Just tried accessing this via the HN link but it was dead. It seems this is the new location of the post:
You can't impress developers
131–140 of 175 posts
Re: You can't impress developers
#132"page not found"
someone have a mirror please ?
Re: You can't impress developers
#133I'm getting a "Not Found" on the link. Looks like the url changed slightly to:
http://baus.net/posts/you-cant-impress-developers/
(its not a cache, but i'll say cached here for those searching the comments for a link to the google cache)
Re: You can't impress developers
#134Earlier quoted context omitted.
Having been in the industry for some time now, I've observed significant generational differences between how criticism is given and accepted. When I worked with developers raised in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, they generally wouldn't hold back when it came to criticism. If something was done wrong, or if something was a stupid idea, they'd say so very bluntly and to-the-point. They'd also be more open to receiving…
I would argue criticism is communicated differently across generations, not being less accepted. There is a difference between a) "I don't like $x about your idea." b) "I like $y about your idea. I think you could make it even better if you do $x differently. For example like this: ..." In my experience, older generations tend to do a) more, while younger ones do (and expect) b) more. Not a bad development IMO.
Except that there's not always anything to like about an idea, and sometimes things are just plain wrong. More often it's less clear cut than that, but even then, points need to be made and people need to understand when they are creating problems.
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for tact! I'm also all for explicitly stating your opinion as an opinion, which often has the effect of softening things in the way you suggest, but even that should not get in the way of actual, valid, useful criticism that isn't excessively hostile.
We baby kids (and ourselves) far too much. Everyone gets an award, everyone is a winner, no one is necessarily wrong. It's crap, absolute crap, and this kind of universal communicative pacifism is a symptom. It harms our expression by limiting it.
Re: You can't impress developers
#135Earlier quoted context omitted.
Having been in the industry for some time now, I've observed significant generational differences between how criticism is given and accepted. When I worked with developers raised in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, they generally wouldn't hold back when it came to criticism. If something was done wrong, or if something was a stupid idea, they'd say so very bluntly and to-the-point. They'd also be more open to receiving…
I would argue criticism is communicated differently across generations, not being less accepted. There is a difference between a) "I don't like $x about your idea." b) "I like $y about your idea. I think you could make it even better if you do $x differently. For example like this: ..." In my experience, older generations tend to do a) more, while younger ones do (and expect) b) more. Not a bad development IMO.
You'll probably enjoy the PLEASE statement in INTERCAL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/INTERCAL
Re: You can't impress developers
#136"page not found" someone have a mirror please ?
the URL was changed to http://baus.net/posts/you-cant-impress-developers/
Re: You can't impress developers
#137This conversation reminds of the old programmer joke: How many programmers does it take to screw in a light bulb? Five. One to screw in the light bulb and four to say, "I could have done that."
> How many programmers does it take to screw in a light bulb? none. it's a hardware problem.
And the converse,
How many electrical engineers does it take to screw in a lightbulb? None. It'll be fixed in a driver patch.
Re: You can't impress developers
#138Well since you can have hardware emulator in javascript, we surely became less impressed in what you can run in the browser. example that come in mind http://bellard.org/jslinux/index.html
This is why the internet is bad for your self-image. In the whole world there are only a handful of people who could write something like jslinux. But, because of the internet, we have all seen it and consider this the reference to live up to. Well, most people cannot ever live up to fabrice bellard. I'm sure my work will never live up to his work. Does that mean all my work is automatically rubbish? In my opinion, w…
This is absolutely right. "Oh you create search algorithms at Bing? Mleh. I find that Google's search algorithms are so much better." And you hear this from people who can barely use grep.
I think someone's work needs to evaluated on their own merit, or with one's own work, vs. some other genius's work.
Re: You can't impress developers
#139Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think this also extends into developers that want to be founders. I think they have a hard time selling things because they always built instead of bought and feel lots of things should be free. They also think particular details matter when they really don't, and these things hold them back from selling. As a developer founder, getting over this has been one of the most challenging but important steps in making my…
This is so true. I am 3 months in to a 2 week project.
Downcoted you by accident, sorry.
Re: You can't impress developers
#140Earlier quoted context omitted.
I pinged him. He stole it.
hey holman, you might want to look at the way your fonts are being rendered on linux http://i.imgur.com/wT1ue16.png
On my Linux system the rendering is just fine[1] using the infinality patches for freetype[2] and subpixel rendering.
[1]: http://i.imgur.com/22emWiZ.png
[2]: http://od-eon.com/blogs/stefan/improving-the-font-rendering-...