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Ask HN: Why aren't you coding?

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Re: Ask HN: Why aren't you coding?

#111

Post by jokethrowaway »

meheleventyone wrote: post #86

Mainly because I’m helping other people be able to code. One of the interesting things about the 10x engineer meme is that they’re 10x because they improve the productivity of their team. Well extend that to DevRel and that’s maybe another order of magnitude or two of effect again. Extend that to the average person looking to build and it’s another order or perhaps two again. Hopefully the stuff I’m doing now will ge…

The 10x engineer being an enabler is a nice interpretation but the original definition of a 10x engineer is a skilled engineer working unhealthy hours.

The enabler 10x engineer may be true - even though I've never found managers so good to multiply their team output dramatically while I've met 10x engineers building incredibly fast and slaving away for a chance to make millions. It could be that's because I found enablers in large companies, where no-one is motivated enough to make millions for rich shareholders somewhere.

Re: Ask HN: Why aren't you coding?

#112

Post by TameAntelope »

I'm not coding because I don't believe the work I need to get done will fix the issues I've run into while trying to get my work done, and it's hard to find motivation in that situation.

In other words, I'm not working on The Real Problem, I'm adding a feature.

Re: Ask HN: Why aren't you coding?

#115

Post by anonymoushn »

Thorentis wrote: post #77
anonymoushn wrote: post #51

The last time I was paid to be a developer by a company, the most prominent reasons I was not writing code were: 1. I am in the 5th meeting to discuss the details of a 10-page document about a feature that would take 100LOC to write if we weren't using Spring. 2. I am waiting for a dependency manager that is incapable of resuming downloads to download my dependencies from the private repository of dependencies which…

> it is my responsibility to ensure that the alerting is actually working > delegating tasks is some fake thing to make others feel good Somebody has to ultimately be responsible though right? If you're a team lead, isn't it still your responsibility to make sure the work your team has done is actually working before you tell your manager that it is?

I was not a team lead. I was an IC who had written a design doc for a feature.

Re: Ask HN: Why aren't you coding?

#116

Post by markb139 »

meheleventyone wrote: post #86

Mainly because I’m helping other people be able to code. One of the interesting things about the 10x engineer meme is that they’re 10x because they improve the productivity of their team. Well extend that to DevRel and that’s maybe another order of magnitude or two of effect again. Extend that to the average person looking to build and it’s another order or perhaps two again. Hopefully the stuff I’m doing now will ge…

I’ve worked with 0.1x engineers, where the whole team is slowed down. It becomes very draining.

This is why I’ve retired and am just doing my own projects

Re: Ask HN: Why aren't you coding?

#117

Post by jokethrowaway »

Mobbing and pairing.

Not only they reduce the team output (pairing is acceptable because you're doing a pull request review at the same time, mobbing has a driver and someone helping around and the rest of the team barely follow along), they are also incredibly draining and I can't bring myself to do much more when the session is over.

I tried to raise it as a problem but we want to standardise practices and "be more collaborative". We're getting culture mandated from above and they hired an agile coach.

Re: Ask HN: Why aren't you coding?

#118

Post by serial_dev »

anw wrote: post #96

Because Coding is not Working. Coding is not Planning. Coding is not Being Efficient. Coding is not Accomplishing Goals. Coding is not Saving Money. Coding is not Gaining Customers. I am getting paid to get things done in a good manner. If I wanted to have a house built for me, I would not expect to pay somebody and immediately have them start laying bricks without them looking at the land, taking soil samples, sketc…

Good point, happened to me today.

The UI requirements to my ticket didn't make sense. The changes the other dev wanted would have took us possible days. I was hesitant to start, so I asked another dev... He said something totally different, he kept referring to something the designer wanted, but it didn't make sense to me, either. I called the designer and she told me she never said that and we agreed on something else. After confirming with another dev in chat that the designer was right, I could start coding.

In the end, after 20 minutes of calls/chat and around 30 minutes coding, the issue was resolved. I saved so much time (days, really) just by being a bit sceptical.

I'm new on the team, so first I thought it is just me who can't follow everything, then asked around and realized that the level of miscommunication is shocking and people don't even realize that they don't understand things and act like everything is trivially simple (the team looks good, though).

Re: Ask HN: Why aren't you coding?

#120

Post by rootlocus »

anw wrote: post #96

Because Coding is not Working. Coding is not Planning. Coding is not Being Efficient. Coding is not Accomplishing Goals. Coding is not Saving Money. Coding is not Gaining Customers. I am getting paid to get things done in a good manner. If I wanted to have a house built for me, I would not expect to pay somebody and immediately have them start laying bricks without them looking at the land, taking soil samples, sketc…

> Because Coding is not Working

Then what is it?

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