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I’m a Bad Developer, That’s the Only Reasonable Explanation

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Re: I’m a Bad Developer, That’s the Only Reasonable Explanation

#11

Post by rplst8 »

jeremiep wrote: post #7

You could change jobs. An employer tracking your activities to the minute sounds like a cancerous work place to begin with. Bad employers are also a thing, and is much more frequent than most people realize. They usually drown you in tools and processes along the way and without much development experience its hard to tell whether they're bad or you are. You're going to hear about Agile, TDD, code metrics and whatnot…

I think you are lumping things together where they don't belong. Processes and tools have places. As I've posted previously on the topic, some industries have strict quality standards, and the tools and processes are there to find and prevent bugs from making into fielded systems. These process can an do work, but don't always apply to a basic website or CRUD webapp.

Re: I’m a Bad Developer, That’s the Only Reasonable Explanation

#12

Post by probinso »

Pay has little to do with throughput. Pay is an arbitrary number that you and your handler select from the ether. This decision is often made well before there is any chance of measuring your productivity. If you think the number was poorly selected, just know it is.

I found time tracking tools to be hugely beneficial. It changed my focus, and forced me more aware of what I was working on. I am, however, a slow developer sometimes. It is just who I am.

I found that often employers look for 'smart' candidates, instead of SMEs. This is their fault. If they were interested in / could afford a subject matter expert (SME) then you wouldn't likely be working there. If you are an SME, then you will likely produce results/prototypes far faster than others. Smart people take time to learn, thats how they got there.

Re: I’m a Bad Developer, That’s the Only Reasonable Explanation

#13

Post by karmajunkie »

There are a lot of ways to dice up performance as a developer, and while some are clearly bad, like LOC counts, others are merely different from each other. Is it better to ship a feature faster? All things being equal, sure—but all things are rarely equal. All bugs aren't created equal, nor features, nor design requirements. Nor are the skills needed to handle any or all of those things distributed equally amongst developers.

I was on a team once where my diagnostic skills put me near the top of the stack for being given hard-to-find bugs. What that meant was that sometimes I would ship one commit a week while tracking down several difficult issues. Does that make me a bad developer? A slow developer? Or are those even valuable distinctions in this context?

Rather than trying to be better than everyone (anyone?) else, try to be better than you yourself were last week, or last month, or last year. That's the only consistent variable one has across all the kinds of tasks we are called to perform in this role.

Re: I’m a Bad Developer, That’s the Only Reasonable Explanation

#14

Post by rplst8 »

karmajunkie wrote: post #13

There are a lot of ways to dice up performance as a developer, and while some are clearly bad, like LOC counts, others are merely different from each other. Is it better to ship a feature faster? All things being equal, sure—but all things are rarely equal. All bugs aren't created equal, nor features, nor design requirements. Nor are the skills needed to handle any or all of those things distributed equally amongst d…

>I was on a team once where my diagnostic skills put me near the top of the stack for being given hard-to-find bugs. What that meant was that sometimes I would ship one commit a week while tracking down several difficult issues.

This.

A good management team will recognize these skills in people and assign them appropriate work.

All people are not the same, that's why we have developers and doctors and fireman. All developers are not the same, that's why we have backend, frontend, Java, C++, etc. All backend developers are not the same, and so on, and so on. People are not pluggable assets.

Re: I’m a Bad Developer, That’s the Only Reasonable Explanation

#15

Post by cocktailpeanuts »

Aside from the judgment on whether the employer was terrible or not for making OP track the time, etc., if everyone tells you're slow, doesn't it occur to you that you may actually be bad?

I finished reading the post but cannot figure out what OP is trying to say. The title doesn't match the content. At first it sounded like it was one of those rant posts exposing the employer for mistreating, but then at one point it sounds like OP understands that he is a bad developer (because everyone tells him he's slow), but then goes on to talk about whether it may be the manager and not him. And then ends with some random conclusion about nothing. It's almost like watching an episode of Seinfeld--it's a post about nothing.

Then again, if a company hired someone who's so obviously bad that everyone thinks he's slow, it's their own fault and must be a bad company. Explains why they make him track time and all that stuff.

Re: I’m a Bad Developer, That’s the Only Reasonable Explanation

#16

Post by jghn »

amriksohata wrote: post #3
_Marak_ wrote: post #2

I'd suggest trying to focus more on using tools related to building reports on code coverage and code complexity during your day to day development. If you lean more towards a test driven approach backed with trackable metrics for code quality, I think you might have more confidence in your day to day development and ultimately be more productive.

You do realise even the founder of TDD doesn't back it anymore and code coverage is a very poor metric, your words sound like a senior developer from 2010. If he's a bad developer the best he can do is read up on SOLID principles and read a book like Clean Code with good examples of how to write code.

"You do realise even the founder of TDD doesn't back it anymore"

I ask this out of genuine curiosity but do you have a cite for this? Being fairly anti-TDD myself it'd be good to keep this factoid in my pocket.

Re: I’m a Bad Developer, That’s the Only Reasonable Explanation

#17

Post by matthewmacleod »

amriksohata wrote: post #3
_Marak_ wrote: post #2

I'd suggest trying to focus more on using tools related to building reports on code coverage and code complexity during your day to day development. If you lean more towards a test driven approach backed with trackable metrics for code quality, I think you might have more confidence in your day to day development and ultimately be more productive.

You do realise even the founder of TDD doesn't back it anymore and code coverage is a very poor metric, your words sound like a senior developer from 2010. If he's a bad developer the best he can do is read up on SOLID principles and read a book like Clean Code with good examples of how to write code.

TDD is still a fine tool and the field hasn't moved on so much in 6 years that it's a stupid suggestion. It's a perfectly viable tool for helping to maintain output quality - like all other tools it might not work for everybody, or it might have to be applied carefully. But I wouldn't advise anyone to cargo cult the apostasy of a single proponent.

Re: I’m a Bad Developer, That’s the Only Reasonable Explanation

#18

Post by elihu »

One way to look at it is that if some company is continuing to pay you to work for them, they must have determined that it was worth it to them. If management is putting pressure on you to produce more, it's because they want, say, a 3x return on their investment instead of a 2x return.

By accepting a job from them, you're obligated to work diligently at a sustainable pace. You aren't obligated to worry about whether you're more productive than your peers.

I posted a link to Beppo the road sweeper's monologue from Momo by Michael Ende in a thread on a time management story a few days ago, but I'll link to it again since it seems relevant: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Q_JYYcBP2Q#t=15m05s

Re: I’m a Bad Developer, That’s the Only Reasonable Explanation

#19

Post by zzzcpan »

auggierose wrote: post #4

I am not sure what this post is about. Just realise, when you are working for somebody else, of course they would like repeatable good performance from you. Some people are able to deliver this better than others. In my experience, thinking through a problem thoroughly and not giving a shit what others think is the most comfortable and most efficient way to work. Not even sure why you would consider working for someb…

Also not sure what the author is trying to say. But sounds like a really bad management is trying to pressure him. He won't be able to work like that for long. Probably better to start looking for another job and without a time tracking.

Re: I’m a Bad Developer, That’s the Only Reasonable Explanation

#20

Post by datf »

I have worked at many places, many dev jobs. I've worked with people shipping features faster and slower than me. But that's very subjective. Using it as a metric or even pointing it out doesn't make sense to me.

I've been forced by managers to merge or even ship features that are half-way done.

I have to agree with other people advising you to switch to another place.

If you are working in a toxic environment, or you don't agree with or like how they handle the projects, then there are better places for you to be.

Don't be afraid to pursue a better workplace environment if that's what matters to you.

Also, talk to your colleagues. See if they feel or see things the same way. Once you realize you're not the only one in that position you'll feel better about moving on.

Come to thing about it, a long time ago I worked at a place as a development team lead, and I saw management doing similar things to my team members as what you're describing. I confronted the owner about that, but things didn't change. I then advised my colleagues to look for something better and so did I (even though they always treated me great). And I'm happy to say ten years later we are all happy we left, and we all know we don't want to work somewhere like that again.

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