Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Street fighting engineers vs. martial arts engineers

ravitejakanta.substack.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 72 posts

Re: Street fighting engineers vs. martial arts engineers

#61

Post by AstralStorm »

inawarminister wrote: post #60
darod wrote: post #26

first "code ninjas" now "street fighting" engineers and "martial art" engineers? really? I feel like these monikers are getting a little silly especially since you'd never see the reverse.

Well I'm a HEMA swordsman moonlighting as a backend/LLM programmer and in many cases I think while wrestling with my spaghetti code: "How would Meyer deal with it?" Human cross-domain capabilities are amazing.

Fiore would just twist and throw the problem until it's obvious, solved, requirements are met or it's left for someone else to deal with. ;) Very direct. Force and control inputs, thus outputs will be ensured correct. Manhandling code has a long tradition.

Meyer would evaluate a series of varying weights of golden hammers. Try to defensive code all possible cases. Find a decisive insight into a problem.

And Polish sabre school would cut off the angles until the solution is all that remains possible. Feint all sorts of evil cases for testing.

Now the fun part is that basic principles are the same.

You write code that works and does what is required or you are not a programmer.

You win swordfights or you're dead.

Both of the swordmasters worked from first principles...

Re: Street fighting engineers vs. martial arts engineers

#63

Post by mock-possum »

virtualritz wrote: post #48

A friend of mine who's both a kick ass engineer and great product manager once told me this analogy, which is employing similar to the one in the article: "For any software project to succeed, you need three types of developers: The kamikaze. They kick off the project, they don't care about the mountain on the horizon or the abyss less than ten clicks ahead. They get everyone on board and they will also give the colu…

Having been each of these at some point during my career, I think I’m best at kamikaze, have thoroughly enjoyed dabbling in sniping, and am just not cut out to be a soldier.

Re: Street fighting engineers vs. martial arts engineers

#64

Post by mock-possum »

62951413 wrote: post #58
virtualritz wrote: post #48

A friend of mine who's both a kick ass engineer and great product manager once told me this analogy, which is employing similar to the one in the article: "For any software project to succeed, you need three types of developers: The kamikaze. They kick off the project, they don't care about the mountain on the horizon or the abyss less than ten clicks ahead. They get everyone on board and they will also give the colu…

Which also reminds me of "Pioneers, Settlers, Town Planners" ( https://blog.gardeviance.org/2015/03/on-pioneers-settlers-to... ). It points to a '93 book for the original inspiration.

> I often talk about the use of cell based structures (e.g. think Amazon Two Pizza, Starfish model

Wow right out the gate I have absolutely no clue what it is going in this article.

Re: Street fighting engineers vs. martial arts engineers

#66

Post by layer8 »

mock-possum wrote: post #64
62951413 wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which also reminds me of "Pioneers, Settlers, Town Planners" ( https://blog.gardeviance.org/2015/03/on-pioneers-settlers-to... ). It points to a '93 book for the original inspiration.

> I often talk about the use of cell based structures (e.g. think Amazon Two Pizza, Starfish model Wow right out the gate I have absolutely no clue what it is going in this article.

Maybe read an article about how to google first. It’s like a superpower. ;)

Re: Street fighting engineers vs. martial arts engineers

#67

Post by layer8 »

mock-possum wrote: post #62

I feel like over time I’ve learned that I don’t really have the discipline for marital arts, but that I’m scrappy enough to get by as a street fighter. I appreciate martial artists, but I just can’t devote myself to the art the way it deserves.

> I don’t really have the discipline for marital arts

Freudian slip? :D

Re: Street fighting engineers vs. martial arts engineers

#69

Post by smugma »

darod wrote: post #26

first "code ninjas" now "street fighting" engineers and "martial art" engineers? really? I feel like these monikers are getting a little silly especially since you'd never see the reverse.

The reverse/inverse is taking about a physical sport in cerebral terms, like the other commenter comparing boxing to chess.

Another analogy would be someone talking about their music like (a) code.

Re: Street fighting engineers vs. martial arts engineers

#70

Post by mock-possum »

layer8 wrote: post #67
mock-possum wrote: post #62

I feel like over time I’ve learned that I don’t really have the discipline for marital arts, but that I’m scrappy enough to get by as a street fighter. I appreciate martial artists, but I just can’t devote myself to the art the way it deserves.

> I don’t really have the discipline for marital arts Freudian slip? :D

Hahaha man maybe - get back to me in a couple years and ask me again, we’ll see.
Post reply on HN