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I don’t belong in tech
141–150 of 205 posts
Re: I don’t belong in tech
#142Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you come across in real life the way you do in your posts, I wouldn't want to hire you either.
And if I were to make a decision based on HN comments, I'd hire @thro32, no joke. I've read all the comments and their author makes an impression of an interesting person with a broad outlook.
He's a self-described MRA, that's not compatible with any kind of healthy workplace culture.
Re: I don’t belong in tech
#143This level of attention to detail, perfection, and craftsmanship is found largely at bigger companies with more to lose with their products. Automakers, manufacturing, aerospace. When I worked at GM, this sort of thinking was necessary at every step. Perfection and correctness was written into every process. Also, about 40% of the engineers in my group were female (active safety/autonomous vehicles. We solved awesome…
>> Perfection and correctness was written into every process. you say that but the industries you mentioned have some of the worst code possible.
I agree on their code quality/their coding practices are bad, but that doesn't matter for this context. They (GM) are not software companies, so they don't set out to write amazing, clean, modular code.
This isn't about writing great code, it's about the culture surrounding release.
Re: I don’t belong in tech
#144This post is horribly verbose. It constantly brings gender and race into it, then disavows it a couple paragraphs later. This is a textbook definition of a first world problem. Don't like tech? Don't do it. Nobody has a gun to your head. The worst part is having a job, "hating" it, and spewing your hatred of it across your social circles. That does nobody any good. You're not a slave. Either you dislike not having mo…
> Don't like tech? Don't do it. Alternatively: love tech but don't like how it's built and the incentives in the industry? Try to change things for the better. Your way, nothing ever improves. Her way, things might get a little better for some people. At the very least, there's a benefit to highlighting the issue and generating some conversation.
> Try to change things for the better.
Change arises closest to home. Instead of setting up straw men to knock down on the internet, why not quietly work to change your own work environment? I'm working on a Node.js code base I'm not particularly enthused by, but I'm trying to make it better by pointing things out and speaking up about inefficiencies or unprofessional coding practices.
> At the very least, there's a benefit to highlighting the issue and generating conversation.
That is completely false. The issue she's highlighting is that she doesn't like the way reality is, and that reality should change. That's not going to happen, especially with that attitude. The only conversation this should generate is "Ok, we all have things we have to deal with. Stop complaining and make smaller, local changes rather than dumping your feelings all over the internet in elaborate prose. That is worse than useless, it actively advocates against your cause. Who would want to be on your side when all you do is complain illogically?"
Re: I don’t belong in tech
#145This feels very INTP vs INTJ. Both are stereotypical engineers, but INTP typically values understanding the problem. INTJ is stereotypically more interested in leveraging just enough understanding. The world needs both. I'm not surprised that the ESTJ managers and such don't value the INTP style...
Re: I don’t belong in tech
#146The author makes some great points that I initially wanted to dismiss, but I think are actually really interesting. Unlike many other types of engineering/craft, most experienced software developers have settled on an aversion to perfectionism. A good carpenter wants to build a solid house even if no one will ever see its frame. Ditto to an auto engineer at BMW, or a hardware engineer at Apple, or a mechanical engine…
I'd rather give a completely different explanation. Building 90% of a software is easy, getting to 100% is insanely difficult. Building 90% of a construction/hardware/car/... is hard, the final bits are easy.
No, the last 10% of completing the house, car, machine, or meal preparation is still the most difficult, just like in software.
Finishing always requires more attention to detail, and a tougher sense of good-enough than the first 90%.
Re: I don’t belong in tech
#147Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not sure about that - designers have to build a UX that works in the real world, and sometimes there are really complicated processes that need to be exposed in a nice way. I imagine this has similar tradeoffs as programming (i.e. difficulty in implementation, balancing power/intuitiveness)
As a designer, one can live exclusively in "photoshop", ignoring the complexity of the process and the reality of usage. It's not like you can "test" a drawing with a real user. As a programmer, you gotta get all the little details right or the application is not possible to use. There is no way around it, whatever is forgotten will just hit you right in your face. And last but not least. Drawing is dead easy. A prog…
This is such a massive simplification of what a designer does it's actually amazing. You're first and last paragraphs are simply wrong.
First of all a designer doesn't get to live exclusively in photoshop or some other tool. They don't get to ignore the "reality of usage". In order to be a competent designer they have to not only completely understand the problem domain, but also the given software solution and how a user can use the software to achieve the desired goal in the most concise manner. They have to worry about how to signal to users how to perform any given interaction and the overall complexity any activity has. Also they absolutely do test designs with real users. There is like a whole field of study in design around exactly this.
As to your last point, drawing != designing. Designing is actually really hard. This is a problem I see with programmers all the time. The oversimplification of others contributions. Yes you can put together a UI with drag and drop tools. You can build a website with drag and drop tools too and you'll probably get the same quality as the drag and drop UI. A drag and drop design will probably have most of the various pieces. But will it be obvious what actions a user can take from any given screen? Will it properly optimize screen space, and be color correct? There are a 1001 questions that a designer has to ask that most programmers wouldn't even think to ask. There are many challenges when writing an app, and good design has proven over and over again to matter just as much to the success of a business as solid code.
Re: I don’t belong in tech
#148I apologize if you assumed this was a story about a difference rooted in race and gender, because it is not. That’s not where we are going. That's not an apology. You deliberately manipulated your audience by playing on their fears of being deemed discriminatory, their anxiety over real ethnic tensions, and perhaps most egregiously, you intentionally encouraged gender stereotyping of women for your own purpose of obt…
My goodness, I didn't realize there were so many Black Friday sales on self-righteous indignation. Giving it out for Christmahannukwanzakah, are we? Personally I felt quite a bit of sympathy for the author. Some of us are builders. Some of us are growers. Some of us are finishers. Unfortunately the former two often unintentionally conspire to make life difficult for the latter, whether by poor architecture, bad code,…
>Her stops along the way at the gender and racial discrimination questions were also relevant
They were not relevant at all to the topic. I don't think it would be a stretch to say that her purpose of including gender and race would be to attract more eyeballs.
Re: I don’t belong in tech
#149Earlier quoted context omitted.
And it was the most productive time of your life. Never, at any point in your meditation or mountain ascension, did you introduce a single bug or provoked any issue to any user =)
And the snow-white sheet of paper did remain pure and chaste for ever -- pure and chaste -- and empty.
Successful SaaS software have the property to accumulate more cash for every minute they're online & working, they can do pure and chaste AND profitable. That's where the difference between software and the snow white stops :p
Re: I don’t belong in tech
#150Earlier quoted context omitted.
It is never right to attribute negative characteristics to an entire race or gender. Anyone who does so under any circumstances will find me speaking in opposition. -------------- EDIT in Reply: 1. Your comment is, however unintentionally, quite interesting. Never have I seen someone so self-righteously accuse another of self-righteousness. The closest analogy I can devise is an infinite regression of ignorance, a pe…
That hasn't happened here, so your opposition is, itself, raising spectres.
The writing is starkly clear. The piece is also listed above, so I am confident the other readers can reach their own conclusions. Secondly, if any spectres be raised, so be it.
Scorn is a badge of honor if earned when speaking the truth.