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Go ahead, write the “stupid” code

spikepuppet.io

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Re: Go ahead, write the “stupid” code

#111

Post by _AzMoo »

amatecha wrote: post #50

For sure. I'd argue to write the "stupid" code to get started, get that momentum going. The sooner you are writing code, the sooner you are making your concept real, and finding the flaws in your mental model for what you're solving. I used to try to think ahead, plan ahead and "architect", then I realized simply "getting something on paper" corrects many of the assumptions I had in my head. A colleague pushed me to…

You should always have an architecture in mind. But it should be appropriate for the scale and complexity of your application _right now_, as opposed to what you imagine it will be in five years. Let it evolve, but always have it.

Re: Go ahead, write the “stupid” code

#112

Post by peterfirefly »

ghaff wrote: post #48
bitwize wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe if the internet and piracy hadn't fucked artists over, they could have made decent money as a musician selling their work without having to be a major-label superstar. Alas, we do not live in that timeline.

Did most artists (in whatever form) ever have a good living in and of itself?

No. The best/luckiest did, at least some of the time. Most didn't.

Re: Go ahead, write the “stupid” code

#113

Post by peterfirefly »

rtpg wrote: post #35
analog31 wrote: post #21

>>> When I finished school in 2010 (yep, along time ago now), I wanted to go try and make it as a musician. I figured if punk bands could just learn on the job, I could too. But my mum insisted that I needed to do something, just in case. Amusing coincidence. I also wanted to be a rock star, or at least a successful working musician. My mom also talked me out of it. Her argument was: If there's no way to learn it in…

Really still kicking myself for not majoring in robotics in school. I wanted to program, so I studied computer engineering but hadn't really absorbed that much in classes. But I will likely never have access to all the robotics stuff my school had, nor the guided learnings. Never too late to try stuff out of course, but very little beats structured higher ed education in relatively small classes (think there was only…

Nothing beats concentrated work. You can do that without formal education. It might even be easier: you can probably afford pretty good arduinos and raspberries and H-bridges and sensors and actuators and...

It shouldn't be hard to go beyond what almost all universities provide.

Re: Go ahead, write the “stupid” code

#114

Post by d-us-vb »

godelski wrote: post #40
mitchbob wrote: post #5

I'm reminded of the quantity vs. quality groups in a photography class: https://sebastianhetman.com/why-quantity-matters/ Do stuff, and you learn stuff. Go play.

While I generally agree with the conclusion of that, I think it might be a bit too naive. The quantity group has a trivial way to "hack" the metric. I can just sit there snapping photos of everything. I could just set up a camera to automatically snap photos all day and night. To be honest, if I'm not doing this at a stationary wall there's probably a good chance I get a good photo since even a tiny probability can b…

This is an interesting take. It maps decently to the "first to market" mentality of a lot of programming these days. For sure, we'd get better programmers if they were judged by the quantity of code they produced in their personal projects, but if "quantity learners" are simply forced to churn out bad code without any reflection or the time to experiment, then I would agree that it seems pretty naive to think they'll ever improve... except at a handful of patterns that make bad code sort of work.

Re: Go ahead, write the “stupid” code

#115

Post by bccdee »

AdieuToLogic wrote: post #57
totetsu wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think PP's point was .. that even if you spend your whole life pressed into laboring to produce a surplus to satisfy the excessive consumption of the elites of your heretical society, in ways that create existential risk for future generations, and are at odds with your own inner values and moral compass.. you can still see the 'immateriality' of all that in the grand scheme of things and choose to be happy.

No, my point is happiness is a choice. There is no sociopolitical statement, no call-to-arms, no pontification as to the measure of one's life, no generational implications. There is an existential consideration, but not of the nature your post implies. Happiness is an individual choice, available to us all at any time. Full stop.

If anyone at any time can simply choose to be happy, why do we care whether (for instance) our arms get chopped off? We are equally capable of choosing to be happy with or without arms. Why do we avoid harm?

Re: Go ahead, write the “stupid” code

#116

Post by deltarholamda »

mock-possum wrote: post #41
codazoda wrote: post #37

I would say that much of my code starts out stupid and, hopefully, becomes better with refinement.

First do it, then do it right, then do it better.

The graphic design version of this is "Get it done, make it beautiful," but it works for code too.

I used to get hung up on things like doing a loop when a ternary operator would work. "Somebody is going to see this and be rude about it." But sometimes you write code how you're thinking about the problem at the time. And if you think of it as a loop, or a series of if statements, or whatever, do it that way.

If it makes you feel better, note it in a comment to revisit later. And if somebody is rude about it, so what. It's not theirs, it's yours.

Re: Go ahead, write the “stupid” code

#117

Post by dpoloncsak »

amatecha wrote: post #50

For sure. I'd argue to write the "stupid" code to get started, get that momentum going. The sooner you are writing code, the sooner you are making your concept real, and finding the flaws in your mental model for what you're solving. I used to try to think ahead, plan ahead and "architect", then I realized simply "getting something on paper" corrects many of the assumptions I had in my head. A colleague pushed me to…

Theres a phrase that's become a bit of a mantra in adjacent circles

"Just make it exist first. You can make it good later."

Re: Go ahead, write the “stupid” code

#118

Post by HPsquared »

amatecha wrote: post #50

For sure. I'd argue to write the "stupid" code to get started, get that momentum going. The sooner you are writing code, the sooner you are making your concept real, and finding the flaws in your mental model for what you're solving. I used to try to think ahead, plan ahead and "architect", then I realized simply "getting something on paper" corrects many of the assumptions I had in my head. A colleague pushed me to…

With a working prototype you get to test the specification and the users, not just the code itself.

Re: Go ahead, write the “stupid” code

#119

Post by cardanome »

AdieuToLogic wrote: post #57
totetsu wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think PP's point was .. that even if you spend your whole life pressed into laboring to produce a surplus to satisfy the excessive consumption of the elites of your heretical society, in ways that create existential risk for future generations, and are at odds with your own inner values and moral compass.. you can still see the 'immateriality' of all that in the grand scheme of things and choose to be happy.

No, my point is happiness is a choice. There is no sociopolitical statement, no call-to-arms, no pontification as to the measure of one's life, no generational implications. There is an existential consideration, but not of the nature your post implies. Happiness is an individual choice, available to us all at any time. Full stop.

Thank you, your post cured my depression. (Sarcasm)

This is pure magical thinking. There are many reasons to be not happy. Being in pain, having lost a loved one, not having your physical needs met and well simply having depression or a myriad of other problems.

And people shouldn't be happy with all circumstances. It is not healthy to be happy all the time. Sometimes accepting the negative emotions is important for growth.

Re: Go ahead, write the “stupid” code

#120

Post by jlarocco »

amatecha wrote: post #50

For sure. I'd argue to write the "stupid" code to get started, get that momentum going. The sooner you are writing code, the sooner you are making your concept real, and finding the flaws in your mental model for what you're solving. I used to try to think ahead, plan ahead and "architect", then I realized simply "getting something on paper" corrects many of the assumptions I had in my head. A colleague pushed me to…

This is why I hate software engineering as a profession.

You're going to write the "stupid code" to get things out the door, get promoted and move on to another job, and then some future engineer has to come along and fix the mess you made.

But management and the rest of the org won't understand why those future engineers are having such a hard time, why there's so much tech debt, and why any substantial improvements require major rework and refactoring.

So the people writing the stupid code get promoted and look good, but the people who have to deal with the mess end up looking bad.

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