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Why do you suck at juggling now?

pgadey.ca

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Re: Why do you suck at juggling now?

#11

Post by ludston »

laszlojamf wrote: post #2

I've been working as a software developer for about ten years, and I've started to get a little annoyed when my manager asks me what I'm gonna work on improving this year. Like what can I say? That I'll try get better at coding? That I'll get better at project management? At some point the marginal utility is just not there anymore. Even if I did get twice as good (whatever that means) at systems design, it's not lik…

Instead of talking about skills, or personal efficiency, talk about technologies that you're going to introduce to your product, or some specific difficult problem that you're intending to solve.

Another next career step is to take ownership of things without needing to be asked or told, to create and execute plans, to raise and address problems pro-actively etc. And if your workspace doesn't give you opportunities to do it, and you want career progression, then go somewhere else.

Re: Why do you suck at juggling now?

#12

Post by mikestew »

Reminds me of when I play my mandolin when I’m camping. I’m sure fellow campers think I suck, despite having played for ten years. But I’m not going to play stuff I can play in my sleep, I’m playing stuff that still needs work. So, in consideration of others, once in a while I’ll rip off a fast version of Old Dangerfield or some other song I know really well just in case someone is in earshot.

Re: Why do you suck at juggling now?

#13

Post by randlet »

MarceColl wrote: post #8

What's more shocking to me is asking a person that is not even an acquaintance why they suck at juggling now.

This can easily just be gentle ribbing where the juggler and "critic" are familiar/friendly enough that the juggler understands the dude respects his juggling skills and knows the critic is just making friendly banter when he sees him making more frequent drops.

Re: Why do you suck at juggling now?

#14

Post by fusslo »

laszlojamf wrote: post #2

I've been working as a software developer for about ten years, and I've started to get a little annoyed when my manager asks me what I'm gonna work on improving this year. Like what can I say? That I'll try get better at coding? That I'll get better at project management? At some point the marginal utility is just not there anymore. Even if I did get twice as good (whatever that means) at systems design, it's not lik…

Your boss needs paperwork to justify pay raises, promotions, etc to their boss & HR. Isn't the whole purpose of that question to leave a paper trail that both you and they can point to?

That's what I've been told, and such I always answer those questions in a way that has a concrete 'goal' that I can point to and either makes ME more valuable to the company OR delivered some thing that is valuable TO the company.

Re: Why do you suck at juggling now?

#15

Post by alt227 »

readread wrote: post #9
kurthr wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ask Claude to choose a set of improvements that it would rate highly.

LLMs really shine at speeding up corporate bureaucratic busy-work and nonsense. We’re in a golden era when same busy work has not yet expanded due to LLM influence. Let’s appreciate it while it lasts.

Then hopefully the fears of replacing developer jobs are unfounded, and in fact we can expect (hope) for middle management jobs to be replaced instead?

Re: Why do you suck at juggling now?

#16

Post by mhb »

mikestew wrote: post #12

Reminds me of when I play my mandolin when I’m camping. I’m sure fellow campers think I suck, despite having played for ten years. But I’m not going to play stuff I can play in my sleep, I’m playing stuff that still needs work. So, in consideration of others, once in a while I’ll rip off a fast version of Old Dangerfield or some other song I know really well just in case someone is in earshot.

Why do you think other people want to hear you practicing songs that you're not good at? I'm imagining someone trying to learn the recorder by the campfire.

Re: Why do you suck at juggling now?

#18

Post by incognito124 »

Anecdote:

I learned juggling in approximately 12minutes with a friend who knew juggling from before. He spotted me like you would spot someone in a gym: he put the balls in my hands, told me to hit one up, caught it mid flight (effectively freezing time), and told me "ok now hit the other ball up and catch this one". After 6-7 tries my brain was reprogrammed, and by the day's end we did juggling in pairs.

I guess the moral of the story is that a great teacher can push your limits way further than you could yourself? Or that it's easier to learn in a group setting?

Re: Why do you suck at juggling now?

#19

Post by jansan »

I can juggle pretty well with three objects, but I have no idea what the next step would be. Four feels like it would be no fun, because it is just juggling two balls in each hand. What is the recommended next step?

Re: Why do you suck at juggling now?

#20

Post by helsinkiandrew »

helloplanets wrote: post #17

People don't realize the exponential diffictlty curve with juggling. The highest amount of balls ever juggled is 11.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJsgM-3L38U

Wow. The wikipedia page has a nice list with links to videos:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juggling_world_records#Balls

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