An empirical study of working speed differences between software engineers [pdf]

Post by naveen99 » Fri, Jul 15, 2016, 6:44 AM UTC

Dr_tldr wrote: post #17

naveen99 wrote: post #12

I would think the speed ratio between the best and worst programmers has to be infinite. Some programmers simply cannot accomplish a task. Once they die you may as well divide by infinity. For every task you need some minimal iq. Some tasks need higher iq than others. A programmer is someone who can at least do the least iq requiring task. He will fail on some more difficult tasks. Iq just a standin for mental comput…

Surely you must realize how ridiculous that sounds. You can build basically anything (including a kernel) by working from tutorials and starter projects, then hacking through it. Someone's solution may be extremely sub-optimal, but I've yet to see a programming task that wouldn't to googling and persistence. Inventing Calculus was hard, but virtually anyone can learn to pass a Calculus test given enough time and ince…

Post by ajuc » Fri, Jul 15, 2016, 6:51 AM UTC

School-Cotton wrote: post #5

I suspect that the most important difference between great and typical engineers is that the great ones make a better product, not that they make it faster. If my hunch is correct, worrying about concepts like "10x" is missing the point.

Post by laksjd » Fri, Jul 15, 2016, 6:57 AM UTC

Dr_tldr wrote: post #17

naveen99 wrote: post #12

I would think the speed ratio between the best and worst programmers has to be infinite. Some programmers simply cannot accomplish a task. Once they die you may as well divide by infinity. For every task you need some minimal iq. Some tasks need higher iq than others. A programmer is someone who can at least do the least iq requiring task. He will fail on some more difficult tasks. Iq just a standin for mental comput…

Surely you must realize how ridiculous that sounds. You can build basically anything (including a kernel) by working from tutorials and starter projects, then hacking through it. Someone's solution may be extremely sub-optimal, but I've yet to see a programming task that wouldn't to googling and persistence. Inventing Calculus was hard, but virtually anyone can learn to pass a Calculus test given enough time and ince…

Post by Joeri » Fri, Jul 15, 2016, 7:34 AM UTC

philangist wrote: post #10

I'm pretty sure that I'm a "slow" developer. Not in terms of actually coming up with the core fix to a problem that I'm working on (that's actually the most straightforward part of any project) but everything else that follows. That is to say writing clean, well-tested, documented and maintainable code. Is this something to be concerned about long-term or should I just accept that my work will always take a little lo…

Post by rimantas » Fri, Jul 15, 2016, 7:48 AM UTC

snoman wrote: post #9

School-Cotton wrote: post #5

I suspect that the most important difference between great and typical engineers is that the great ones make a better product, not that they make it faster. If my hunch is correct, worrying about concepts like "10x" is missing the point.

I'm not saying anything about you here, but I feel like this is what a typical engineer would like to believe to make themselves feel better, but getting things done faster leaves more time for doing them better. Once you're at that stage, it's a simple matter of discipline.