Reminds me of javascript the good part thin vs thick book meme. TS the good part is thin as well, though no one sets rules how many features they should use. Unsound type is bad enough, too many features make it worse. I wish they delete TS features, not trying to add more things to already broken underlying language (js)

Re: The silent majority in software

#252

Post by dang »

verisimilitudes wrote: post #18

The disgusting natures of UNIX, UTF-8, and the general culture here whose members don't understand that touching a computer (poorly) doesn't entitle them to dominion over the non computer-touchers is generally controversial on orange Reddit.

We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32635382.

Re: The silent majority in software

#253

Post by dang »

actually_a_dog wrote: post #24

Try criticizing capitalism or "free markets" sometime.

People do that all the time on HN - I can give you a long list of comments complaining that HN is dominated by socialists, communists, Marxists, you name it.

We should distinguish between making substantive anti-market arguments and shrill ideological rhetoric—the latter is going to get downvoted (correctly) regardless of ideology because it's against the site guidelines and the intended spirit of curious conversation - https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32635382.

Re: The silent majority in software

#254

Post by specialist »

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…

FWIW, every generation feels this way.

Older me is now super embarrassed by my prior enthusiasm for object oriented programming and misc methodologies. I have very vivid memories of grey beards dismissing my naivety and me thinking "they just didn't get it." [0]

If there's any kind of karma, today's noobs will live long enough to be mocked by even younger noobs.

Small solace, I know.

[0] I always remember criticisms. I've got the voice of doubt in the back of my head always wondering what I'm missing, what if they're right, etc. It's a serious bummer.

Re: The silent majority in software

#255

Post by devmunchies »

Thanks for the article.

I do feel like engineers who put themselves out there and engage on HN, Github, Chat groups, etc, get "polished" and get better as engineers, assuming that association in these forums causes them to read more code or think about paradigms.

If "silent" are mostly keeping to themselves, they might have some of their own innovations independent from mainstream engineering, but lack common knowledge, which can be accounted for by reading a lot of programming books, release notes, docs, etc.

Unrelated, some unsolicited feedback for bloggers, I like to click on images to zoom in (quicker than ctrl+equal 5 times). So at the very least please wrap the images in a link to the image src. a humble request.

Re: The silent majority in software

#256

Post by kaashif »

treis wrote: post #172
EdwardDiego wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've joined a company with a silent majority monolith, and joined at the inflection point where they realise their monolith is strangling them... If your dev guide in the wiki says "to run unit tests, use docker-compose exec monolith test some.package.test_class", you're in danger. This company needs to start breaking the monolith down into, well maybe not microservices, but at least smaller monoliths, if they want t…

Can you explain what is wrong with the test command?

I don't know what _they_ think is wrong with it, but if you need docker-compose to run unit tests, they're not unit tests. Unit tests really shouldn't have external dependencies of the kind docker-compose helps to provide.

That's more of a terminology point IMO, and probably not what they were talking about.

Re: The silent majority in software

#257

Post by specialist »

dollo_7 wrote: post #15

I may belong to that silent majority. I have learnt a lot from the discussions here in HN and other sites, but I rarely participate on them. This post made me think about being a little more active because, sincerely, most of the times it is just laziness what prevents me from commenting anything. In fact, this is my first comment here in HN. Little by little.

Not commenting is a superior personal strategy.

I've always been the vocal outspoken critic. XML, EJB, annotations, aspects, ORMs, everything JavaScript, agile, ad nauseum. (My non-technical list is way longer.) It's always cost me.

I really wish I could tell young me to just smile and STFU.

Re: The silent majority in software

#258

Post by P5fRxh5kUvp2th »

devmunchies wrote: post #255

Thanks for the article. I do feel like engineers who put themselves out there and engage on HN, Github, Chat groups, etc, get "polished" and get better as engineers, assuming that association in these forums causes them to read more code or think about paradigms. If "silent" are mostly keeping to themselves, they might have some of their own innovations independent from mainstream engineering, but lack common knowled…

It's possible to read on the internet without engaging in arguments.

Re: The silent majority in software

#259

Post by devmunchies »

P5fRxh5kUvp2th wrote: post #258
devmunchies wrote: post #255

Thanks for the article. I do feel like engineers who put themselves out there and engage on HN, Github, Chat groups, etc, get "polished" and get better as engineers, assuming that association in these forums causes them to read more code or think about paradigms. If "silent" are mostly keeping to themselves, they might have some of their own innovations independent from mainstream engineering, but lack common knowled…

It's possible to read on the internet without engaging in arguments.

I know :). That's why I was unambiguously grateful for the article and polite in my humble request.

Re: The silent majority in software

#260

Post by kixiQu »

devmunchies wrote: post #255

Thanks for the article. I do feel like engineers who put themselves out there and engage on HN, Github, Chat groups, etc, get "polished" and get better as engineers, assuming that association in these forums causes them to read more code or think about paradigms. If "silent" are mostly keeping to themselves, they might have some of their own innovations independent from mainstream engineering, but lack common knowled…

> Unrelated, some unsolicited feedback for bloggers, I like to click on images to zoom in (quicker than ctrl+equal 5 times). So at the very least please wrap the images in a link to the image src. a humble request.

I suggest using a TamperMonkey script to accomplish this on your end; outside of thumbnail galleries, it runs against common expectations, so you'll have better luck taking control yourself.

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