31–40 of 47 posts
Can't you just add feature XYZ to our website?
Can't you just make the buttons cornflower blue?
We (myself included) have become our own worst nightmare :( I am guilty of it too. I wrote a comment a while ago arguing that SO COULD probably be written in a few days.
(btw: I don't like it. That was sarcasm.)
Consider how destructive this kind of attitude is toward the programming profession. By trivializing any project, a programmer is by extension making it seem like programming is easier, and cheaper, than it really is. What starts out as an ego-pumping "hey, I'm smarter than THAT person." turns into a devaluation of the work we all do, all to fulfill some desire for acceptance among non-technical peers. You wouldn't p…
Consider how destructive this kind of attitude is toward the programming profession. By trivializing any project, a programmer is by extension making it seem like programming is easier, and cheaper, than it really is. What starts out as an ego-pumping "hey, I'm smarter than THAT person." turns into a devaluation of the work we all do, all to fulfill some desire for acceptance among non-technical peers. You wouldn't p…
He rolled up his sleves, took a deep breath, and screwed cases on something like 16 machines in the span of a minute (normal production is about 4). Only afterwards did the ramifications of what he'd just done start to sink in.
Glad I wasn't on that line. Extra glad I wasn't that guy. Lesson learned.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wrong. That was a simple typo he made when he first set up the site, when he was still planning to write in over the weekend. He didn't back out because he thought it would be too hard. According to him, he backed out because it would be disrespectful. IMO, if he still thinks he can do it, he should do it and make everyone who is putting him down shut up. And if he fails, so what? At least he will learn a lot.
"He didn't back out because he thought it would be too hard. According to him, he backed out because it would be disrespectful." Excuse my language, but this comment deserves it: I've seen horse-shit with less horse-shit in it.
Consider how destructive this kind of attitude is toward the programming profession. By trivializing any project, a programmer is by extension making it seem like programming is easier, and cheaper, than it really is. What starts out as an ego-pumping "hey, I'm smarter than THAT person." turns into a devaluation of the work we all do, all to fulfill some desire for acceptance among non-technical peers. You wouldn't p…
I once worked a summer job at Nintendo in Redmond, screwing together refurbished Super Nintendos. One day, the Big Bosses came down and toured the GameBoy line, and they had a kid do a demo using this new "hand you screws" machine so they could see how much it increased productivity. He rolled up his sleves, took a deep breath, and screwed cases on something like 16 machines in the span of a minute (normal production…
Consider how destructive this kind of attitude is toward the programming profession. By trivializing any project, a programmer is by extension making it seem like programming is easier, and cheaper, than it really is. What starts out as an ego-pumping "hey, I'm smarter than THAT person." turns into a devaluation of the work we all do, all to fulfill some desire for acceptance among non-technical peers. You wouldn't p…
I'd argue that brain surgery is even _more_ an example of where the ability to cut, suture, and otherwise tweak the brain is less than 1% of what makes you chose a particular brain surgeon to go messing around inside your noggin. I'm betting that the brand name of the Hospital, the quality of they operating environment, the Insurance Coverage, The Cost - these turn out to be even more important than the actual skill…
That's the weird thing about the coding profession. I'd wager that the vast majority of people here work on solved / "trivial" problems which have established best practices and everything all laid out there for you to find if you bother to look. And yet we've all encountered so many developers who continually get it wrong. It's this weird recurring phenomena I've had throughout my career (and I'd wager I'm not alone…
I put it down to the fact that a lot of programmers take exception at being given advice on how to do things and hence they learn the hard way.
I've been in situations where a programmer has asked me for help, I've given it, only to then be told I was wrong and their approach was much better.
That said, there can be some competitive advantage due to code, and businesses and products vary in how important the code is. eg Google's pagerank was important (perhaps all important algorithms are only valuable if they are patented... because otherwise they just aren't that hard to copy). For a web2.0 site like SO, I think the code itself is fairly minor, and even the user experience (UI layout, interactions and features), though much more work, is also not that hard to copy. But to copy the business is hard.
The most important competitive advantages for SO are network effects (and potential for further growth); and that people are continuously working on it to improve it.
EDIT this makes me realize why an academic at uni doubted how much of google's success was due to the algorithm - I now think he was reacting to people in that environment who tend to give too much emphasis to code and to algorithms. In my view, it's clear that a better way of doing things (such as a new algorithm) can be the basis of a product or business. Of course it can. But it's not enough on its own.
All this talk about cloning Stack Overflow makes it ripe fodder for the next "make an X in 20 minutes" web framework screencast.
I do believe there's some way to stuff all that in without creating a central business-object model (i.e. turning the framework into a CMS.)