Most tech content is bullshit • Hacker News Board

Re: Most tech content is bullshit

#151

Post by MattGaiser » Sun, Jun 07, 2020, 6:09 PM UTC

metrokoi wrote: post #132

>At the beginning of my career, I would never, ever, post anything technical on the internet. I thought that if someone was brave enough to post a blog post or take part in a tech discussion, they always know what they are doing. I couldn't be more wrong! It's unfortunate that to have any sort of success as a software developer you must write about your opinion on frameworks, languages and techniques even if you know…

The problem is that many people are willing to admire and praise the action and infer something from it because they aren't willing to spend time actually judging the work.

That makes the action prestigious in itself.

Re: Most tech content is bullshit

#152

Post by Bahamut » Sun, Jun 07, 2020, 6:10 PM UTC

leetrout wrote: post #34

I’ve said this for a long time: The people actually doing the work don’t have time to talk about it and the people spending all their time talking about it aren’t doing the work. Of course there are exceptions but I’m extremely skeptical of a lot of stuff I read. Also that the HN bubble will always make readers feel behind when in reality 90% of the industry hasn’t even begun to catch-up. I felt behind with K8S in 20…

This is definitely true - I have been told by many respected people over the years that I should start a blog since I have a lot of interesting thoughts on subjects, but a lot of the issue to me is that I have a tendency to want to shape the tech the way I want for a blog, which leads to endless bikeshedding, and it's not as rewarding for me for the effort compared to doing more higher value things for work such as creating unplanned projects to solve work pains, planning other projects, figuring out new solutions to problems encountered at work, or mentoring other developers.

I have a tendency to drop my nuggets of wisdom/analysis in chatrooms in Discord and Slack (and IRC prior) and let others adopt/evangelize them on their own if it makes sense for them to. I'm ok being in the background while my true value is appreciated by those who matter for my own career.

Re: Most tech content is bullshit

#153

Post by badfrog » Sun, Jun 07, 2020, 6:10 PM UTC

> Adapt solutions to your particular use case. There's no one-size-fits-all solution for everything. Compare different approaches, analyze them. Tutorials or articles show an idea, but may not present production-ready code. Always analyze it before you decide to use it.

This advice seems weird to me. I've been a professional software developer for a decade, and probably 95% of the time it doesn't matter if you're doing things in the most ideal way. The important thing is that it works, is reasonably performant, and is reasonably maintainable. If you can get that in 20 minutes from stealing somebody else's solution, it's probably better in the long run than spending 4 hours figuring out a slightly better solution. Maybe the hard part is identifying the 5% of the time when it does matter that you do something the most ideal way?

Re: Most tech content is bullshit

#154

Post by andai » Sun, Jun 07, 2020, 6:11 PM UTC

Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason why so few engage in it.

Henry Ford

Re: Most tech content is bullshit

#155

Post by dustingetz » Sun, Jun 07, 2020, 6:11 PM UTC

Jorge1o1 wrote: post #97

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personal brand building is another major contributor to search engine content dilution. Whenever I Google for something in hot new languages or frameworks, I have to sift through 10s of Medium articles from beginner developers who are trying to establish themselves as industry experts. I don't want to read some junior developer's Medium post full of animated GIFs and a pseudo-tutorial that is really just entire sourc…

The truly worrying development is when those same Medium posts start circling HN. I’m not trying to be elitist, but what I enjoy about HN is seeing truly novel and interesting content, and every “crappy” article on the front page bumps an interesting one downwards into oblivion.

What's interesting is that this stuff works, which means there are idiot decision makers out there eating it up, which means the whole industry is ripe for disruption by someone who can see even an inch into the fog, so lets go do that

Re: Most tech content is bullshit

#156

Post by djmips » Sun, Jun 07, 2020, 6:13 PM UTC

I like how "choose boring technology" and "most tech content is bullshit" are simultaneously trending.

Re: Most tech content is bullshit

#157

Post by MattGaiser » Sun, Jun 07, 2020, 6:13 PM UTC

tracerbulletx wrote: post #73

fxtentacle wrote: post #60

I believe this all started with the advise to write blogs and books to market yourself as an authority. As a result, nowadays, most blog posts are written by people who are seeking a job in that area, not by people who have experience working in that area. I mean I'm sure that I would have experience about different topics. But I rarely have the time to write about it. Customers and their projects keep getting in the…

Ok, it might be true that a lot of inexperienced people are writing blogs now as a way to build a personal brand. But your reaction is an over-reaction. There are also lots of incredible experts writing, and writing its self is an incredibly rewarding and educational activity. It's not a waste of time, no matter how busy you are.

I know half a dozen students who have published "Intro to React" tutorials. They themselves know they are crap, but also know that recruiters will be impressed by the publishing without reading it.

Re: Most tech content is bullshit

#158

Post by djmips » Sun, Jun 07, 2020, 6:14 PM UTC

Koshkin wrote: post #23

As a saying that used to be popular back in the day goes, Nobody has been fired for buying (from) IBM. This in my view is what explains much of the problem.

so... "Choose boring technology"

Re: Most tech content is bullshit

#159

Post by 29athrowaway » Sun, Jun 07, 2020, 6:14 PM UTC

I think the observation is OK, but the conclusion is wrong.

Engineering is not only about hard science, but also about processes. The way processes evolve is often based on empirical data rather than hard science.

Now, that does not mean that one can just forget about science entirely. As engineers, we should try to use a logical, rational, data-oriented mindset when making decisions.

If the reason a decision takes place is only because an authority said so, with no real reasoning behind, that would dogmatism: strongly held beliefs that will not be rationally discussed.

We should always keep an open mind and understand that a large part of our knowledge is simply a local maxima in our way to a deeper and better understanding of things, and dogmatism puts a stop to that process.

Re: Most tech content is bullshit

#160

Post by codingdave » Sun, Jun 07, 2020, 6:15 PM UTC

I call this (BDD) blog-driven development. There is nothing inherently wrong with tech content posted online... the problem is when people don't put some critical thought into it and decide whether the solutions they see online actually match their current needs.