Steve Jobs on Average vs Best Software Developers

Post by jasonkolb » Wed, Jul 04, 2012, 4:02 PM UTC

speleding wrote: post #108

nahname wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The hard problems in software are not adding features or coming up with crafty efficient solutions. That is actually quite easy and I am constantly surprised how mediocre to poor developers can consistently come up with workable solutions. The hard problem in software is writing code others can use. Everyone can write a solution that makes sense to themselves. Few can write one that makes sense to other developers. P…

I don't think he (or steve) is wrong at all: a large part of the 50x comes from the fact that a smart individual can avoid the need for team work. Although writing software in a way such that others can use it is certainly important, the network effect is the prevalent mechanism at work here (3 programmers need 3 times as much communication as 2 programmers; 4 programmers need 6 times as much communication; etc)

Post by dakotasmith » Wed, Jul 04, 2012, 4:10 PM UTC

larrys wrote: post #109

jasonkolb wrote: post #104

I normally don't participate in these threads, but I watched the interview yesterday and I think Steve Jobs did a masterful job of explaining this phenomenon and it is getting lost in this conversation. Fundamentally, and he talks about this, computer programming is a way of encapsulating _your thinking_ in code. You are transferring your thought processes into computer code. A computer program is, quite logically, a…

I want to agree with you and with Steve. But when Steve says things like this "if you go to New York City and get an average taxi cab driver versus the best taxi cab driver, you’ll probably get to your destination with the best taxi driver 30% faster. And an automobile; What’s the difference between the average car and the best? Maybe 20% ? The best CD player versus the average CD player? Maybe 20%" I mean where is t…

Post by eli_gottlieb » Wed, Jul 04, 2012, 4:14 PM UTC

jasonkester wrote: post #73

TimGebhardt wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fake it 'til you make it. Throw yourself at problems that you think are over your head. If you care and you want to do good work you'll figure out a way to get something done. Especially if you have a good mentor or someone that can guide you to answers to hard questions or take you under their wing. Learn to effectively communicate and then communicate with your peers. You'll never know what you don't know unless yo…

Are you sure "fake it til you make it" is the correct term for this idea? I'm familiar with the term, but usually in a different context. Regardless, you're spot on. My silly anecdote: Back in university I used to play pick-up two's volleyball a couple nights a week. At the other end of that same gym, the school team would practice, occasionally overlapping with the pick-up folks. One day, their practice broke up aro…

Post by nahname » Wed, Jul 04, 2012, 4:33 PM UTC

jasonkolb wrote: post #110

nahname wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The hard problems in software are not adding features or coming up with crafty efficient solutions. That is actually quite easy and I am constantly surprised how mediocre to poor developers can consistently come up with workable solutions. The hard problem in software is writing code others can use. Everyone can write a solution that makes sense to themselves. Few can write one that makes sense to other developers. P…

I disagree... the highest-value problems are often VERY hard. Think of things like natural language recognition, predictive analytics, statistical analysis, and so on. Things that seem like magic to the end user, that they've never seen before, are very hard before they're abstracted into something that B/C players can re-use. Woz, for example, worked some magic and packaged a computer circuit board into something th…

Post by arthurrr » Wed, Jul 04, 2012, 5:37 PM UTC

dabent wrote: post #37

oacgnol wrote: post #13

A bit of a meta question: As someone who feels like a 'B' or even 'C' at times, what would it take to become an 'A' player? Is it predicated on pure talent alone, hard work, or experience? Even though I know I'm still a junior developer (~1 yr exp), I feel hopeless at times that I'll never approach being 'A' status especially knowing that I have many peers my age that are already far and away better than me. How woul…

I believe that the top trait in A players is the same as in the top founders, which is determination [1]. That determination often manifests itself as the desire to understand how something really works, rather than glossing over the details, the drive to learn a new language well enough to use it to implement ideas, to take on the learning curve for a new tool or system, to automate something, or to test their code…