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Programming is terrible – Lessons learned from a life wasted (2013) [video]

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Re: Programming is terrible – Lessons learned from a life wasted (2013) [video]

#11

Post by IgorPartola »

rch wrote: post #8
encoderer wrote: post #7

He bashes the "myth of the 10x" engineer. Clearly the idea of the 10xer has too big a place in the mythology of our industry. It's oddly masochistic and as far as I know it's unique to us. There are no doctors blogging about "10x doctors" for example. Anybody who has watched N0tch code on Twitch knows that there are certainly people who are far more productive coders than the average engineer. I have no idea if he's…

> There are no doctors blogging about "10x doctors" There are still 10x equivalents though. For instance, a PhD MD that chairs a department at a major hospital, publishes significant research, participates in NIH or similar organisations, and still sees patients is going to be a very different sort of professional than your local GP. It's the notion that 10x applies only to NCLOC production that needs rethinking, so…

But which doctor will give you better care? And which doctor will save more lives, or improve them in a meaningful way? Those are different jobs. Is a security researcher more or less productive than a programmer on a team of 10?

Re: Programming is terrible – Lessons learned from a life wasted (2013) [video]

#13

Post by BrainInAJar »

rch wrote: post #8
encoderer wrote: post #7

He bashes the "myth of the 10x" engineer. Clearly the idea of the 10xer has too big a place in the mythology of our industry. It's oddly masochistic and as far as I know it's unique to us. There are no doctors blogging about "10x doctors" for example. Anybody who has watched N0tch code on Twitch knows that there are certainly people who are far more productive coders than the average engineer. I have no idea if he's…

> There are no doctors blogging about "10x doctors" There are still 10x equivalents though. For instance, a PhD MD that chairs a department at a major hospital, publishes significant research, participates in NIH or similar organisations, and still sees patients is going to be a very different sort of professional than your local GP. It's the notion that 10x applies only to NCLOC production that needs rethinking, so…

but those 10x equivalents are specialized, and there's absolutely a place for your local GP. Whereas every company is falling over themselves to hire the 10x programmer.

A local GP is what you want for tracking your longitudinal health and being a personal interaction with the health care system for you. Not someone chairing a department & publishing research

Re: Programming is terrible – Lessons learned from a life wasted (2013) [video]

#14

Post by ars »

encoderer wrote: post #7

He bashes the "myth of the 10x" engineer. Clearly the idea of the 10xer has too big a place in the mythology of our industry. It's oddly masochistic and as far as I know it's unique to us. There are no doctors blogging about "10x doctors" for example. Anybody who has watched N0tch code on Twitch knows that there are certainly people who are far more productive coders than the average engineer. I have no idea if he's…

> There are no doctors blogging about "10x doctors" for example.

Sure there are. Unlike programming where most of it is unique, and that stuff that's not is widely dismissed as "crud" (create update delete), with Dr's almost all of their work is routine.

Except when it's not, and when you have difficult cases you most DEFINITELY have 10x Dr's.

Have you never heard stories of patients going from Dr. to Dr. trying to figure out what's wrong with them, until they find that one genius Dr. who finally figures it out?

And regarding blogging, that's what the entire series of columns on NYT called "Think like a Doctor" is!

Re: Programming is terrible – Lessons learned from a life wasted (2013) [video]

#15

Post by comrade1 »

encoderer wrote: post #7

He bashes the "myth of the 10x" engineer. Clearly the idea of the 10xer has too big a place in the mythology of our industry. It's oddly masochistic and as far as I know it's unique to us. There are no doctors blogging about "10x doctors" for example. Anybody who has watched N0tch code on Twitch knows that there are certainly people who are far more productive coders than the average engineer. I have no idea if he's…

It's not a matter of coding 10X times faster than another coder. It's a matter of coding to not put yourself into common traps/pitfalls that waste your time trying to get out of. And also to make the correct decisions/strategies early in the project to put it on a track that uses the correct tools, libraries, etc. that won't waste your time later.

A junior developer is almost always a net negative on a team of developers as the other developers end up having to fix their code. (one doesn't hire junior devs for their productivity but instead to train them to the point where they're no longer a net negative).

If you extrapolate it further, there are developers that have so much diverse experience and think at a higher level than others that their time brings 10x time to the project than even other experienced developers.

Re: Programming is terrible – Lessons learned from a life wasted (2013) [video]

#16

Post by nerfhammer »

encoderer wrote: post #7

He bashes the "myth of the 10x" engineer. Clearly the idea of the 10xer has too big a place in the mythology of our industry. It's oddly masochistic and as far as I know it's unique to us. There are no doctors blogging about "10x doctors" for example. Anybody who has watched N0tch code on Twitch knows that there are certainly people who are far more productive coders than the average engineer. I have no idea if he's…

It's greed really - everyone wants to hire 10x engineers, but it's not like you're going to pay them 10x of course.

Re: Programming is terrible – Lessons learned from a life wasted (2013) [video]

#17

Post by dhimes »

encoderer wrote: post #7

He bashes the "myth of the 10x" engineer. Clearly the idea of the 10xer has too big a place in the mythology of our industry. It's oddly masochistic and as far as I know it's unique to us. There are no doctors blogging about "10x doctors" for example. Anybody who has watched N0tch code on Twitch knows that there are certainly people who are far more productive coders than the average engineer. I have no idea if he's…

Lev Landau used to rate physicists on a log_10 scale, so the idea extends to (and perhaps started with?) physics.

EDIT: grammar

Re: Programming is terrible – Lessons learned from a life wasted (2013) [video]

#18

Post by encoderer »

lsd5you wrote: post #10
encoderer wrote: post #7

He bashes the "myth of the 10x" engineer. Clearly the idea of the 10xer has too big a place in the mythology of our industry. It's oddly masochistic and as far as I know it's unique to us. There are no doctors blogging about "10x doctors" for example. Anybody who has watched N0tch code on Twitch knows that there are certainly people who are far more productive coders than the average engineer. I have no idea if he's…

We all have a super power or two (or none or, sometimes more than two ...). Do you not think what you wrote is just liberal dogma? I think there probably are people with few things going for them. Possibly removed from you socially due to the various filters that act on our lives.

Unfortunately you are right. But the people who you speak of, who are without any platform or privilege, are not reading my comment on Hacker News today.

Re: Programming is terrible – Lessons learned from a life wasted (2013) [video]

#19

Post by crag »

encoderer wrote: post #7

He bashes the "myth of the 10x" engineer. Clearly the idea of the 10xer has too big a place in the mythology of our industry. It's oddly masochistic and as far as I know it's unique to us. There are no doctors blogging about "10x doctors" for example. Anybody who has watched N0tch code on Twitch knows that there are certainly people who are far more productive coders than the average engineer. I have no idea if he's…

I love to write code. And it's about 20% of my job. As an engineer, I spend most of my time in design (and meetings). The code is the fun, relaxing part.

Many times, I don't even write code; I "review" code. We have "grunts" (younger programmers, usually) who pump out code all day. They're are involved in design too, of course. But in a very limited way.

But you know, I think all of this comes with age. If you 22 years old, fresh out of school, you are going to be writing code all day. And that's how it should be, You need to cut-your-teeth.

Also, one last thought, just being a [overly] productive programmer doesn't make you a good programmer. I'd rather someone take there time, be comfortable and get it right.

But I have met that rare bird, who is confortable writing code 18 hours a day.

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