This is an interesting perspective. As a developer, I already realized that there's too much to learn as our technology is progressing rapidly.
Things I’ve learned in my 20 years as a software engineer
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Re: Things I’ve learned in my 20 years as a software engineer
#192In my 22+ years of work as an Engineer/Architect, I've found that:
1. Software development skill means nothing if the power goes out, always cultivate other skills and passions, those passions will drive you to develop more meaningful, functional, and well informed tools.
2. My resume never parses correctly on the job application, no matter how big the company is, and I'll always have to retype it over again.
3. The level of functionality on each company's web site job application tool tells you everything you need to know about the development quality and talent within each company.
Re: Things I’ve learned in my 20 years as a software engineer
#193If you try to wait for the money making opportunity in order to build something it may never come. Just start building. Keep building. There are more ideas at the end of a long path than there are at the start. If you don’t keep building they will remain unseen.
Re: Things I’ve learned in my 20 years as a software engineer
#194This is a very insightful list. But there is one thing I'd quibble with: while it's inherently a super-subjective metric, I would say that 10x programmers do exist. Both in the "can support a company by themselves" sense and the "mad lone genius" sense. Not all the 10x programmers are good at working with other people or on other people's ideas. 0.1x programmers are often lost or afraid, although they may just be uni…
Also, sometimes it isn’t someone ‘moving fast and breaking things’ - sometimes everyone else gets paralyzed with indecision and can’t even get started.
Someone who can sit down and start coding in an ambiguous environment, period, can easily make 10x more value themselves, and allow others to go from .1x to 1-5x merely by being able to pick somewhere to start and just doing it, which allows everyone else to break their own ‘freeze’ and start engaging as now there is something concrete that breaks the locked up state they were in.
I’ve done it a few times, and seen others do it to. It’s magic going from ‘everyone rehashing things on a whiteboard for the 10th time’ to ‘everyone working on the next iteration’
Re: Things I’ve learned in my 20 years as a software engineer
#195Earlier quoted context omitted.
It applies to every job not just engineering. I thought this was considered obvious.
To clarify, you're saying that you vire that that being technical and observing natural/physical phenomena are important parts of selling clothing at retail, being a novelist and working as a receptionist? I think those are important jobs, and completely disagree with you. I'm trying to understand if those are jobs you weren't considering, or if we view each the responsibilities of those jobs very differently.
No. I'm saying that retail, much like being a novelist or a receptionist or a software programmer or indeed any job is, as the OP puts it, a "social service".
That being one of the defining charactetistics of a job.
Re: Things I’ve learned in my 20 years as a software engineer
#196In my 22+ years of work as an Engineer/Architect, I've found that: 1. Software development skill means nothing if the power goes out, always cultivate other skills and passions, those passions will drive you to develop more meaningful, functional, and well informed tools. 2. My resume never parses correctly on the job application, no matter how big the company is, and I'll always have to retype it over again. 3. The…
>> resume never parses
Every time I rewrite my CV I always think, finally it's picture perfect. Next time I revisit it, because I'm looking for another job, I always think, who the F wrote this piece of crap.
I'm either slowly making progress or I'm running in circles.
Re: Things I’ve learned in my 20 years as a software engineer
#19740+ years of experience here, and I'll tell you the #1 thing I've learned: * Software is a social service. Its for other humans. Incredibly, it doesn't matter how educated the developer, they still seem to have to learn this lesson themselves, over and over, until it sinks in...
What's the quote? Knowledge can be taught. Wisdom can't be taught or told... it can only be learned through experience?
Edit: Ah, found it.
"Wisdom cannot be imparted. Wisdom that a wise man attempts to impart always sounds like foolishness to someone else ... Knowledge can be communicated, but not wisdom. One can find it, live it, do wonders through it, but one cannot communicate and teach it." - Siddhartha
Re: Things I’ve learned in my 20 years as a software engineer
#198This is a very insightful list. But there is one thing I'd quibble with: while it's inherently a super-subjective metric, I would say that 10x programmers do exist. Both in the "can support a company by themselves" sense and the "mad lone genius" sense. Not all the 10x programmers are good at working with other people or on other people's ideas. 0.1x programmers are often lost or afraid, although they may just be uni…
>, I would say that 10x programmers do exist. Yes but I think the underlying issue is that some people really Really don't like to acknowledge (or are unaware) there's a small set of elite programmers that can do things average coders can't. But any label we use to describe them (i.e. "10x", "rockstar", "ninja", etc) will be psychologically distasteful. I previously commented about that effect: - https://news.ycombin…
How many times faster is an O(n) algorithm over a O(n^2) squared algorithm?
How many times faster is a developer who can write a compiler over one who can not?
We are at least consistent; I rather frequently see programmers claiming a "105 times faster!" benchmark that was actually the result of a fundamental complexity change.
Not everything is on a linear scale.
Re: Things I’ve learned in my 20 years as a software engineer
#19940+ years of experience here, and I'll tell you the #1 thing I've learned: * Software is a social service. Its for other humans. Incredibly, it doesn't matter how educated the developer, they still seem to have to learn this lesson themselves, over and over, until it sinks in...
35y+ here, i just sent him something along:
"software is communication, made by people, for people"
(which is more or less what you say :)
With all the consequences. Most people, on either side, don't get it. Ever.
Re: Things I’ve learned in my 20 years as a software engineer
#200I liked 8 a lot > Every system eventually sucks, get over it I'm a fresh recent grad developer, and this is good to know to calm me down from over architecting. I'll do my damnedest, but it's to know it's not awful if things get a bit messy eventually.
A better way to phrase this is that there is always room for improvement but we don't have infinite time. Deciding what to improve when is a skill.