The Programmer's Brain • Hacker News Board

Re: The Programmer's Brain

#101

Post by tomrod » Wed, Jul 07, 2021, 12:13 PM UTC

jdhendrickson wrote: post #23

tomrod wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have purchased exactly two Packt books. One was actually fantastic quality -- one of the best ML/Python programming books I've come across. The other was for some specialty GIS work, and it was tremendously terrible quality but the only source available.

Please feel free to share the title of the good book!

Sure! I don't intend to shill, so, here is something useful: a link to his github repo for the book.

https://github.com/rasbt/python-machine-learning-book-3rd-ed...

Re: The Programmer's Brain

#102

Post by sbarre » Wed, Jul 07, 2021, 12:31 PM UTC

badpun wrote: post #91

sbarre wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You know the very common complaint from technical people that goes "my manager/leader doesn't understand what I do"? This is the same thing but from the other side.

Since they live in Romania, it’s very possible that they’re doing outsourced work (for HQ in another country, or even for another company altogether). In such case, the real management happens in HQ, while local managers are just handlers/babysitters like they described.

A valid point for sure. But the comment itself didn't make that distinction and was a bit too broad-strokes for me..

Re: The Programmer's Brain

#103

Post by lostcolony » Wed, Jul 07, 2021, 3:08 PM UTC

TeMPOraL wrote: post #84

lostcolony wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Politics as in scheming for power are a total turn off for me." Most people don't actually scheme for power in an organization. Not directly, anyway. Most people who appear to do that are coming from the perspective of "my (and my team's) needs are the most important here for the business' success"; the purpose isn't actually power, but to get their perceived needs met. Playing politics, then, is being able to under…

I wonder if there's a Maslov pyramid hidden in there. That is, people are first optimizing for their own comfort, then for the comfort of their team, and only then, for company goals. People will fight their own company, throw other people under the bus, to ensure they're not being overworked and scapegoated, that they have enough budget to operate, some autonomy and say in the things they're working on. Conversely,…

Sort of, but I don't think I agree fully.

That is, if someone feels they'll be able to find a job outside of their current company, or that they have enough money to be out of work for a while, or that they're safe in the company even if they make waves, then they can optimize for their team's comfort above their own, and I'd contend that if you've ever had a manager you liked, they were doing that (even if it seemed like they weren't doing much).

So, sure, first it's Maslov's hierarchy of needs, but it's the one we're already familiar with; if someone feels their basic financial needs aren't contingent on people pleasing, then they can afford to not people please, and good employees, and good environments, encourage empowered individuals...but a bunch of empowered individuals may still have different priorities, which requires 'politics' to navigate.

If people -don't- feel their basic financial are guaranteed, then yeah, all bets are off.

Re: The Programmer's Brain

#104

Post by mbfg » Thu, Jul 15, 2021, 9:47 PM UTC

_hzrk wrote: post #67

mbfg wrote: post #18

The most important skills i wish someone had taught me when i was a young developer was how to interact with people in all areas of the organization, and how to deal with the politics. I was (as a young person), strongly against really wanting to know about these aspects, and instead wanted to be purely technical, but in the end that will mean more for your career than anything else, unfortunately.

> but in the end that will mean more for your career than anything else, unfortunately. I strongly disagree. In my organisation engineers have higher salaries than "people persons" like managers, product owners etc. Maybe it is something Eastern Europe (Romania) does better. In my country, people become managers when they don't know what to do in life, when they have not mastered any skill in 12 years of mandatory ed…

i'm not suggesting you should switch to a new role that is more of a people person role. I'm saying as an _engineer_, learning how to "politic" is way more important than learning a new language, or having a deep understanding of security, or some other significant technical thing. Not that those aren't good to know, but at some point the "politicing" will be your limiting factor if you can't play the game.