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MaskerAid iOS App

caseyliss.com

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Re: MaskerAid iOS App

#171

Post by Grustaf »

scarface74 wrote: post #166
Grustaf wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The interview is the least demanding part, working as a software developer at an ambitious company has nothing to do with binary trees. What does it matter which skill is more impressive? Obviously there are way fewer successful indie developers than top tier developers, and obviously life as a successful indie is way better. Yet, there is such a thing as writing high quality code, which is more or less orthogonal to…

You saw the part about I work at BigTech? Trust me, the code is not rocket science that the vast majority of what software engineers do at BigTech. Well at least the code that runs 2/3rds of the cloud infrastructure in existence. Many of them could never handle the complexity of writing an entire app and maintaining the backend running on 20+ Linode VMs without the support of a trillion dollar corporation. You really…

> Trust me, the code is not rocket science that the vast majority of what software engineers do at BigTech.

Again, that is not the discussion. Nobody said that you have to write high quality code to make it in tech, or as an indie. You keep coming up with strawmen but all I am saying is that I don't believe Marco Arment writes very high quality code. That's it. No judgement, no conclusions or correlations, no nothing.

As to FAANG, I can only be certain about my own experience, and the dozen or so direct colleagues I had all wrote better code than every other colleague I've had over 10 years. Not saying they are better people, happier, richer or anything else. Just to be clear.

Re: MaskerAid iOS App

#172

Post by scarface74 »

kiwijimm wrote: post #170
greedo wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're conflating smart business choices with good programming. His code could be well marketed shit that just barely works under the covers, but he sells it well (Narrator's voice: "It isn't shit...") Marco is an excellent indie developer because he selects markets he has a good understanding of, finds his niche, then simply outclasses his competition by being ahead on features. He also has a loyal following from hi…

Yes. This. There are some segments from a few episodes that show that Marco is demonstrably not a super great programmer. I suspect some of his server side code is horrible. But he doesn't matter because he is super strong at other stuff super focussed on solving his own problems at gets it done. You don't need to be super great at programming you just need to be tenacious.

What’s the purpose of programming if it’s not “make the computer do stuff I need it to do to solve my problem”?

Yes I know all about clean code, automated testing, and “sound engineering practices”. But I’ve met a number of theoretical good coders who couldn’t ship a product that met the customer’s needs to save their lives. If I’m working to support my addiction to food and shelter, if I write code that doesn’t further that effort, I’m not being a “good programmer”.

Re: MaskerAid iOS App

#173

Post by Grustaf »

graftak wrote: post #163
perardi wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Frustratingly, no. If you insert a photo into Messages and hit Markup, the first view gives you a bunch of pen/pencil/brush options, with fixed sizes per brush. There's a plus button that allows you to insert shapes and text…but you can't pinch-zoom to scale the text. You then have to tap around again to set the font size and color. It's a weird, neglected-feeling interface. They could borrow a lot from Instagram's s…

What the author of the app can do however is creating an OS photo markup plugin that provides the more usable mask ‘aid’ tools. A feature I haven’t seen utilised once since it’s inception.

Yeah, that's definitely what he should do. Very surprising he didn't do it already, this is the perfect use case for markup plugins.

Re: MaskerAid iOS App

#174

Post by Grustaf »

scarface74 wrote: post #172
kiwijimm wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. This. There are some segments from a few episodes that show that Marco is demonstrably not a super great programmer. I suspect some of his server side code is horrible. But he doesn't matter because he is super strong at other stuff super focussed on solving his own problems at gets it done. You don't need to be super great at programming you just need to be tenacious.

What’s the purpose of programming if it’s not “make the computer do stuff I need it to do to solve my problem”? Yes I know all about clean code, automated testing, and “sound engineering practices”. But I’ve met a number of theoretical good coders who couldn’t ship a product that met the customer’s needs to save their lives. If I’m working to support my addiction to food and shelter, if I write code that doesn’t furt…

Why do you insist on not understanding what it means to write high quality code? In some contexts, like my previous job, it's important. In others, like if you're making games or non-essential apps in your one man indie shop, much less so. Other qualities are much more important. But it doesn't matter if it's "important" or not, it's a concept that exists, and the only thing we are trying to discuss is that.

It's like if we were discussing the IQ of tech founders and you kept interrupting, saying "IQ is not all that matters", "You can't pay your bills with IQ points", "Steve Jobs might not have a genius IQ but he was a great entrepreneur and that is more important". It's all true, but irrelevant, since it's specifically IQ levels we are discussing.

Re: MaskerAid iOS App

#175

Post by scarface74 »

Grustaf wrote: post #174
scarface74 wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What’s the purpose of programming if it’s not “make the computer do stuff I need it to do to solve my problem”? Yes I know all about clean code, automated testing, and “sound engineering practices”. But I’ve met a number of theoretical good coders who couldn’t ship a product that met the customer’s needs to save their lives. If I’m working to support my addiction to food and shelter, if I write code that doesn’t furt…

Why do you insist on not understanding what it means to write high quality code? In some contexts, like my previous job, it's important. In others, like if you're making games or non-essential apps in your one man indie shop, much less so. Other qualities are much more important. But it doesn't matter if it's "important" or not, it's a concept that exists, and the only thing we are trying to discuss is that. It's lik…

My thesis is still code is meant to make the computer stuff. That “stuff” can be “Candy Crush” or “reliable code that doesn’t cause a plane to fall out of the sky”.

But writing the best “Enterprise FizzBuzz” that doesn’t solve a problem no matter how good the code is is meaningless. A great developer that writes code that no one uses is not a great developer.

In other words a great developer that can’t ship is worthless - the whole “smart and gets things done” metric.

Re: MaskerAid iOS App

#176

Post by Grustaf »

scarface74 wrote: post #175
Grustaf wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you insist on not understanding what it means to write high quality code? In some contexts, like my previous job, it's important. In others, like if you're making games or non-essential apps in your one man indie shop, much less so. Other qualities are much more important. But it doesn't matter if it's "important" or not, it's a concept that exists, and the only thing we are trying to discuss is that. It's lik…

My thesis is still code is meant to make the computer stuff. That “stuff” can be “Candy Crush” or “reliable code that doesn’t cause a plane to fall out of the sky”. But writing the best “Enterprise FizzBuzz” that doesn’t solve a problem no matter how good the code is is meaningless. A great developer that writes code that no one uses is not a great developer. In other words a great developer that can’t ship is worthl…

You can think whatever you want, but we are still discussing the quality of the code that they write. Not which skill is more important, what life is like at Google, your inferiority complex about not passing the whiteboard test, or anything else.

FWIW, there are plenty of people who shipping great quality code everyday at Apple, Google etc. Not "FizzBuzz", but concise, human readable, robust, maintainable code. My only contention is that Marco probably wouldn't be able to write code to the standard required at some FAANGs. Casey definitely wouldn't. John quite likely. What do you think?

Keep in mind we are only discussing the code aspect. Not putting up with standups, corporate jargon, middle managers, 9-5 etc.

Re: MaskerAid iOS App

#177

Post by [deleted] »

samhw wrote: post #28
eddieroger wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Heard the same, thought the same. Casey succumbed to the struggle I find myself dealing with all the time - he found a problem with a technological solve and solved it with technology, which is only something other technologists do or want. Like you said, Instagram has a facility to already put stickers on images for people who wish to censor their pics. If they're not using Instagram, maybe the other program can do…

As one of our VCs once wisely said to us: "The hardest thing is to get a consumer to install a new app. Deliver your solution any way other than its own app."

[deleted]
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