Are You a Grumpy Developer?
blog.rickyrobinett.com
Are You a Grumpy Developer?
1–10 of 60 posts
Re: Are You a Grumpy Developer?
#2"When I'm grumpy, I stop being grumpy and start being awesome instead!" ;)
Fair enough. However, I miss one thing: grumpiness is rarely a natural state of mind, and positive thinking is not the Universal Cure - it may be useful to look for and treat the underlying cause of grumpiness.
Re: Are You a Grumpy Developer?
#3"When I'm grumpy, I stop being grumpy and start being awesome instead!" ;) Fair enough. However, I miss one thing: grumpiness is rarely a natural state of mind, and positive thinking is not the Universal Cure - it may be useful to look for and treat the underlying cause of grumpiness.
Really great point. Sometimes it's a bit more complicated.
Re: Are You a Grumpy Developer?
#4i am a grumpy developer, sorry world!
Re: Are You a Grumpy Developer?
#5"Praise Publicly, Criticize Privately"
This point got me thinking. Public criticism of specific individuals is not something I ever to publicly, but I have been all too quick to compose tweets about things like "wishing that Internet Explorer had a face so I could punch it", or how terrible healthcare is in the US, etc.
It seems obvious in hindsight, but refraining from putting too much negativity in my public streams of information lately has probably not only improved the impression others have of me, but more importantly, made me feel a lot less grumpy myself.
In my efforts to focus on the positive and/or interesting things in my public speech, I find that I'm looking at these things more often in my private time as well. It's a rewarding exercise.
Re: Are You a Grumpy Developer?
#6This article reminds me of the "Be Nice to Programmers" post (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4631607) a little while back.
To me it highlights a rationale for why this grumpiness may exist in the first place.
Re: Are You a Grumpy Developer?
#7"Praise Publicly, Criticize Privately" This point got me thinking. Public criticism of specific individuals is not something I ever to publicly, but I have been all too quick to compose tweets about things like "wishing that Internet Explorer had a face so I could punch it", or how terrible healthcare is in the US, etc. It seems obvious in hindsight, but refraining from putting too much negativity in my public stream…
"In my efforts to focus on the positive and/or interesting things in my public speech, I find that I'm looking at these things more often in my private time as well. It's a rewarding exercise."
I really love that idea. Such a good point.
Re: Are You a Grumpy Developer?
#8When I was first learning how to code, I was afraid to ask questions in the developer community, for fear that I would be ridiculed as stupid. For some reason I felt like I was bothering or interrupting if I asked a developer a question. Maybe it was some of the people I was around, but a lot of developers are very opinionated and strongly believe that certain things should be a certain way. I think because developers have to defend their way of thinking all the time. They can become guarded and if their ideas are supported, they can develop a sense of pride to a point where they consider others around them incapable. I think some of the grumpiness stems from that. Some developers think they're better than others and everyone else wastes their time.
Re: Are You a Grumpy Developer?
#9So let's say an app erases your hard drive if you use it the wrong way, but it is easy to fix with a registry tweak anyone can do. Should we really only drop a personal note to the author instead of warning everyone it sux0rs and having a discussion in public where people can become aware of the problem and work around?
Pointing out problems with things is one of the most useful parts of communicating with others, and this article advocates not allowing it most of the time. Would you read a publication's movie or restaurant reviews if the reviews only ever said good things about the movies? I sure as hell wouldn't, I'd look for one that gave the whole picture.
Re: Are You a Grumpy Developer?
#10Autocomplete for "why steve jobs was a" gives "Jerk" as first result. Doesn't matter what the world perceives us. There is too little time to keep up with all the shit in the world. If one line email replies, coming to the point in a hour long meeting and ending it in 5 minutes is perceived by the rest as grumpiness, then let's be grumpy. And who says great developers don't have fun. They just don't mix it with work, so you don't get to know.