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The worst programmer I know

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Re: The worst programmer I know

#541

Post by brabel »

mattlondon wrote: post #182

Personally I want the seniors on my team actually delivering on the really hard stuff. Helping juniors do their job is great and all, but you still need experienced people to work on the hard and complex stuff that juniors can't because they don't have the knowledge/experience/people-skills. No amount of pair programming can replace that. You don't want to be in a situation where you have really really well implement…

Agreed. Tim was not doing the job of a programmer if he never actually wrote code that delivered value. Tim was a coach. Which is fine if that's what you hired Tim for, but I suspect that if you wanted a coach, you would've hired one. Hard features simply can't be done by juniors even given infinite amounts of time: they just don't have the skills yet, and to gain those skills takes years. Sure, they need a senior to help now and then, but if that makes the senior developers produce nothing, then what's the point for the company?? Just give hard features to people who are senior enough to do them, and if you really want the juniors to learn, let the senior share easier parts of that work (and walk through what he's doing) with the junior.

It's very nice of Tim to help everybody else, but doesn't anybody find it odd that all the other programmers need lots of help in the first place, so much that Tim has zero time to deliver anything himself? Seems that the problem is not with Tim, but with management that thinks it's ok for a professional to need help all the time, and for a volunteer like Tim to be there for them any time regardless of what he's paid for (which in this case, was story points as made clear by the author).

Re: The worst programmer I know

#544

Post by ResearchCode »

madeofpalk wrote: post #481
vegetablepotpie wrote: post #311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think what the GP means by “gaming” the system is that the teams did all the technical activities of scrum without providing much or any business value. The issue with scrum or any process that involves estimating is that every software project will inevitably have some risky element or difficult to estimate task that is essential to the execution of the project. Scrum will incentivize teams to avoid the essential…

“Story points” help you predict your work in the future. Knowing what and when you deliver can be valuable! Say you’re developing software for the next Super Bowl broadcast - it’s useful to know whether you’ll deliver what you said you would. If it’s looking like you can’t, you can start to make educated decisions about what work to cut and get a better idea of what you actually will deliver.

They don't help you do that, even though poor non-technical managers might think they do. That's why good software projects don't use them. I don't see any story ticket velocity points used in Linux kernel development.

You can't estimate non-trivial software, and if you are doing trivial predictable work, you should be automating it, not endlessly estimating it.

I didn't say I would "deliver" anything. It's done when it's done. You can't predict the outcome of a software project. Many of them fail and micromanagement makes them more likely to fail.

Re: The worst programmer I know

#545

Post by randomdata »

ryeguy_24 wrote: post #336

If you don’t own your company, you are always measured on optics. If the person who employs you does not optically see your value, you don’t stand a chance working there. If employment is the measurement, optics will always be important. For those who disagree, I would argue they are arguing on what would be ideal. Sure, it would be ideal to have a fully meritocratic performance system but if someone else is in charg…

Even when you do own the company, you are still measured on optics by your customers.

Re: The worst programmer I know

#546

Post by zlg_codes »

gemstones wrote: post #380
zlg_codes wrote: post #318

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unions may be different in your part of the world. In America, it's one of the only ways for blue collar or other production-oriented workers to have any degree of leverage at the negotiation table. We are treated like cattle in the workplace, and though unions come with their fair share of problems (due to it being yet another leadership structure to work within), the idea of workers holding power as a group is esse…

It’s funny you mention it as a charisma roll, because it’s not really a roll, is it? High charisma is high when it’s with your interviewer, when it’s with your peers, when it’s with your business stakeholders. High charisma is useful in getting a job, in arguing for addressing tech debt, in pushing back on unreasonable timelines. Why would you not consider charisma in a job interview?

Charisma isn't something that's there or not there for everyone, like green paint. How you come across to others will differ based on their biases.

I don't consider charisma very much because I connect it to dishonesty. If someone's put a lot of effort into coming across as charismatic, it means they have considerable skill in psychological and social manipulation. I would value that in a salesman, where it makes sense. Otherwise it's just masking 2.0.

The primary concerns in an interview should be "can you do the job" and "can we bear to work with you". The rest can be worked with.

Re: The worst programmer I know

#547

Post by black_13 »

Stratoscope wrote: post #304

Some 20 years ago, I worked at a moderately large software company that sold a desktop application for Mac and Windows. The team had mostly Mac experience and they were just getting their feet wet with Windows. So naturally the Windows version had some problems. At the time, I was known as a "Windows expert", so they hired me to help improve that version and help the team get more familiar with Windows programming. I…

[dead]

Re: The worst programmer I know

#548

Post by qumpis »

Stratoscope wrote: post #533
gajomi wrote: post #526

Earlier quoted context omitted.

PSA... check out this guy's LinkedIn profile. It's a great read.

Thank you! You gave me an excuse to look at my own LinkedIn profile, which I've ignored for a few years. I have a distinct memory from not that long ago when I was unemployed and asking people for advice on what to put on LinkedIn and on my resume. One consistent piece of advice was "Don't list anything more than five years ago. People will think you're old!" I thought, "Screw that, everyone already knows I'm old." S…

A bit surprising to hear that you weren't swimming in offers to hire you all the time. Any idea why that was? Maybe you're somewhat picky about the job and responsibilities that come with it?

Re: The worst programmer I know

#549

Post by tempodox »

jen20 wrote: post #479
tilne wrote: post #400

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But you can’t have the technical foundation later because you’ve already built on something else.

Sure you can - you just have to be willing to throw what you have away. If the outcome of that is having to rewrite one of five experiments because it is a hit, that is a _great success_, not a failure.

But only in theory. In practice you would never get the time to rewrite what “already works”. And objectively, even with the best intentions, every rewrite comes with its own kinds of risks.

Re: The worst programmer I know

#550

Post by SlightlyLeftPad »

Stratoscope wrote: post #519
progmetaldev wrote: post #493

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know it's too late now, but you are the type of developer that makes our profession an actual craft. Sharing knowledge is the biggest benefit to provide other developers, and too few that decide to go that route are rewarded for it. If it weren't for developers like you, we wouldn't be anywhere close to where we currently are in the software world. I try to give back knowledge as much as possible, because it's not…

Wow, thank you. I am grateful that my comment attracted so much thoughtful discussion. But your comment is the one that really touched my heart. I was reading it to a close friend just now, and I have to confess that I choked up a couple of times reading it. So again, thank you, my friend. p.s. You don't happen to be anywhere near the SF Bay Area? If you are (or even if you're not), please drop me a note at the email…

I also want to echo this. For me, it’s examples like yours that I live by. It seems like the right thing to do, naturally. Teaching people and sharing knowledge is the often the most rewarding part of my career at a personal level but it is hard to reconcile when it often comes at the cost of my own progression/productivity. I’m spending most of my time helping everyone else be more productive. How’d you end up working through that?
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