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Things they didn’t teach you about software engineering

vadimkravcenko.com

281–285 of 285 posts

Re: Things they didn’t teach you about software engineering

#281
post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure it can be removed, fundamentally. After all, if everyone sent out their emails, so to speak, what would be left for the meeting? I mean, what are the odds of someone discovering something worthwhile to communicate to the team just seconds before the meeting starts? Any earlier and the email would have already been sent and there would be nothing left for the meeting. Maybe it happens once in a blue moon,…

> After all, if everyone sent out their emails, so to speak, what would be left for the meeting? One thing I've learned is that a lot of people simply don't read emails. You can send out all the status emails you want, no one is going to read them unless it's directly related to their own work. Short, frequent status meetings ensure that people are actually aware of the status and gives them a chance of unblocking yo…

You are right that people won't pay attention to anything that isn't already of interest to them, but the medium of exchange makes no difference there.

In fact, there was once advocacy towards a style of meeting (oft called a "standup") where you explicitly called upon participants to give their status update because it was recognized that they wouldn't be paying attention and needed prompting to snap them back, although this has largely fallen out of favour as we realized that only kept their attention for the length of their update and didn't achieve the desired effect.

Re: Things they didn’t teach you about software engineering

#282

Pretty decent article (don't agree with everything, but for the most part) > Code is secondary. Business value is first. I wish I could shout this from a mountaintop. If there's one thing I could change about engineering culture it would be this. But then again I would lose my edge if everyone understood this, so maybe it's best that they don't Engineers: If you want to stand out in your career - take this to heart.…

This does not apply to the typical software engineer.

Rather this:

> Code is secondary. People are first

This is easily overlooked. Your social skills matter most. Leading, listening, communication. Most problems are people problems.

Re: Things they didn’t teach you about software engineering

#283

Something I would like to add to the list (being in the field for 33 years): Discover that your greatest struggle is with your own deep rooted sense of insecurity, I think that software engineering, like no other form of engineering, has an aspect of creativity (source code), in combination with many (often hidden) single points of failures (bugs), where cooperation with others is essential, causing all your insecuri…

Could you expand a bit more about what you mean about hiding insecurities? Are you hiding them from yourself, or from others? I am reading this as learning to deal with your insecurities but not sure if that's what you mean. Do you have any advice in particular? I feel like my imposter syndrome takes so much mental energy that I spend a lot of it just worrying whether I can do something rather than just doing it.

I think it depends on you personality whether you are able to hide your insecurities or not. I also do not know whether it is a good thing to hide them, because they can surface in other forms, like anger, bitterness, revenge, depression, and/or indifference.

It is probably better to deal with your insecurities, your deepest fears. With that respect, I think that the litanry against fear (from Dune by Frank Herbert) has some deep meaning. Making your fear larger, and than asking yourself what it would mean in the end, can help to overcome your fears.

Another things that I have discovered is that breathing techniques can help. Slow and deep breathing is a great technique for finding calmness. Many meditation techniques involves a focus on breathing. I think you don't need to sit with you eyes closed in a certain position and/or and think (or not) about certain things. It also works when you are sitting behind your desk or when you are walking around.

Re: Things they didn’t teach you about software engineering

#284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could you expand a bit more about what you mean about hiding insecurities? Are you hiding them from yourself, or from others? I am reading this as learning to deal with your insecurities but not sure if that's what you mean. Do you have any advice in particular? I feel like my imposter syndrome takes so much mental energy that I spend a lot of it just worrying whether I can do something rather than just doing it.

I think it depends on you personality whether you are able to hide your insecurities or not. I also do not know whether it is a good thing to hide them, because they can surface in other forms, like anger, bitterness, revenge, depression, and/or indifference. It is probably better to deal with your insecurities, your deepest fears. With that respect, I think that the litanry against fear (from Dune by Frank Herbert)…

Great, thank you for the insightful response! I’ll think about it more. I’m reading the Dune right now coincidentally, the observation about fear is very interesting.

Re: Things they didn’t teach you about software engineering

#285
post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect this may be a 'cultural' issue: For instance in Germany with its strong engineering tradition, nobody in their right mind would call somebody who builds software an 'engineer' (there are some google hits for "Softwareingeneur" but I bet this has a fairly recent thing and has been leaking back from English). A person who builds software is simply called a 'programmer' or 'developer' here. And I really have m…

> Out of interest what are the different skillset requirements between 'software engineering' and 'programming'? Because I really can't think of any. You can look up "software engineer vs programmer".

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