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Software engineers should write

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Re: Software engineers should write

#111

Post by platz »

tjradcliffe wrote: post #70
0xdeadbeefbabe wrote: post #54

Andy Rooney complained about people who say, "I'm going to write a novel when I retire" but don't say, "I'm going to do brain surgery when I retire." I think he might mean that writing for human consumption can be harder than most people think.

He was right. In terms of sustained effort and difficulty, writing a novel is comparable to getting a PhD or creating and shipping a major embedded application from the bare metal on up. Maybe be more difficult. Getting a PhD requires considerable persistence and a modicum of intelligence, but there are supporting and sustaining systems that make it easier. You have an advisor and a committee who in the best of all p…

Some of my friends have written some fiction novels. I wish they'd started out with short stories before going for the novel.

Re: Software engineers should write

#112

Post by tjr »

kalid wrote: post #24

I've always been a fan of Einstein's quote "If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough." Writing about a topic is a good test of whether you can explain it simply.

I enjoy also the Alan Perlis line, "You think you know when you learn, are more sure when you can write, even more when you can teach, but certain when you can program."

I have been endeavoring to get in the habit of writing about things that I learn. My main obstacle is the feeling that, even if I can write and explain the topic well, other people can too and already have; so why bother writing about it? But that misses the point -- or even two points.

The writing helps me; the fact that someone else wrote is irrelevant. Further, my writing, even if the subject matter is hardly original, might in fact help someone else: not everyone favors the same calculus textbook, or the same Python programming manual, or the same history of World War II. People enjoy different writing styles, different perspectives, even different fonts and page layouts. (I've elected against buying at least one book because I found the page layout excessively annoying to look at!)

Re: Software engineers should write

#113

Post by LOLStavrosK »

StavrosK wrote: post #75
sophacles wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're welcome. Personally, I don't understand when people get annoyed by those things. I figure if someone has done me the favor of learning my language to communicate with me, and they've done so well enough that I understand them, why should I nitpick little errors? I only point out things like this to people who state they are actively trying to improve - because they've done me a favor by being able to communica…

That's a good outlook. I can't tell you how much it irks me when someone is annoyed that someone else doesn't speak English well. I always say "at least their English is better than your ". Invariably, that outlook is expressed by people who happen to only speak one language.

> "at least their English is better than your ".

Strawman.

> Invariably, that outlook is expressed by people who happen to only speak one language.

Confirmation bias.

0/2. Congrats! Your comment contributed to the topic about as much, if not less, than mine. Happy Holidays! <3

Re: Software engineers should write

#114

Post by olalonde »

edpichler wrote: post #55
sophacles wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tangential - Just want to give you some feedback on your comment, since you are wanting to improve your second language: First: you've overcome a big hurdle in learning a second language, I understood what you are trying to communicate, and I did so on my first reading of it. To me, this means you're already good at english! (By comparison if I tried in my second language, which is German, I would need a few drafts a…

Oh, I really appreciate your corrections, thank you! I understand that reading bad English is really annoying for natives. I try to be careful here on HN, but sometimes I do some mistakes.

There's a StackExchange site for English if you are unsure about the right way to say something: http://english.stackexchange.com/

Re: Software engineers should write

#115

Post by scoggs »

edpichler wrote: post #79
martco wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since you seem to appreciate corrections, it's a bit more natural to say "but sometimes I make some mistakes"

:D

I know you said you write on a personal / private blog of your own to improve but if you ever wanted another person to look things over and help you work through some of the trickier parts of learning the language I'd love to help out!

Re: Software engineers should write

#116

Post by seanmcdirmid »

euphemize wrote: post #2

Thoroughly agreed. As a developer who spent a lot of time studying humanities, arts and other disciplines requiring constant writing for grant submissions, essays, etc. a lot of skills required to be a good developer become invaluable for a dissertation and the other way around. > A core skill in both disciplines is an ability to think clearly. The best software engineers are great writers because their prose is as l…

> Personally, I found that combing through my text again and again and again to cut down on unnecessary words, combining similar ideas ideas and clarifying points made a huge difference, and was very much akin to optimizing software.

I learned these optimization techniques later in my grad school studies (a very critical adviser helped), never learning how to really write as a CS undergrad. Now I am the go-to guy for paper editing, and I find it frustrating that I can't seem to teach this to those I help write papers.

Re: Software engineers should write

#117

Post by bdotdub »

edpichler wrote: post #23

"Even if nobody reads your essay, writing it will make an impact on you." After reading a post in HN ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5614689 ) entitled "why you should write every day", I've being doing it daily in a private blog. I do it in English to improve my second language. My main language is Portuguese. I'm doing it since 09/22/2014. I try to write about my own ideas, because I believe is the right thi…

Have you seen http://750words.com/? It's an awesome tool that does exactly that and gives you some insights and game mechanics to make the exercise more interesting

Re: Software engineers should write

#118

Post by jpindar »

olalonde wrote: post #114
edpichler wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, I really appreciate your corrections, thank you! I understand that reading bad English is really annoying for natives. I try to be careful here on HN, but sometimes I do some mistakes.

There's a StackExchange site for English if you are unsure about the right way to say something: http://english.stackexchange.com/

There's also one specifically for those learning English: http://ell.stackexchange.com/

Re: Software engineers should write

#119

Post by kevinmireles »

As a writer, software product manager and dad who is trying to encourage his girls to learn to code, I really enjoyed the post as it highlights the similarities between programming and writing - and the fact that communication is truly one of the most critical skills a developer or anyone can have.

Now, I just need to learn a programming language and start coding so I can improve my human/computer communication skills :)

Re: Software engineers should write

#120

Post by vayarajesh »

I completely agree with you, writing does help the software engineer think clearly. I recently started writing short poems and it has helped me think better when writing code..

I also believe that the engineers should write code everyday as well.. many of the engineers take at least a day off from the week and it somehow reset's mind a little

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