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Ask HN: Do you hate software engineering but love programming?

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Re: Ask HN: Do you hate software engineering but love programming?

#541

Post by ajmurmann »

lelanthran wrote: post #503
ajmurmann wrote: post #378

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The original statement will be read by men and some men will connect to it right away, because rather than envision some abstract person, they are made to immediately picture a man, and in that image they may recognize themselves, like looking at a mirror. Sorry, are you saying that the audience of the statement is on purpose only men? If so, how could you possibly support any claim that it's not misogynistic?

> Sorry, are you saying that the audience of the statement is on purpose only men? Isn't it? Wasn't Socrates replying to a question from a young man when he (allegedly) said that? Since the origin of that quote is directly in response to a man, isn't it aimed at ... men? [1] https://www.quora.com/Did-Socrates-really-say-if-you-get-a-b...

I really want to take your argument as a reason why it's 100% ok to phrase it exclusionary, but then I get a response like this https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34376163 and am reminded how that general tone will keep women away from our industry rather than attract them.

Re: Ask HN: Do you hate software engineering but love programming?

#542

Post by MiyamotoAkira »

thwawawa1234 wrote: post #256
mpweiher wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> agile has killed the happiness...meetings...rituals...meta-work...not actual productivity. All of that isn't actual agile. It's Fauxgile and has nothing to do with what agile is about, which is about removing impediments to productivity, removing meetings (why were there standups? Because they shouldn't exist in the first place, and if you absolutely positively can't avoid them then at least make them as short as p…

Agile is made up. The vast majority of places “do it wrong”. Coaches come in and make things even worse, with even less understanding. Saying “they are doing it wrong” and having nothing change isn’t doing anything, and it’s not really a great point. (Not specifically calling you out I just hear this all the time) “Fauxagile” *is* agile, because thats what the majority of places in reality do. “Agile” needs a complet…

Rebranding wouldn't help. The same people doing Fauxagile will be doing FauxX after. The underlying issues of why Fauxagile exists don't get removed because of rebranding

Re: Ask HN: Do you hate software engineering but love programming?

#543

Post by yafbum »

Aeolun wrote: post #518
mulmen wrote: post #363

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I worked in a place like that and it was awesome. Unfortunately we were so good at what we did across the board that we got bought by another company to integrate into their larger offering. It made a lot of sense from a business perspective but the tech team in our office was made redundant and so my time there came to an end. I think this is the inevitable conclusion to good, small companies. Since it actually work…

Is it really that hard for owners to resist the alure of a buyout? I dunno, I always like to think that I’d continue doing the good thing that I’ve got going.

Sometimes you're kind of forced into it: if your growth starts taking off faster than you thought, you may be in need of more capital just to stay in business. At that point you have a choice: slam the brakes (turn down customers), borrow (risky), raise (dilutes you), or sell out. If you can find a solid working relationship within the acquirer's company, all is good...

Re: Ask HN: Do you hate software engineering but love programming?

#544

Post by doetoe »

Retric wrote: post #403
doetoe wrote: post #385

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just a side remark, but "most philosophers are white" should probably be "most philosophers you heard about"

It’s true that only a minority of philosophers are white, and people are far less likely to be aware of philosophers outside their culture. But there are less aggressive ways to say it.

My intention was not to be aggressive at all, sorry!

Re: Ask HN: Do you hate software engineering but love programming?

#545

Post by quickthrower2 »

stackbutterflow wrote: post #359
lifeplusplus wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Precisely my feeling on this topic. We don't need scrum Masters, product managers and even most managers who are not technical. Too many people trying to have a say in something they have no expertise in. Basically software engineers are treated like a coding monkey.

We need assistants not managers most of the time. Why are tech assistants not a thing?

That is what I find weird: when an Engineer spends the day fixing their PC or figuring out how to procure something. Assistants for that kind of stuff would be good. For small companies it might require a call out model rather than full time assistants.

Re: Ask HN: Do you hate software engineering but love programming?

#546

Post by dajonker »

I co-founded a company as the only software developer and it's the most fun I've ever had building software. That includes all the refactoring, architecting and rewriting. What's important in my case is that I have awesome co-founders who have completely different roles and skills and that trust me to deliver the tech. We don't have investors, only our own money on the line. We also don't have any recurring meetings, communication is mostly async and that works great for developing software. There is a vision and a rough roadmap but we don't do any short term planning, that would be a giant waste of time. We just had a very successful first year!

The job is not without any hard parts though. I may have a lot of freedom to build a product the way I want, but I didn't have any technical colleagues to discuss problems (or joke around) with. A start-up naturally comes with a lot of uncertainty. You have to make a lot of hard decisions and then make sure they were the right ones. And it might take some time before I make as much money as I did working for someone else.

Every job will have pros and cons and you'll always need to make some trade offs.

Re: Ask HN: Do you hate software engineering but love programming?

#547

Post by Too »

selestify wrote: post #368
mindcrime wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can't upvote this enough times. Time and time again you see this: people say "I hate agile because of X, Y and Z" where X, Y, and Z - at best - are orthogonal to the idea of Agile, and at worst (and perhaps even "ordinarily") are complete anathema to the spirit of Agile. Sorry, but anybody who thinks Agile is about velocity, story points, planning poker, standups, retrospectives, backlog grooming, etc. has been sold…

What is actually Agile then, and how does one actually practice it?

The whole idea is that there is no strictly formal version of the process. It can't be answered with a package. The process itself is agile, ammendable, fluid, mutable, improvable. You do what works for you.

Just stick to the principles of focusing on the product customer value over the processes themselves, with recurring reflection over how your process is working, as per the agile manifesto.

If your company hasn't done this before, Scrum is a good starting point, but it is by no means a goal nor the final destination. This is where most companies fail.

Re: Ask HN: Do you hate software engineering but love programming?

#548

Post by quickthrower2 »

015a wrote: post #366
tsunamifury wrote: post #321

Every few months or so we get these really circle jerky posts by engineers who believe the world of business is them just pumping out code and somehow getting paid. 1) that’s the difference between a job and a hobby. You do the hard parts you’re paid to do sometimes. 2) decisions you don’t like by stakeholders you don’t like aren’t always wrong just because you see some way to “code it”. A product is not just its cod…

And every time these posts come around, someone immediately jumps in and plays a character in Office Space, saying "oh the engineers don't like talking to people, that's why I'm valuable". Look at all the recent layoffs; get the data and ask around "how many Engineers with 1+ years of seniority were impacted by the layoffs". The number is dwarfed by literally every other business function. Dwarfed. Your probability o…

You summed it up well about planning. Translations:

“Plan” = Stretch Goal

“Stretch Goal” = Not gonna happen

Re: Ask HN: Do you hate software engineering but love programming?

#549

Post by jokab »

wojciii wrote: post #298
v-erne wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> I've never heard of a "professional bench warmer" in software development. I think this is real. My friend who is serial Project Manager (he works for big corps here in Poland and changes job almost every year for last 15 years) actually uses the term "on bench" for programers that do not have projects assigned to them and he claims that he quite often hires people before project is confirmed, so from time to time…

I have 20+ years of experience in different companies (software and just using software);and I never ever heard of this behaviour. I never changed job (Unusually work 2-4 years at one company) where I didn't have everything ready on my first day.

IBM and Accenture in the Philippines.

Re: Ask HN: Do you hate software engineering but love programming?

#550

Post by kristopolous »

The money ruined everything. It spoiled San Francisco, the tech culture, polluted the industry with people passionate about money instead ... I'm not saying people shouldn't get paid, but if the richest tech person was #400 on the Forbes list and not known outside the industry as opposed to roughly half of them, I think we'd all live happier lives, including the Musks and Zuckerbergs of the world; they seem miserable. It's not in a healthy state.
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