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The best programmers I know

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Re: The best programmers I know

#141

Post by noduerme »

Taek wrote: post #133
bob1029 wrote: post #103

Not guessing is perhaps the most important thing to the business. I developed a lot of my problem solving skills in semiconductor manufacturing where the cost of a bad assumption tends to be astronomical. You need to be able to determine exactly what the root cause is 100% of the time or everything goes to hell really fast. If there isn't a way to figure out the root cause, you now have 2 tickets to resolve. I'll thr…

I always get a lot of pushback for avoiding frameworks and libraries, and rolling most things by hand. But, most frameworks and libraries aren't built to be audit-grade robust, don't have enterprise level compatibility promises, can't guarantee that there won't be suprise performance impacts for arbitrary use cases, etc. Sometimes, a third party library (like sql-lite) makes the cut. But frameworks and libraries that…

This is a hard take, just because we all build on stacks. When we trust that Math.Abs() is going to work in some language, or that some socket library is going to do what it says on the tin, we're standing on the shoulders of giants. I also avoid frameworks as much as possible, but by frameworks I mean anything I'd rather roll myself in a scripting language, particularly when learning and keeping up with the framework seems like more of a hassle. But for the layers and layers of underlying software and hardware behind me writing REST calls and async functions?

Also, there are higher level libraries that are sometimes good, because why reinvent the wheel every time you make something? Pixijs is one I use a lot. Also, Chart.js. Jquery. Moment.js. Good ol' Bootstrap 4 alpha's CSS handles a ton of use cases, and I never need to think about it again. There's very little in those that I haven't at one time or another rolled myself, but having a toolkit that you know and doesn't change much saves you a lot of time. The danger is more getting into libraries that aren't already dead, and are still in active development ;)

Re: The best programmers I know

#142

Post by 1970-01-01 »

>Don’t Be Afraid To Get Your Hands Dirty..code is just code

All the other topics bring great wisdom, but 'go touch the code' is no longer the responsible thing for senior devs. Junior devs working on minor things, sure. However, senior devs should be rigorously following a process to 'getting their hands dirty'. When senior devs are tinkering with business critical or life critical code, they are usually unaware that the weight of responsibility of everything the software does is now theirs. That's why process exists.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_safety#Process_adhere...

Re: The best programmers I know

#144

Post by VonTum »

epolanski wrote: post #52

I want to add another one, ability to handle emotions (mentioned but mostly in terms of patience) and ability to stay focused. Two programmers that start with similar levels at the thing that OP listed, but one able to stay focused and productive and the other jumping on YouTube, HN half the day (yes, that's me in many periods) etc are gonna have different impact and progression with time.

It is uncanny how well this describes me. I've been trying all kinds of things, like website blockers, timeouts, breaks, etc. nothing's stuck.

And it's all about "getting in the zone". Once I'm there, things fly, but the sputtering engine of editing 3 lines then alt-tabbing to youtube for 20 minutes makes progress very slow.

It's weird, I know exactly what to do, or what to look into, but just "don't want to?"

I have noticed one thing, namely evenings are my golden hours. I'm trying to do all of my shopping, chores, etc during regular working hours, and then actaully working 5pm-?am. Maybe this will fix it.

Re: The best programmers I know

#145

Post by ClikeX »

dilawar wrote: post #67

> "Don’t go to Stack Overflow, don’t ask the LLM, don’t guess, just go straight to the source. Oftentimes, it’s surprisingly accessible and well-written." It's a bit like math books. I dreaded reading formal math during my engineering -- always read accessible text. Got a little better in my master's and could read demse chapters which got to the point quickly. At least now I can appreciate why people write terse ref…

> Oftentimes, it’s surprisingly accessible and well-written

I'm happy this person works with quality software. I haven't been always been as lucky.

Re: The best programmers I know

#146

Post by noduerme »

jppope wrote: post #139
Taek wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always get a lot of pushback for avoiding frameworks and libraries, and rolling most things by hand. But, most frameworks and libraries aren't built to be audit-grade robust, don't have enterprise level compatibility promises, can't guarantee that there won't be suprise performance impacts for arbitrary use cases, etc. Sometimes, a third party library (like sql-lite) makes the cut. But frameworks and libraries that…

I completely agree - though there are places where I trust an implementation of things like a well known algorithm. However, to add onto this, I'm consistently shocked at how often it is much CHEAPER to "roll your own." We've done some reviews on systems after a few years and the number of bugs and security vulnerabilities we experience with code based around packages is much MUCH higher. Its hard to put a number to…

Rolling your own, though, does come down to hammering in the extra nails... and hoping that whoever's doing the job knows where to put those supports in place. If you have someone who looks into the future and sees what issues might come up in a few years, then it's way cheaper than relying on frameworks. If you don't, then you're stuck with some janky software that no one else can fix. I think this is why the larger the scale, the more likely companies are to rely on frameworks which themselves are janky, but at least well understood.

Re: The best programmers I know

#147

Post by [deleted] »

irishloop wrote: post #132
epolanski wrote: post #52

I want to add another one, ability to handle emotions (mentioned but mostly in terms of patience) and ability to stay focused. Two programmers that start with similar levels at the thing that OP listed, but one able to stay focused and productive and the other jumping on YouTube, HN half the day (yes, that's me in many periods) etc are gonna have different impact and progression with time.

Do you think there's a way to train focus?

[deleted]

Re: The best programmers I know

#148

Post by apwell23 »

> You built and shipped a critical service for a (larger) org. > You wrote a famous tool > You contribute to a popular open source tool > You wrote a book that is often mentioned

all this will brand you as 'super nerd' and limit your career earning potential unless you are planning to become a principal engineer at google . don't be know for nerdy shit.

Re: The best programmers I know

#149

Post by infinghxsg »

Taek wrote: post #133
bob1029 wrote: post #103

Not guessing is perhaps the most important thing to the business. I developed a lot of my problem solving skills in semiconductor manufacturing where the cost of a bad assumption tends to be astronomical. You need to be able to determine exactly what the root cause is 100% of the time or everything goes to hell really fast. If there isn't a way to figure out the root cause, you now have 2 tickets to resolve. I'll thr…

I always get a lot of pushback for avoiding frameworks and libraries, and rolling most things by hand. But, most frameworks and libraries aren't built to be audit-grade robust, don't have enterprise level compatibility promises, can't guarantee that there won't be suprise performance impacts for arbitrary use cases, etc. Sometimes, a third party library (like sql-lite) makes the cut. But frameworks and libraries that…

[dead]

Re: The best programmers I know

#150

Post by criddell »

irishloop wrote: post #132
epolanski wrote: post #52

I want to add another one, ability to handle emotions (mentioned but mostly in terms of patience) and ability to stay focused. Two programmers that start with similar levels at the thing that OP listed, but one able to stay focused and productive and the other jumping on YouTube, HN half the day (yes, that's me in many periods) etc are gonna have different impact and progression with time.

Do you think there's a way to train focus?

You can lose your concentration skills by not using them. I would expect the reverse is true as well.
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