The Ten Commandments of Egoless Programming (2006)
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The Ten Commandments of Egoless Programming (2006)
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Re: The Ten Commandments of Egoless Programming (2006)
#2As for #10 -- "Critique code instead of people – be kind to the coder, not to the code" -- I find that in almost every place I've worked though, what happens is "that guy" who used to work there (or even the guy who didn't happen to show up to the office the day we found the bug) becomes the scape goat for the poorly written line. Interesting that we need to blame the problem on someone! Maybe that's just specific to where I've worked, but I think it might point to deeper problems.
Re: The Ten Commandments of Egoless Programming (2006)
#3As for #10 -- "Critique code instead of people – be kind to the coder, not to the code" -- I find that in almost every place I've worked though, what happens is "that guy" who used to work there (or even the guy who didn't happen to show up to the office the day we found the bug) becomes the scape goat for the poorly written line. Interesting that we need to blame the problem on someone! Maybe that's just specific to…
Blame culture is easy, cathartic, and broken; deeply broken if you're in a situation where you can say, "this is solely their fault", then you've got an organization which assigns responsibility in excess of ability. Beware!
Re: The Ten Commandments of Egoless Programming (2006)
#4As for #10 -- "Critique code instead of people – be kind to the coder, not to the code" -- I find that in almost every place I've worked though, what happens is "that guy" who used to work there (or even the guy who didn't happen to show up to the office the day we found the bug) becomes the scape goat for the poorly written line. Interesting that we need to blame the problem on someone! Maybe that's just specific to…
Piggybacking off of this, have you observed unnecessary blame put on the intern(s)?
Re: The Ten Commandments of Egoless Programming (2006)
#5Number 7 is why I like programming so much
Re: The Ten Commandments of Egoless Programming (2006)
#6As for #10 -- "Critique code instead of people – be kind to the coder, not to the code" -- I find that in almost every place I've worked though, what happens is "that guy" who used to work there (or even the guy who didn't happen to show up to the office the day we found the bug) becomes the scape goat for the poorly written line. Interesting that we need to blame the problem on someone! Maybe that's just specific to…
Piggybacking off of this, have you observed unnecessary blame put on the intern(s)?
Well actually, for all of the places in question I was an intern myself. Most of the places I worked were small startups, so there weren't any intern predecessors (I was usually their first). Rather it was mostly the guy who hacked up version 1 of the code base who usually got the blame. Although who knows what happened when I left!
Re: The Ten Commandments of Egoless Programming (2006)
#7Treat people who know less than you with respect, deference, and patience. Nontechnical people who deal with developers on a regular basis almost universally hold the opinion that we are prima donnas at best and crybabies at worst. Don't reinforce this stereotype with anger and impatience.
That's nice and all but don't let your boss hire multiple cheaper "developers" and expect you to train them. I've quit a job recently stating if I wanted to be a professor I would have accepted a job as one (and I have turned down one in the past).
Re: The Ten Commandments of Egoless Programming (2006)
#8As for #10 -- "Critique code instead of people – be kind to the coder, not to the code" -- I find that in almost every place I've worked though, what happens is "that guy" who used to work there (or even the guy who didn't happen to show up to the office the day we found the bug) becomes the scape goat for the poorly written line. Interesting that we need to blame the problem on someone! Maybe that's just specific to…
Sometimes you want to know who was responsible for introducing a breaking issue into an app - the person would be in the best position to fix it.
Re: The Ten Commandments of Egoless Programming (2006)
#9i find that a phrase i started using some years ago has helped to drop my ego significantly. when asking for help, i phrase my question literally as "what am i doing wrong?" not "this is broken", no. "i'm trying to use X to do Y, here's how i'm trying to do that, and it's not working like i expected it to. what am i doing wrong?" in doing so, i assume the problem lies with me and my mistakes. it drops barriers immediately - both in myself and in others i'm asking of help - and forces me to be open minded about the solution.
a simple phrase but remarkably effective.
Re: The Ten Commandments of Egoless Programming (2006)
#10As for #10 -- "Critique code instead of people – be kind to the coder, not to the code" -- I find that in almost every place I've worked though, what happens is "that guy" who used to work there (or even the guy who didn't happen to show up to the office the day we found the bug) becomes the scape goat for the poorly written line. Interesting that we need to blame the problem on someone! Maybe that's just specific to…
Blame culture is easy, cathartic, and broken; deeply broken if you're in a situation where you can say, "this is solely their fault", then you've got an organization which assigns responsibility in excess of ability. Beware!
I love the word "blamestorm" when any meeting starts to go that direction. As in "sweet, we're gonna blamestorm?"