Street fighting engineers vs. martial arts engineers
ravitejakanta.substack.com
Street fighting engineers vs. martial arts engineers
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Re: Street fighting engineers vs. martial arts engineers
#2Thank you for sharing this! It is helpful in explaining things easier
Re: Street fighting engineers vs. martial arts engineers
#3I kinda like this analogy, though the idea of street fighting is pretty unsavory in real life. Whereas Martial Artist in the article's analogy is like suburban children's Karate classes leading to later study for organized sports competitions and exhibitions. (BTW, IIUC, there are other kinds of study of martial arts, including people who focus on internal development separate from external accomplishments.)
Even though it's unsavory, I did use a "scrappy street kid fighter" analogy on HN a couple months ago, criticizing some academic attempt to make declarations about software engineering. Then spun that into one of my favorite topics, which is startups and other smaller companies playing house self-destructively, by cargo-culting behaviors of insulated massive megacorps. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34753570
Instead, we need to lean more towards scrappy street-smarts than we have been during much of "tech". (We also need to always learn from our predecessors and conteporaries, but to be smart about it, not cargo-cult, so I'm focusing on the smart part first.)
Re: Street fighting engineers vs. martial arts engineers
#4It seems similar to the analogy of a circus lion vs a wild lion.
Re: Street fighting engineers vs. martial arts engineers
#5When I first read the headline I read it as the engineers behind the game street fighter.
Re: Street fighting engineers vs. martial arts engineers
#6I would like to propose another candidate: Street-Fighter with Martial Arts training.
Re: Street fighting engineers vs. martial arts engineers
#7I kinda like this analogy, though the idea of street fighting is pretty unsavory in real life. Whereas Martial Artist in the article's analogy is like suburban children's Karate classes leading to later study for organized sports competitions and exhibitions. (BTW, IIUC, there are other kinds of study of martial arts, including people who focus on internal development separate from external accomplishments.) Even tho…
My favorite part of boxing is that it’s a very honest martial art. If you punch the other person more than they punch you, you win. Even the most technical coach will tell you that all the technique and philosophy we train is just there to improve your chances.
When you’re in the ring, forget the theory, do what works (within the rules). If your instinct says to throw a weird punch at a weird time, do it. You probably saw an opening.
I also like that boxing is full contact. No amount of katas or whatever will teach you as much about yourself as getting actually punched in the face will.
Similar to how no amount of analysis can beat actually shipping software and seeing what customers say.
Re: Street fighting engineers vs. martial arts engineers
#8I struggle to understand what insight is gained from this article. Can anyone explain how this could be useful?
Re: Street fighting engineers vs. martial arts engineers
#9I feel like these aren't always personality traits, but rather often indicate the kinds of work environments one has been exposed to.
I would characterize myself as more of a "Martial Artist" at heart. I find creating quality code gratifying for its own sake. I have an academic CS education. The majority of my early career was spent at a mature organization with lots of process in place and a reputation for engineering excellence. I love tools engineering and other internal work that makes others more productive, rather than the trench warfare of supporting consumer apps with thousands and thousands of users.
Yet, over the past two years at startups I feel I have taken on a lot more "Street Fighter" characteristics in order to cope. I let objectively bad code slide in reviews if it puts out a fire or we won't scale to meet its limitations soon. I fix serious issues and operational headaches under the table, because they would fester for months unprioritized otherwise. I start talking directly to management at the year mark instead of waiting for raises, because most startups just don't bother setting any expectations at all on that front.
It's important to realize that not all Martial Artists will be that way forever. And your organization might be what makes them hang up their black belt and pick up some brass knuckles. Or vice versa - a Street Fighter might tire of building and rebuilding half-baked spaghetti wire solutions and decide to go somewhere they can just focus on one thing and collect a paycheck.
Re: Street fighting engineers vs. martial arts engineers
#10Martial arts for the projects, street figthters for the products.
Good engineers are always valuable but everyone shines differently in different situations.