The argument supposes that people have a single set of abilities/tendencies that they apply to everything they do. That is ridiculous: we adapt our behaviour to the circumstances. When you're with friends, you behave and communicate differently then when you are with colleagues or relatives. Cooking requires a different kind of attention than fixing your bike does.
The Better You Program, The Worse You Communicate
21–25 of 25 posts
Re: The Better You Program, The Worse You Communicate
#22Boy is that not true. The key to miscommunication and bad programming is the same: not to be clear in your own head about what you're doing.
settings aside what is going on inside your head, ... The article correctly observes that effective communication in a programming language is very concise, structured, non-repetitive, etc. ... which is quite different from effective communication among humans (imprecise, repetitive, analogy-based, etc.)
However, in addition to the observation that the communication modes or skills differ, the author makes the claim that the development of one mode/skill will produce deficiencies in the other. I don't think the author provides sufficient evidence that such an effect occurs, and I would further argue that such evidence would have to come from a more empirical rather than introspective source of knowledge (although for sure, personal experience would be what inspired the more rigorous experiment). My own experience is that quite opposite skill sets can and should be developed by individuals. Also from my own experience I would argue that knowing when to employ each different approach to communication is itself an important skill for hackers who use many different programming paradigms and technologies, as well as people who communicate with all different kinds of people (various subcultures of "creatives", scientists, academicians, business people, different socioeconomic/ethnic cultures). I think that being self-aware and well-developed is the key skill for both human-human and human-computer interaction.
Re: The Better You Program, The Worse You Communicate
#23Boy is that not true. The key to miscommunication and bad programming is the same: not to be clear in your own head about what you're doing.
Well, maybe not in the way he means, but for whatever reason, if I get really deep into a program, I find it a little bit more difficult to speak Italian, which normally comes very naturally. I absolutely hate writing comments and commit messages and the like in Italian, even where I'm sure the code will never be touched by anyone who doesn't speak it. It's like it involves some sort of context switch that kicks some stuff out of cache and degrades performance...
Re: The Better You Program, The Worse You Communicate
#24All green of skin. 800 centuries ago their bodily fluids include the birth of half-breeds. For the fundamental truth and self-determination of the cosmos. For dark is the suede that mows like a harvest.
Re: The Better You Program, The Worse You Communicate
#25And here we have a massive movement from programmers saying "how come ? You are wrong, I communicate well. If you communicate bad, you are bad programmer."
Well, that sounds like healthy putting yourself in question, and healthy communication "You're wrong, because you are".
About me, I don't think I'm an awful programmer, but I see many valid points in this (mostly about the "i explained it to you once, how come you don't get it !" :P).
Quite interesting read, not especially to take as a direct truth, more to lightly smile about it. Obviously, the "better you program", the less you are open to light criticism.