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The worst programmer I know

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Re: The worst programmer I know

#611

Post by jen20 »

alex_lav wrote: post #607
jen20 wrote: post #596

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whether you have a single year of experience 10 times (or whatever ratio you experience) is orthogonal to whether you work for the same company. Being employed as a programmer may or may not gain you new experience (which is what matters if you are to be a good generalist). Whether it does depends on whether you are _doing things new to you_ while being employed.

Doing new things is experience. Repetition in one area is also experience. This concept you're describing is just made up.

Sorry, no. What you have just described is being a generalist vs a specialist.

Also, all concepts are “made up”. By definition.

Re: The worst programmer I know

#612

Post by Stratoscope »

fabianholzer wrote: post #371
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…

What happened after the mediocre performance review? Did leave for greener pastures asap? Did you start to optimize for their performance metrics, and stop being generous with your time? Or could you manage to convince somebody high enough above you in the org-chart that they actually hired you for what you thought they did?

Thanks for asking. It all worked out OK. I had a good relationship with my manager, and he actually seemed a bit embarrassed that he had to put those remarks in the review.

I also had a very good relationship with both the VP of engineering and the senior VP who oversaw the entire product and who I'd worked with before on other projects.

I did leave eventually, but it was for unrelated reasons.

Re: The worst programmer I know

#613

Post by alex_lav »

jen20 wrote: post #611
alex_lav wrote: post #607

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doing new things is experience. Repetition in one area is also experience. This concept you're describing is just made up.

Sorry, no. What you have just described is being a generalist vs a specialist. Also, all concepts are “made up”. By definition.

> What you have just described is being a generalist vs a specialist.

Sorry, no. Those concepts are unrelated to what we're describing.

> Also, all concepts are “made up”. By definition.

I was trying to be polite. Made up by you and nonsensical, is the more accurate phrasing. Respectfully. But I'll be stopping here. Enjoy the day!

Re: The worst programmer I know

#614

Post by Strilanc »

jacquesm wrote: post #527
Strilanc wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly, I'm kind of skeptical of the answer. I'm not saying that talking with Nyquist wouldn't be useful, probably it was, but what's stopping a dozen other things at least that useful from being part of the answer?

> I'm not saying that talking with Nyquist wouldn't be useful No, you probably shouldn't be saying that: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Nyquist https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nyquist_frequency > but what's stopping a dozen other things at least that useful from being part of the answer? Because someone needs to act, and that's exactly what Nyquist did, in a very unobtrusive and non-confrontational manner.

For the record, I did recognize the name. That's why I believed talking to them was useful.

Re: The worst programmer I know

#615

Post by jen20 »

alex_lav wrote: post #613
jen20 wrote: post #611

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry, no. What you have just described is being a generalist vs a specialist. Also, all concepts are “made up”. By definition.

> What you have just described is being a generalist vs a specialist. Sorry, no. Those concepts are unrelated to what we're describing. > Also, all concepts are “made up”. By definition. I was trying to be polite. Made up by you and nonsensical, is the more accurate phrasing. Respectfully. But I'll be stopping here. Enjoy the day!

> Those concepts are unrelated to what we're describing.

No they aren’t. They’re literally the subject of the conversation before you joined it.

Re: The worst programmer I know

#616

Post by cebert »

gajomi wrote: post #526
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…

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

I’m impressed by Michael’s LinkedIn profile and extensive experience. If you ever take up blogging, I imagine you’d have a lot of lessons and experience to share.

Re: The worst programmer I know

#617

Post by cebert »

hannofcart wrote: post #520
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…

> Some 20 years ago... I called "house calls": visiting other developers' offices... Ah, the good ol early 2000s, where devs had "offices" or "cubicles" to themselves.

That’s only a problem if you chose to work somewhere mandating RTO. I have a great personal office and kitchen where I work.

Re: The worst programmer I know

#618

Post by OJFord »

Strilanc wrote: post #180
avanai wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The most impressive thing about this story is that they figured out the answer . They did the research, and nailed down that it was Nyquist who was was the productivity booster. It’s the exact opposite of the OP’s story, where management tried to fire the Nyquist-equivalent.

Honestly, I'm kind of skeptical of the answer. I'm not saying that talking with Nyquist wouldn't be useful, probably it was, but what's stopping a dozen other things at least that useful from being part of the answer?

Concretely I'd suggest that Nyquist was probably most interested in lunching with other smart people who had interesting things to talk about.

I.e. there's no check or control on their output without lunch or breakfast with him, maybe it'd have been little different.

Re: The worst programmer I know

#619

Post by OJFord »

crazygringo wrote: post #287
wonderwonder wrote: post #104

I worked at a company for a couple years where you had to produce 10 points a week or you got pipped. Didn't matter if you were a jr or sr. I worked on a few teams there and you could immediately tell how the teams measured points by the stress level of the developers. Teams that attempted to measure the points in good faith were stessed and most of them showed signs of burn out. They regularly worked 60 hours a week…

> ...or broke it down into smaller achievable tickets that continuously added to their points totals. These teams were filled with happy stress free developers. But that is part of the point of scrum. To break down stories into consistently stress-free achievable stories, rather than big risky ones filled with unknowns. I'm not saying this was a good workplace, it doesn't sound like it at all. But to me, it sounds li…

They were splitting tickets to avoid being let go, not because they necessarily warranted it or comprised logically separate things. I'm pretty sure that's not how scrum is supposed to work, but if it is it doesn't sound good to me.

Re: The worst programmer I know

#620

Post by OJFord »

Tao3300 wrote: post #482
crazygringo wrote: post #287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ...or broke it down into smaller achievable tickets that continuously added to their points totals. These teams were filled with happy stress free developers. But that is part of the point of scrum. To break down stories into consistently stress-free achievable stories, rather than big risky ones filled with unknowns. I'm not saying this was a good workplace, it doesn't sound like it at all. But to me, it sounds li…

Stress free and delivering at a predictable rate. Nailed it.

Delivering arbitrary points at a predictable rate, yeah, brilliant.
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