Hermit Programmers Are Dead • Hacker News Board

Re: Hermit Programmers Are Dead

#131

Post by dagw » Tue, Oct 05, 2021, 9:18 AM UTC

amusedcyclist wrote: post #110

dagw wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe "Bad Programmer" is more apt Some of the very best programmers I've ever met tick all those boxes. They could deliver in a week something other teams would struggle with for months. The problem of course came when other people would try to understand and build on what they had done. If you believe the quote that "Real Developers ship" then they where absolutely Real Developers.

Shipping untested , undocumented code is pretty easy. Those who don't do either are absolutely bad programmers. That doesn't mean that they're dumb or incapable, but testing and documenting is part of the definition of good programmer.

Shipping untested , undocumented code is pretty easy.

Sure, but shipping untested, undocumented code in 3 days that is bug free, fast, rock solid and does everything it's supposed to do on the first try, takes a certain sort of talent. They might make very annoying colleagues, and the people who have to follow them might curse their names, but they're not "bad programmers".

Re: Hermit Programmers Are Dead

#132

Post by seanmcdirmid » Tue, Oct 05, 2021, 9:25 AM UTC

lucraft wrote: post #23

jpfr wrote: post #15

The text seems to imply that people on the "technical track" (only programming) are doing so because of some flaw in their personality. That is absolutely not the case! This is not a good way to launch "hermit programmer" as a new term. The term is not defined and mentioned only three times in the entire text (once in the title). I suppose most readers have different assumptions on its meaning. I know a few "hermits"…

There's a part of the article at the bottom that defines a Hermit programmer more precisely: * they don’t plan how they're going to finish a task * they don’t document * they don’t test * they don’t refactor * they don’t know anything about production infrastructure * they don’t have good communication skills * they don’t try to diversify their skills I'd agree with the article that this kind of programmer is "dead".…

You’d be surprised. Someone like Notch getting a billion dollar payday on Minecraft whose support infrastructure came (Mojang) after the code was done still give some programmers like this hope. But Notch is an extreme exception, and his genius in novel game design probably made up for the working alone aspect.

Re: Hermit Programmers Are Dead

#133

Post by amusedcyclist » Wed, Oct 06, 2021, 12:55 AM UTC

dagw wrote: post #131

amusedcyclist wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Shipping untested , undocumented code is pretty easy. Those who don't do either are absolutely bad programmers. That doesn't mean that they're dumb or incapable, but testing and documenting is part of the definition of good programmer.

Shipping untested , undocumented code is pretty easy. Sure, but shipping untested, undocumented code in 3 days that is bug free, fast, rock solid and does everything it's supposed to do on the first try, takes a certain sort of talent. They might make very annoying colleagues, and the people who have to follow them might curse their names, but they're not "bad programmers".

I think it depends on what kind of work you're talking about. If you're talking about building a basic UI or a service, most decent developers should be able to churn out working code in a couple of days. If you're referring to something low level or very algorithmically tricky then sure there are obviously some geniuses amongst us whose presence we must learn to tolerate