Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

I’m young, inexperienced and a perfectionist

medium.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 139 posts

Re: I’m young, inexperienced and a perfectionist

#81

Post by btilly »

Here is a td;lr.

I keep on making the mistake of throwing away what I've got and starting over because I've learned how to do things better. I've just made this mistake again, but it's better because I've learned how to do it better this time, honest.

My response to this.

Don't write the retrospective bragging about what you've learned until after you have demonstrated success in a measurable way. I've encountered the described failure mode in other people, and unwarranted optimism about recent improvement is part of the pattern, not a sign of actual progress.

(Let me throw out a long shot because it is easy to investigate, and if true would potentially let your life be changed for the better. The person that I am most specifically thinking of that fit this pattern later turned out to be manic depressive. This article describes specific events that could fit as well. So..unlikely, but with a big enough potential payoff that it is worth a visit to a competent psychiatrist.)

Re: I’m young, inexperienced and a perfectionist

#83

Post by jmagoon »

jaredmcateer wrote: post #19
quackerhacker wrote: post #6

I think coding kinda forms us to be perfectionists, because a small mistake can disable entire programs. I'll share my epiphany that I've learned from HN that PG said...if we're not embarrassed at launch time, it's too late. Being a perfectionist my self, it's a brilliant statement.

I don't know I've met my fair share of lazy "good enough" programmers that happily reuse code they wrote months, even years ago.

What's wrong with reusing code? Isn't that exactly what libraries (and frameworks) are for? Isn't that a fundamental programming principle (code reuse)?

Re: I’m young, inexperienced and a perfectionist

#84

Post by [deleted] »

michaelochurch wrote: post #48

Cliche warning. Admitting that you have a problem is the first step. Most young people are like this. You're not unusual. Difficulty focusing is pretty normal, but you do have to do something about it if you want to achieve anything. I hate to break it to you, but the corporate world makes it worse. Now you're surrounded by unfocused, capricious, and disengaged people in a world where the worst people tend to have th…

[deleted]

Re: I’m young, inexperienced and a perfectionist

#85

Post by jaegerpicker »

jakobe wrote: post #17

That's why I still use vanilla PHP & Postgres for web projects. I don't use any hot new technologies, I don't use frameworks, I don't do unit testing. I try to use as little client side JS as possible. Whenever possible, I use static HTML. The advantage is that I can create a working prototype in days. I can show something to the client very early, and I don't spend months to fulfill specifications the client didn't…

I'm not really seeing how what you are saying is any different then Django, Rails, Flask, or Sinatra for me and many others. I can stand up and prototype really fast in any of those frameworks and not have a mess of php left over at the end. That's kinda what those frameworks are made for. The op couldn't do that because he didn't know what he was doing. Which is fine we all start somewhere but we shouldn't choose worse tools just because we don't want to learn how to use the better tools. Things like Django's admin interface and Rails scaffolding are huge boosts to productivity I can't imagine giving those up out of a lack of knowledge or laziness. I don't mean to say you are a bad developer or lack knowledge but you reasoning is the exactly why these frameworks were created in the first place.

Re: I’m young, inexperienced and a perfectionist

#86

Post by corresation »

nbevans wrote: post #71
corresation wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"These platforms seem hip and cool but they actually need extreme levels of discipline, awareness and experience to actually use them in the correct way." Is there a platform for which this isn't true? Anyone doing anything novel spends most of their time doing things the wrong way. And it's odd that you single out those platforms -- RoR is extraordinarily beginner friendly, and less than most other platforms helps y…

They are beginner friendly, sure. But that's almost a bad thing. As this poor guy found out the hard way. Building what was presumably quite a large system inevitably turned into a sprawling mess that was hard to maintain and develop any further. There is extreme levels of immaturity in the RoR and NodeJS communities (when it comes to the dissemination of good software engineering principles and practices) and unfort…

Building what was presumably quite a large system inevitably turned into a sprawling mess that was hard to maintain and develop any further.

I'm not trying to be difficult, but for which platform isn't that just as true? I have seen disastrous spawling messes in Java, .NET, PHP, RoR, JavaScript, C++, and on and on. Platforms have a minimal ability to control self-damage, and many of the worst disasters of achieve-nothing projects are built in Java, with all of the best intentions and best practices in the world.

Re: I’m young, inexperienced and a perfectionist

#87

Post by jmilloy »

btilly wrote: post #81

Here is a td;lr. I keep on making the mistake of throwing away what I've got and starting over because I've learned how to do things better. I've just made this mistake again, but it's better because I've learned how to do it better this time, honest. My response to this. Don't write the retrospective bragging about what you've learned until after you have demonstrated success in a measurable way. I've encountered th…

Also: I chose ruby on rails because it was hip. Then I chose node.js because it was hip. Now I'm evaluating those choices as mistakes because they were hip, because that's hip.

Get a job, get on a team, write code, and stop reading about writing code!

Re: I’m young, inexperienced and a perfectionist

#88

Post by dsowers »

eightyone wrote: post #18
quackerhacker wrote: post #6

I think coding kinda forms us to be perfectionists, because a small mistake can disable entire programs. I'll share my epiphany that I've learned from HN that PG said...if we're not embarrassed at launch time, it's too late. Being a perfectionist my self, it's a brilliant statement.

Reid Hoffman, founder of LinkedIn, has a similar quote, "If you're not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you've launched too late." I don't know if one came before the other. Reguardless it's a good sentiment to have. The only thing that matters is launching. You can find the perfect shade of blue for that button after you launch.

He has a lot to still be embarrassed about. LinkedIn is the worst interface I've ever seen.

Re: I’m young, inexperienced and a perfectionist

#89

Post by hawkharris »

edw519 wrote: post #21

56 instances of the word "I". That's your problem. All the rest is fluff. OP, try rewriting this, substituting "he", "she", "they", or "you" for "I". Funny how quickly your perceived problems melt away as soon as you stop dwelling on yourself and start focusing on others. Edit: I realize that OP is being slightly sarcastic, but I took this as an opportunity: This is a condensed version of pretty much the same feedbac…

Most HN readers are focused on technology and entrepreneurship. Comments like this one, which have to do with language and writing style, tend to get a bad rap as being "irrelevant" or "arbitrary."

But your comment is definitely relevant and potentially useful to the author.

Even though most of us are tech- and business-minded, we have to be aware that language is a big deal. The words we use to describe our products, startups and career experiences really affect how people think of them.

In this case, using so many instances of "I" makes the sentences repetitive and harder to read. That doesn't mean the article is bad or uninteresting. It just means the author has an opportunity to improve his already well-done essay by switching up his sentences and maybe focusing a little more on his environment.

Re: I’m young, inexperienced and a perfectionist

#90

Post by skittles »

I've learned a few things to put a stop to this problem. I think in "engineer" mode. Engineers get things done that work. Creative perfectionists don't. I start a project making sure that I can build and deploy the simplest thing possible. I add one use case that works front-to-back. That gets me everything from the UI to the database. Get user feedback on that one thing, improve it if needed, then go on to use case two. Rinse and repeat. Don't go back and change frameworks, ORMs, languages, etc. Finish the project!
Post reply on HN