Ask HN: Why aren't you coding? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Why aren't you coding?

#151

Post by swader999 » Sat, Feb 13, 2021, 1:58 AM UTC

leesalminen wrote: post #144

swader999 wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I write better non-trivial code when I get up and get away from the screen for a while. Go do something else to get my mind off it. Even sleep on it. Then the insights creep in. Hammering away at a hard problem usually makes a big mess. Sometimes three quarters of my time is spent understanding the requirements, negotiating the solution, researching, talking through the design.

Same here! Sometimes I’ve spent weeks thinking through a problem fully, talking to everyone involved (including myself) only to code whatever it was in a couple hours. It’s amazing what our brains can process subconsciously.

Related to this, I typically advocate for the daily stand-up close to mid day so that more work gets time to "sleep on it" and then a chance to add any insights that came to you during the off time. I seem to do better features and code over two work sessions than in one long continuous day.

Re: Ask HN: Why aren't you coding?

#152

Post by jmchuster » Sat, Feb 13, 2021, 2:02 AM UTC

Code you write is code everyone will now have to maintain forever, so naively, you want to solve problems with as little code as possible, and maximize the value being generated by your codebase. So you should be spending your time on... properly validating the business value of your projects, properly designing what a system should look like on paper, properly considering use cases and edge cases, finding what code can be eliminated, finding what code can be refactored, finding the single line that you need to change to make it all work.

> The revised bill arrived: $1.00 for turning the screw; $9,999.00 for knowing which screw to turn.

is preferable to

> $10,000 for building a new printing press system from scratch.

Re: Ask HN: Why aren't you coding?

#153

Post by lumost » Sat, Feb 13, 2021, 2:07 AM UTC

In a theoretically optimal world, all engineers would have immediate and omniscient knowledge of all dependent teams, and stakeholders interests. They would also have immediate knowledge of all system complexities and have no operational burden or customer's that they need to help. Of course in this optimal world engineers would always have instant access to all knowledge of their toolchain and not need to perform research, and the build would of course never break.

The unfortunate reality is that developing roadmaps/managing stakeholders/building team collaboration takes a large amount of time.

Arguably 90% of this effort could be eliminated if the number of stakeholders was reduced, or the company exercised more trust that their engineers were working on the right things. There is a tremendous amount of waste introduced by the endless tracking of engineering deliverables.

Re: Ask HN: Why aren't you coding?

#154

Post by xgkickt » Sat, Feb 13, 2021, 2:17 AM UTC

Because it's going to be a long night debugging the [bleep] build and I just want to eat some of this pizza.

Re: Ask HN: Why aren't you coding?

#155

Post by Shared404 » Sat, Feb 13, 2021, 2:25 AM UTC

daniellarusso wrote: post #122

markb139 wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve worked with 0.1x engineers, where the whole team is slowed down. It becomes very draining. This is why I’ve retired and am just doing my own projects

If you work with 0.1x engineers, and you are 1x, does that make you a 10x within the organization?

Alternately, if you are a 10x, does that make everyone else look like a 0.1x?

Re: Ask HN: Why aren't you coding?

#156

Post by alasdair_ » Sat, Feb 13, 2021, 2:28 AM UTC

markb139 wrote: post #116

meheleventyone wrote: post #86

Mainly because I’m helping other people be able to code. One of the interesting things about the 10x engineer meme is that they’re 10x because they improve the productivity of their team. Well extend that to DevRel and that’s maybe another order of magnitude or two of effect again. Extend that to the average person looking to build and it’s another order or perhaps two again. Hopefully the stuff I’m doing now will ge…

I’ve worked with 0.1x engineers, where the whole team is slowed down. It becomes very draining. This is why I’ve retired and am just doing my own projects

I've definitely worked with -1.0 engineers.

Literally every project they were involved in would get slower as people needed to stop everything to deal with them.

This isn't Mythical Man Month stuff either - no matter the size of the new project, adding specific engineers to the project made progress not just halt, but actually go backwards, as all the stuff that worked before was now broken.

EDIT: And yes, bad management was a major issue with the team but some engineers seem to be negative sum, even taking management into account.

Re: Ask HN: Why aren't you coding?

#157

Post by xx789 » Sat, Feb 13, 2021, 2:30 AM UTC

I find I have a limit to the number of hours I can code per week. Sometimes I'll spend a weekend on a side project or fixing some bug. When I go back to work the next week I just have trouble being productive. Same if I work late I can get stuff done, but tomorrow's productivity will suck.

Re: Ask HN: Why aren't you coding?

#158

Post by username90 » Sat, Feb 13, 2021, 2:31 AM UTC

swader999 wrote: post #141

contravariant wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And arguably it's best when it's done as little as possible.

I write better non-trivial code when I get up and get away from the screen for a while. Go do something else to get my mind off it. Even sleep on it. Then the insights creep in. Hammering away at a hard problem usually makes a big mess. Sometimes three quarters of my time is spent understanding the requirements, negotiating the solution, researching, talking through the design.

> Hammering away at a hard problem usually makes a big mess

How can this be? Did you never learn how to use source control? Coding is the best way to explore the solution space, doesn't mean you use whatever you write right now.

Re: Ask HN: Why aren't you coding?

#159

Post by username90 » Sat, Feb 13, 2021, 2:33 AM UTC

leesalminen wrote: post #144

swader999 wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I write better non-trivial code when I get up and get away from the screen for a while. Go do something else to get my mind off it. Even sleep on it. Then the insights creep in. Hammering away at a hard problem usually makes a big mess. Sometimes three quarters of my time is spent understanding the requirements, negotiating the solution, researching, talking through the design.

Same here! Sometimes I’ve spent weeks thinking through a problem fully, talking to everyone involved (including myself) only to code whatever it was in a couple hours. It’s amazing what our brains can process subconsciously.

You don't think that coding a prototype in a few hours before talking to people would let them better answer your questions and help reduce that time to a few days instead of weeks? Coding is a very versatile tool and can be used to greatly improve communication.

Re: Ask HN: Why aren't you coding?

#160

Post by giantDinosaur » Sat, Feb 13, 2021, 2:35 AM UTC

daniellarusso wrote: post #122

markb139 wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve worked with 0.1x engineers, where the whole team is slowed down. It becomes very draining. This is why I’ve retired and am just doing my own projects

If you work with 0.1x engineers, and you are 1x, does that make you a 10x within the organization?

One would presume that 1x is the baseline for 'competence', which is fine, but being able to do something competently vs. making it worse is really an infinite difference.