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Confessions of a Software Developer: No More Self-Censorship

kerrick.blog

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Re: Confessions of a Software Developer: No More Self-Censorship

#121

Post by gedy »

_ea1k wrote: post #22

Every time that I read this about remote work, all I can think is how much I miss IRC and the culture that came from it. We were doing remote work effectively decades ago. Don't have hallway conversations to fix bugs? Easy, just post your problems on the team chat and someone (often one of several people) would love to drop by to help. I'm not sure exactly all of the forces that have led to this changing so much, but…

I think it's largely that as this became more of a business, the "yappers" who want to talk things out got more leverage as PMs, etc. It sounds like a caricature, but they honestly seem to get super antsy only typing and sitting in one spot.

Re: Confessions of a Software Developer: No More Self-Censorship

#122

Post by Arubis »

I really appreciate public vulnerability.

And I want to offer some contrast—not as a rebuttal, but just as a reminder that there’s lots of different ways to navigate this strange field.

The _majority_ of the paid code delivery I’ve done for a decade+ has been in Ruby. (The balance has been a mix of mostly devops and some TS/JS and Elixir.)

Remote work has been an utter boon. Admittedly, I do feel like it’s got worse since Covid. But I’ve been able to work with people all across the globe without uprooting my family and leaving my community, and conversely can travel without having to leave my job or clientele.

And I do find that some places benefit from thinking hard about their process. Small senior teams do great with Shape Up. Projects where you have a non-negotiable scope (replatforms) and work streams that are more reactive than planned do better with kanban than something involving estimates.

That’s not to say the author’s wrong! Again, just that the world is wide and experiences differ.

Some context here: I’ve consulted full time almost continuously since 2018, which certainly colors my experience.

Re: Confessions of a Software Developer: No More Self-Censorship

#123

Post by vacuity »

anonymous908213 wrote: post #68
javawizard wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well that sucks. It's exactly the site that comes to mind when I think "most popular alternative to HN". I've generally found conversation there to be more respectful than HN, rather than less, when discussions get heated - so I had high hopes it would be a different site, but alas. This leaves a really bad taste in my mouth. Edit: you know what, screw it. In the spirit of "no more self censorship", here's the link:…

I don't find the conversation to be especially disrespectful. The people in the thread in question attempted to shame him, to some extent. Shame is a social measure to coerce people who are behaving contrary to society's expectations to change their behaviour. However, while shaming him, they did not especially resort to childish name-calling or ad hominem. They reasoned with him extensively as to why his behaviour w…

I agree that the discussion doesn't seem to be toxic on the whole, though not superb, although I don't know what happened following in terms of harassment, so that's up in the air for me.

Re: Confessions of a Software Developer: No More Self-Censorship

#124

Post by satvikpendem »

nirui wrote: post #120

> You lose ambient awareness of coworkers’ problems, and asking for help is a bigger burden. When I was in school, I discovered that I studied more effectively and efficiently when I'm surrounded by other students who's also studying. Then at work, I found I worked much more productively if my coworkers are all doing their work. It's not just simply peer pressure, it's an atmosphere effect, it tell you "hey, this pla…

That sounds akin to like body doubling, a method used by those who have ADHD.

Re: Confessions of a Software Developer: No More Self-Censorship

#125

Post by card_zero »

satvikpendem wrote: post #124
nirui wrote: post #120

> You lose ambient awareness of coworkers’ problems, and asking for help is a bigger burden. When I was in school, I discovered that I studied more effectively and efficiently when I'm surrounded by other students who's also studying. Then at work, I found I worked much more productively if my coworkers are all doing their work. It's not just simply peer pressure, it's an atmosphere effect, it tell you "hey, this pla…

That sounds akin to like body doubling, a method used by those who have ADHD.

Is there also an opposite effect? I concentrate best in solitude, preferably somewhere like an abandoned lighthouse.

Re: Confessions of a Software Developer: No More Self-Censorship

#126

Post by makingstuffs »

Kerrick wrote: post #28
_ea1k wrote: post #22

Every time that I read this about remote work, all I can think is how much I miss IRC and the culture that came from it. We were doing remote work effectively decades ago. Don't have hallway conversations to fix bugs? Easy, just post your problems on the team chat and someone (often one of several people) would love to drop by to help. I'm not sure exactly all of the forces that have led to this changing so much, but…

> Somehow we were better at using remote tools while literally in the same office than some teams are at using them now while fully remote. I couldn't agree more. I pushed to get the place I worked for to use Slack when it first launched, moving us off AIM (ha!). Our use of Slack when we shared an office in the twenty-teens was so much better than the use I've seen of Slack/competitors on fully-remote teams. I wonder…

I think it’s more a shift in the culture amongst most people now than an argument of remote/in office.

Notification fatigue is a thing and people are just used to ignoring notifications and messages nowadays which ends up with slow responses and poor communication all around.

Re: Confessions of a Software Developer: No More Self-Censorship

#127

Post by noman-land »

_ea1k wrote: post #22

Every time that I read this about remote work, all I can think is how much I miss IRC and the culture that came from it. We were doing remote work effectively decades ago. Don't have hallway conversations to fix bugs? Easy, just post your problems on the team chat and someone (often one of several people) would love to drop by to help. I'm not sure exactly all of the forces that have led to this changing so much, but…

I have encountered people who are scared to post in large public channels. Part of growing up in chatrooms was an implicit bravery of saying something out loud in a room full of thousands of people. There seems to have been a shift, somewhat, in the comfort level of different generations about saying things "out loud" in large public rooms.

Chatrooms have evolved in a really interesting way. I think the first generation to have them didn't fully understand how "public" they were. Maybe there are more people in the more recent generations that have a more visceral understanding of online "publicness" as they have grown up with (and perhaps have been burned by) those concepts from the very beginning. Maybe they have a better understanding of the permanence of online utterances and therefore have a more conservative approach to interacting on what feels like the permanent public ledger.

Maybe it's because the concept of pseudonyms has devolved since the early days. Corporate social media has an interest in doxing its users to advertise to and control them but pre-corporate social media was filled with anonymous usernames. Posting in a large group under your permanent forever name is much scarier than posting under an anonymous, temporary identity. One of the things I advocate people do is post online anonymously, instead of with their real name. It alleviates a lot of the fear of speaking your truth, which we need more of!

There is something there. The ability to try on identities in a safe environment before you discover which one you really identify with. It's much harder to do this with your real name. Your past comes with a lot of baggage and people who know you don't want you to change because it makes them feel uncomfortable.

Re: Confessions of a Software Developer: No More Self-Censorship

#128

Post by cosmosgenius »

ccapitalK wrote: post #66
el_benhameen wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not exactly your main point, but where’d you go to learn calculus? I did the usual classes in high school but none since, and I’d love to develop a better appreciation for it.

I find 3blue1brown to be a great resource to build up good intuition about math topics, his videos about calculus and linear algebra are wonderful in particular. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZHQObOWTQDMsr9K-rj53... is his essence of calculus series, I found the visualizations made it a lot easier to grok.

I can second 3blue1brown as intro, but anything practical needs practise. Get your local 12th grade or undergrad math book which has problems to solve will bring more focus and faster learning. Have a list of problems to solve in your head while learning theory has been faster for me than just learning theory.

Re: Confessions of a Software Developer: No More Self-Censorship

#129

Post by taberiand »

vjvjvjvjghv wrote: post #43
kens wrote: post #7

My knowledge-gap confession: even after many years with the languages, I can't write a main() in Python or Java without looking up the format.

I set up some .NET services years ago. Since then it was just adding new stuff. If I was asked how to set up another service, I would have no idea how to do it

That's what `dotnet new webapi` (and all the other dotnet new templates) is for.

They don't even have a main() any more, it's great

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