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Most tech content is bullshit (2020)

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Re: Most tech content is bullshit (2020)

#51

Post by ilyt »

Little_Kitty wrote: post #32
strangattractor wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I interpreted "bullshit" to mean fluff. Much of the content I encounter appears to be regurgitated trivial examples from tutorials. Entire websites are dedicated to this. The goal generally appears to generate some type of influencer status or get money from ads. Few people offer helpful content that provides a deeper understanding or solves a tricky problem. Probably because they can't.

You get a lot more views for a video on how to index a column in MySQL than for how to approach evaluating your needs and choose a suitable database. The latter would be outdated in a few years as new technologies emerge, while the former can be padded with enough fluff to show two adverts. So we end up with the content you know today, rather than what you'd really like to see. It's good to remember this and interact…

The latter is also hard to google, you can't exacly ask google "what database to pick with this and that constraints and capabilities"

Re: Most tech content is bullshit (2020)

#52

Post by ilyt »

mike_hock wrote: post #48
mola wrote: post #22

In some respect being a software engineer today is really hard. OTOH you want to do the right thing, so you don't want to invent a solution yourself. So you look for available resources, you go online. There you're going to encounter either: 1. Spam from junior devs who started a blog so to build a name for themselves. 2. Spam from SEO mills peddling junior level wisdome so they can get ad money. 3. Spam from softwar…

> you want to do the right thing, so you don't want to invent a solution yourself How is that the right thing? Over 90% of the time, the fastest, most maintainable, and simplest solution is to do it yourself. Yeah sure, there's a few horror stories out there of homegrown database engines that reinvent every wheel of RDBs the wrong way, have been unmaintained for 10 years and the original dev has left. But those are t…

> Over 90% of the time, the fastest, most maintainable, and simplest solution is to do it yourself.

That's almost never the case. You'd be near-always putting it together with ready made libs or services.

Re: Most tech content is bullshit (2020)

#53

Post by hcarvalhoalves »

I’ve seen people eagerly suggest the use of GraphQL without being able to explain the idea behind REST or SOAP, what can be done, the shortcomings… People in the area, specially the fresh out of college, will get informed about technology by promoted content on social media, specially any technology out of MAANG, and automatically assume it’s an industry standard.

Re: Most tech content is bullshit (2020)

#54

Post by nyrikki »

ilyt wrote: post #46
spacemadness wrote: post #18

One devious form of bullshit is always using the simplest of examples to prove out an architecture pattern and call it a day. I’ve lost count on how many times I’ve seen patterns with glaring open questions and pitfalls the author avoids. Then the cacophony of likes follow from folks who’re likely very early in their career or hobby and don’t know any better. This is very prevalent on iOS development blogs as authors…

I feel like classic object oriented tutorials talking about fruits and apples with no connection to actual apps you'd build are ones to add to this pile

I may be wrong on this but weren't the fruit analogies originally meant to describe the difference between class based and prototype based languages and then it was extended to actually teach the concepts in a way that didn't work?

I remember my professor using them to try and teach pre-standard C++ and when I pressed him to explain actual use cases I figured out he didn't understand himself.

I have the feeling it was meant as a bridge for lisp programmers moving to class based languages but that may be because we learned lisp first.

Anyways that context is the only place I found value in it.

Re: Most tech content is bullshit (2020)

#55

Post by thefourthchime »

BiteCode_dev wrote: post #43

True, but most content in general is bullshit. Most scientific publications is BS published for the sake of pumping your numbers. Most student memoire is BS to pass the exam. Most financial analyses, most TV journal reporting, most tweets, most books are BS. Ever read doctors or lawyers specialized magazines? Most pages are BS on top of BS. Paid content, content produced to fill space, making volume, low quality auth…

I think you're going a little bit far, but I tend to agree. My reasoning for this is, to look back on experts from the past.

Unless it's a hard scientific fact, a law of physics, most things are really just opinions that people tend to agree with. Remember Leaded gasoline? How about DDT or Asbestos? How about Freud? Of the thing the bible likes to talk about, slavery.

Even in the 25 years, I've been in programming, it seems like all "Proper Way To Do It" have all aged about as well as milk on a hot day.

The only thing I follow is keeping stuff simple.

Re: Most tech content is bullshit (2020)

#56

Post by factorialboy »

spacemadness wrote: post #18

One devious form of bullshit is always using the simplest of examples to prove out an architecture pattern and call it a day. I’ve lost count on how many times I’ve seen patterns with glaring open questions and pitfalls the author avoids. Then the cacophony of likes follow from folks who’re likely very early in their career or hobby and don’t know any better. This is very prevalent on iOS development blogs as authors…

The fundamental deficiency with our society is that we value talking about X more than performing/implementing X.

This is true for most fields, including programming.

Most teams have folks to do the heavy lifting, and a small percentage of folks who talk about it.

The talkers are considered more valuable than the doers, within the organization or without.

These are our thought leaders, influencers, architects, you name it.

I am not complaining, this is a game we are all playing. It took me far too long to recognize it.

Re: Most tech content is bullshit (2020)

#57

Post by lohnjemon »

As I've been looking into freelance teaching and researching what kinds of services people provide, it's become astounding to me how poor most freelance teaching is.

There's a bunch of people with the skills of a first year CS student offering "learn to code" education out there.

But it sort of makes sense, those are exactly the kind of people who would want to make a quick buck on the side, not seasoned professionals who are making 6 figs already.

It's just unfortunate, that people get sold this idea of "becoming a coder in a few weeks" and go nowhere because of it.

Re: Most tech content is bullshit (2020)

#58

Post by yodsanklai »

mola wrote: post #22

In some respect being a software engineer today is really hard. OTOH you want to do the right thing, so you don't want to invent a solution yourself. So you look for available resources, you go online. There you're going to encounter either: 1. Spam from junior devs who started a blog so to build a name for themselves. 2. Spam from SEO mills peddling junior level wisdome so they can get ad money. 3. Spam from softwar…

In my team (big tech company), if there's some new problem to solve, you write a design doc, and validate it with your colleagues. If nobody gets a better idea than you, then you implement what you had in mind. We're not incentized to produce perfect designs, but hopefully something that works and is simple enough that you can implement it within a few months. It's pretty rare that we have to implement entire complex systems from scratch. We also have a lot of internal tools and specific problematics, so I rarely feel the need to look up for an existing solution.

Re: Most tech content is bullshit (2020)

#59

Post by Solvency »

thefourthchime wrote: post #55
BiteCode_dev wrote: post #43

True, but most content in general is bullshit. Most scientific publications is BS published for the sake of pumping your numbers. Most student memoire is BS to pass the exam. Most financial analyses, most TV journal reporting, most tweets, most books are BS. Ever read doctors or lawyers specialized magazines? Most pages are BS on top of BS. Paid content, content produced to fill space, making volume, low quality auth…

I think you're going a little bit far, but I tend to agree. My reasoning for this is, to look back on experts from the past. Unless it's a hard scientific fact, a law of physics, most things are really just opinions that people tend to agree with. Remember Leaded gasoline? How about DDT or Asbestos? How about Freud? Of the thing the bible likes to talk about, slavery. Even in the 25 years, I've been in programming, i…

Opinions people tend to agree with us too charitable and simple.

It's called corporate propaganda. It's all around us.

Re: Most tech content is bullshit (2020)

#60

Post by ellis0n »

Probably 20% of fake jobs generate fake content. Startups have long become the fashion of technology and not about tech itself, as it once was. Even PG does not post on this forum because of the unsolvable problem of the wrong/fake commentator. More and more politics and fashion in IT and less technologists. There are only 28 million programmers, and all the other billions of people do not even know how it works, but they have learned how to copy and sell. Market wins!
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