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How to be a Programmer: A Short, Comprehensive, and Personal Summary (2002)

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Re: How to be a Programmer: A Short, Comprehensive, and Personal Summary (2002)

#11

Post by drunkpotato »

ninetax wrote: post #9
drunkpotato wrote: post #5

What is wrong with us in this sick, perverted, twisted, dying and rotting industry? If you encounter these problems, start applying to a new position. Don't deal with management; don't "educate" them. Don't fix the organization you've tricked yourself into joining. Just polish your resume and leave. It seems like we're an industry that defines Stockholm Syndrome.

Wrong thread?

Hah, no, but I see I didn't provide enough context. I was referring to the subsections in "Personal Skills", "Team Skills" and "Serving Your Team". I also freely admit I am jaded by poor management in the past that has not responded to the kinds of advice given here.

Re: How to be a Programmer: A Short, Comprehensive, and Personal Summary (2002)

#12

Post by MaulingMonkey »

drunkpotato wrote: post #5

What is wrong with us in this sick, perverted, twisted, dying and rotting industry? If you encounter these problems, start applying to a new position. Don't deal with management; don't "educate" them. Don't fix the organization you've tricked yourself into joining. Just polish your resume and leave. It seems like we're an industry that defines Stockholm Syndrome.

Take care not to throw the baby out with the bathwater: fixing the problem can be easier than finding the perfect pink elephant and praying it stays that way.

Of course, do take care to throw out the bathwater.

Re: How to be a Programmer: A Short, Comprehensive, and Personal Summary (2002)

#14

Post by gknoy »

yeukhon wrote: post #4
saddino wrote: post #2

Here's a shorter version: Are you so inspired by a software product or service that you are driving yourself mad thinking about how it was created? Great, do whatever you can to write your own version. Keep at it. Seriously, keep at it. Are you so obsessed with figuring this out that you are unaware that hours are passing by while you work? Awesome. You have discovered a true passion. Now you don't need to read thing…

+1. Your short version pretty much summarize what other 1000 people would say. And that's what I told people who came to my school's open house today: look around you and see what kind of things you wish you could control. You want to be able to get all the files with certain prefix? Figure out that linux/windows command. The title "A Short, Comprehensive, and Personal Summary". This is not short. It's pretty verbose…

It's hard to be short and comprehensive. This is shorter than a book, longer than a magazine article. (55 pages: OK, maybe a short book.) "Short" is relative. :)

His coverage of debugging, and how it's critical to overcome fear of breaking things, and of asking the right questions of how things might fail in this way, is a great explanation.

Re: How to be a Programmer: A Short, Comprehensive, and Personal Summary (2002)

#15

Post by Iftheshoefits »

shazzdeeds wrote: post #13

The last section on organizational chaos and the magic power is key.

I disagree. I think it is only very narrowly applicable, in particular to companies that are technology-centric (i.e. that have as a primary product something that is technology related, such as a software product), and even then it only applies to a fraction.

In most companies, technology-centered or not, the non-engineers have a large amount of power to "create and sustain" something far more important than code or systems: institutional political power. I don't care how good a programmer one is, in such organizations institutional politics almost always wins. The old addage, "It's not what you know but who", applies here, as in any other industry. Talent is only good to carry a person so far, within the confines of somebody else's business.

Re: How to be a Programmer: A Short, Comprehensive, and Personal Summary (2002)

#16

Post by mbrock »

drunkpotato wrote: post #11
ninetax wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wrong thread?

Hah, no, but I see I didn't provide enough context. I was referring to the subsections in "Personal Skills", "Team Skills" and "Serving Your Team". I also freely admit I am jaded by poor management in the past that has not responded to the kinds of advice given here.

"Go home if you have a contagious disease. You should go home if you have suicidal thoughts. [...] You should send someone home if they show serious mental malfunctioning or signs of mental illness beyond mild depression. [...] Don't use cocaine or amphetamines to combat fatigue."

:/

Re: How to be a Programmer: A Short, Comprehensive, and Personal Summary (2002)

#17

Post by Ma8ee »

saddino wrote: post #2

Here's a shorter version: Are you so inspired by a software product or service that you are driving yourself mad thinking about how it was created? Great, do whatever you can to write your own version. Keep at it. Seriously, keep at it. Are you so obsessed with figuring this out that you are unaware that hours are passing by while you work? Awesome. You have discovered a true passion. Now you don't need to read thing…

Excellent way to become an arrogant coding cowboy. "My passion is so great so there is nothing anyone can teach me. Just by hacking alone in my basement my innate ability to write efficient and correct code have started to bloom."

Re: How to be a Programmer: A Short, Comprehensive, and Personal Summary (2002)

#18

Post by fit2rule »

drunkpotato wrote: post #5

What is wrong with us in this sick, perverted, twisted, dying and rotting industry? If you encounter these problems, start applying to a new position. Don't deal with management; don't "educate" them. Don't fix the organization you've tricked yourself into joining. Just polish your resume and leave. It seems like we're an industry that defines Stockholm Syndrome.

Philosophically, programmers can do anyones job, as long as that person is willing to describe it in a way that it can be abstracted properly.

Programmers are unique in the world, in a philosophical sense, in that the skills and techniques of programming can be applied to any human subject, and seriously productive results can be attained. Computers are an "infinity machine" in that any single subject that a human being can describe, using words, can be in some way supported by computerization.

So if you think an organization is broken, programming can often-times fix it. Good programming, which encodes the domain-specific knowledge of the organization, can be applied to any particular role in human existence - including that of management. In that sense, programmers are able to operate exterior to any organization - and must, in fact, if they wish to deliver a productive result - and apply their skills to that organization in order to improve it.

Programmers who have worked professionally in any industry have an intuitive understanding of this fact, and its strengths.

So I would put it to you that its not Stockholm Syndrome you're observing, but rather this simple fact: Programmers > Managers. (Well, Programmers who deliver working systems, that is..)

Re: How to be a Programmer: A Short, Comprehensive, and Personal Summary (2002)

#19

Post by Kiro »

drunkpotato wrote: post #5

What is wrong with us in this sick, perverted, twisted, dying and rotting industry? If you encounter these problems, start applying to a new position. Don't deal with management; don't "educate" them. Don't fix the organization you've tricked yourself into joining. Just polish your resume and leave. It seems like we're an industry that defines Stockholm Syndrome.

Sick, perverted, twisted, dying and rotting industry? Wow, you can't have had many jobs. Our industry is like heaven in comparison to the really rotten and twisted ones.

Re: How to be a Programmer: A Short, Comprehensive, and Personal Summary (2002)

#20

Post by Jugurtha »

>>But it is really child's play compared to everything else >>that a good programmer must do to make a software system >>that succeeds for both the customer and myriad colleagues >>for whom she is partially responsible.

Why the use of the word "she" ? I see a lot of articles written where the undefined person will be a she. I speak french, and "person" is a feminine name, so you can say about a person "she", but why in English ? Especially when in male dominated jobs like programming. A programmer is likely to be a he than a she, so why try this hard to be politically correct.

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