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“Nothing you can do impresses me”
41–50 of 132 posts
Re: “Nothing you can do impresses me”
#42I'm a bit confused how the interview came in at the end? Did the author use their project in a job application?
One of the best ways to grow as a developer is to build something, destroy it, and build it again. We all have the thought "what other ways can I build this?" in our heads as we're building a project. Most times I have seven different ways to do something, and the hardest part is just picking one. So, in my opinion, a great interview question would be "how else could you have built this?". It shows that the developer weighed the choices that we all inevitably have.
Re: “Nothing you can do impresses me”
#43> Let me give an example — say a new coder had somehow, impossibly, in their first month of coding, created an app that would save the planet, plunging us into a permanent state of world peace and 100% clean energy. What’s the first thing that you as a senior developer would say to that person before seeing or testing their project? Let me guess — you’re thinking, “Is it responsive?” You built an email visualizer and…
> Let me give an example — say a new coder had somehow, impossibly, in their first month of coding, created an app that would save the planet, plunging us into a permanent state of world peace and 100% clean energy. What’s the first thing that you as a senior developer would say to that person before seeing or testing their project? Let me guess — you’re thinking, “Is it responsive?”
I thoughtt "Oh, cool".
Re: “Nothing you can do impresses me”
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
Humans in general have a serious problem saying "I don't know." Someone who is able to admit that they don't know something deserves your respect, at the very least.
The exact phrase you're looking for is "I don't know, but ..." Saying "I don't know" is often a defense mechanism. It saves you from having to know. If you don't know, and you wash your hands of it, whatever happens isn't really your fault is it? And you're not going to know either. But if you say "I don't know, but" and try to figure it out, or find out more, etc. ... that does take guts. That is actually admitting…
I agree.
Re: “Nothing you can do impresses me”
#45[deleted]
Re: “Nothing you can do impresses me”
#46When I first came to Silicon Valley, I had a couple of senior engineers as my mentors. The most important lesson I learned from them is that they were extremely supportive. I had a couple of ideas for new features, and instead of shooting them down and telling me why it wouldn't work, their responses were always "Hmmm, sounds interesting. Why don't you spend some time on it and let's see how it works out." When I did…
In my experience in my areas of interest (be it music, cycling, or software development) that it’s the knowledgable, confident members of these communities who are encouraging and happy to share what they know, and it’s the inexperienced, insecure ones who are standoffish and quick to dismiss others’ abilities.
Re: “Nothing you can do impresses me”
#47> Let me give an example — say a new coder had somehow, impossibly, in their first month of coding, created an app that would save the planet, plunging us into a permanent state of world peace and 100% clean energy. What’s the first thing that you as a senior developer would say to that person before seeing or testing their project? Let me guess — you’re thinking, “Is it responsive?” You built an email visualizer and…
> You built an email visualizer and are comparing it to some sort of utopian omnisavior.exe
It's a valid point.
I've seen CS grads who struggle getting HTML/CSS/JS+any backend of their choice up and running. Getting a minimal, shitty app up and running is no small feat for a junior developer, and it shows perseverance, adaptability and willingness to learn (whether they're willing to be taught remains to be seen).
Re: “Nothing you can do impresses me”
#48When I first came to Silicon Valley, I had a couple of senior engineers as my mentors. The most important lesson I learned from them is that they were extremely supportive. I had a couple of ideas for new features, and instead of shooting them down and telling me why it wouldn't work, their responses were always "Hmmm, sounds interesting. Why don't you spend some time on it and let's see how it works out." When I did…
It seems like being supportive is something everyone agrees is a great thing, but few people actually do. Being supportive is just so much work, after all. Much easier to think of ten ways to tear something down.
For evidence of how supportive tech communities are, take a look at what happens when someone tries to show off their early projects: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8747053
Comments include "They're probably lying," "This is like a parent posting their kindergartener's first crayon house-and-trees-and-sun drawings out into blogs," etc. And most of those comments were heavily endorsed by this community, judging by their overall position relative to sibling comments. So if HN is a thermometer for how friendly tech is, apparently nice people are rare.
Hopefully the culture will change, but that will take a lot of time.
(Now that I've posted this comment, I realize that it's not very supportive, which is a little ironic. Maybe a post-it note on my monitor that says "Be supportive!" would be a good reminder.)
Re: “Nothing you can do impresses me”
#49Competition heats up as programming languages get easier... and people obsess over being accepted by their peers? We learned from punch cards, through flame wars, and when being a nerd was actually a bad thing to your social status.
Sigh. Sigh.
Programming is no longer a science, it is a liberal art. You're just plumbers now.
Re: “Nothing you can do impresses me”
#50When I first came to Silicon Valley, I had a couple of senior engineers as my mentors. The most important lesson I learned from them is that they were extremely supportive. I had a couple of ideas for new features, and instead of shooting them down and telling me why it wouldn't work, their responses were always "Hmmm, sounds interesting. Why don't you spend some time on it and let's see how it works out." When I did…
It's not just 'this industry.' You'll find people in all professions who try to make themselves look and feel smart by throwing stones at other ideas. Frankly, it can be effective. Non-expert outside observers (sometimes this means managers) can be impressed by such cheap-shot artists. It's easy to criticize, but hard to create; critical responses are the low-hanging fruit of intellectual discourse.
Your comment made me remember a documentary titled "The Trouble with Experts" which I found interesting. It can be found in youtube atm.