21–30 of 115 posts
I get where the author is coming from, but at the same time, having spent most of my career to date as a front-end developer, I can tell you many stories of how hilariously off the rails this approach can go. With a decade under my belt I'm feeling that I recently finally started learning and the conclusion so far is that half of the effectiveness of software engineering comes from obeying ultimately simple and commo…
Earlier in my career I felt a lot of disgust at bad code and bad solutions. Sometimes it tye badness was really effort due to unfamiliarity or not instantly understanding what I was looking at.my laziness. Sometimes it was because it disagreed with what ever framework or methodology I was using to give me confidence in the face of ignorance. I feel like an imposter but at least I know design patterns so this guy who…
Isn't this just cargo culting and then realizing when you're cargo culting vs when changes are actually necessary? I also don't like fawning over good code, or what makes good code, but I think it's actually a good thing to anticipate certain architectural changes. Idk, but I don't think you can tell a stakeholder that you can't implement a feature X because you didn't give enough of a shit about architecture and ran…
Earlier in my career I felt a lot of disgust at bad code and bad solutions. Sometimes it tye badness was really effort due to unfamiliarity or not instantly understanding what I was looking at.my laziness. Sometimes it was because it disagreed with what ever framework or methodology I was using to give me confidence in the face of ignorance. I feel like an imposter but at least I know design patterns so this guy who…
I was often the dumbest guy in the room, and I'm smarter than the average bear.
Dealing with these folks could be infuriating. Every time I would suggest orthogonal approaches (because, like, software is different from hardware), I'd be called "lazy," or "sloppy."
It made me write good code, though.
If those folks saw the way I work now, they'd be horrified. They'd call me a "reckless cowboy," or something to that effect.
But most folks in today's software industry think I'm a stuck-up prig.
I work quickly. I leave good, highly-documented code, that lasts a long time (For example, one of my C SDKs was still in use, 25 years later), and I don't want to toss my cookies, whenever I look at my old code (sometimes, though, I shake my head, and wonder what I was thinking).
I'm my own best customer. I'm the one that usually needs to go into my old codebases, and tweak them, so I write code that I want to see, in the future.
I've come to realize that the term "over-engineered" can mean a couple of things:
1) This code is too naive, complex, and byzantine, which makes it prone to bugs, inflexible, and difficult to maintain; or
2) I don't understand this code. That makes it bad.
I used to have an employee who was "on the spectrum."
Best damn programmer I've ever known. Crazy awesome. Had a high school diploma, and regularly stunned the Ph.Ds in Japan.
His code was written very quickly, was well-designed, well-structured, well-documented, bug-free, highly optimized, and an absolute bitch to understand.
Earlier in my career I felt a lot of disgust at bad code and bad solutions. Sometimes it tye badness was really effort due to unfamiliarity or not instantly understanding what I was looking at.my laziness. Sometimes it was because it disagreed with what ever framework or methodology I was using to give me confidence in the face of ignorance. I feel like an imposter but at least I know design patterns so this guy who…
They weren't really based on anything more than sounding like they were true.
I'd hop on every paradigm that sounded correct. Clean code. Pure functions. Effective java. Pragmatic programming. Defensive programming. Like it has that righteous vibe to it. I'd totally strap a bucket on my head and go conquer the holy land under any of those banners.
If only we could do it my way, I thought, then we wouldn't have to put up with all these chafing points that annoyed me. Never do this! Always do that! My mind was like thumbnails from fitness youtube.
Along the way I discovered that when I got to do things my way, it turned out that there were actually still a bunch of chafing points. Different, but it sure wasn't great. Maybe my 30-year-old ass didn't know everything.
Eventually, along the way, I sort of came to the insight that I've built what, 15 applications in the course of my private and professional career. I've worked with 3-4 programming languages in enough depth to be competent with them. I've tried a few architectural paradigms. If I work until I'm in my 60s, I'll maybe double that. Life isn't long enough to get much deeper than that into the craft.
Given this pitiful sample size, it's nothing but hubris to think that I or anyone else would have a clear grasp of what is the best way of doing things.
I had a similar experience when I got into software. As a junior, more than once I wished to just to quit the field - even after years of CS studies & it being one of the best opportunities one can have in my area. The draining nature of the "this is shit, we need to do clean code" and "TDD is the way" discussions being constantly repeated day-in day-out, can quickly kill any interest in working on code. It's not tha…
One of the reasons is small sample size. Children don't have the sample size to see why their simplistic solutions don't work. Neither does a programmer with two years of experience.
Earlier in my career I felt a lot of disgust at bad code and bad solutions. Sometimes it tye badness was really effort due to unfamiliarity or not instantly understanding what I was looking at.my laziness. Sometimes it was because it disagreed with what ever framework or methodology I was using to give me confidence in the face of ignorance. I feel like an imposter but at least I know design patterns so this guy who…
If code doesn’t really matter cause “business,” then I think you are right when you say business is more your interest. That’s cool! I go through similar feelings at times.
Earlier in my career I felt a lot of disgust at bad code and bad solutions. Sometimes it tye badness was really effort due to unfamiliarity or not instantly understanding what I was looking at.my laziness. Sometimes it was because it disagreed with what ever framework or methodology I was using to give me confidence in the face of ignorance. I feel like an imposter but at least I know design patterns so this guy who…
However, the ethics of posting a poorly written chat bots nonsense points to a deeper issue, We must consider if derivative copyrighted material when misappropriated by users is still plagiarism due to missing citations.
I think my point is engineering may lend itself to strong opinions in people with poor social skills.
When you are early to mid career, it is crucial to look for ways to amplify the good you can do in your workplace and solidify your brand as an individual. To do this, you should be looking, ironically, to elevate others. Doing so is the only way to build a reputation that people are going to actively WANT to talk about (e.g. "oh, having trouble? You should call in Jim, he helped me with a related thing"). This is invaluable.
Perhaps I am speaking through a lens, but had I taken the authors advice and taken a more combative role at such a juncture, I believe I would have far fewer opportunities now.