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How to be a sane programmer

nicholascloud.com

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Re: How to be a sane programmer

#21

Post by blindhippo »

michaelochurch wrote: post #7

Impostor syndrome is an artifact of dimensionality. There are hundreds of answers for "What does it mean to be a good programmer?" We have back-end and front-end, "devops" and "DBA" and "data science". We've let the colonizers (business guys) divide us for their purposes (not ours) and we're muddled. It's hard to know if we're good at our jobs because our jobs are constantly changing (and, sometimes, in ways that lea…

The bigger win would be to flip the traditional hierarchy over and realize a situation in which the "business" side of things works FOR the talent (i.e. value generators), rather then the other way around. In my market (not SV), tech talent is treated like the help. There is no real association to join - the only groups that exist are scattered, un-organized and generally not interested in improving working conditions (that would be far too socialist).

I suspect this type of change would require a social revolution. It will come eventually I hope, but I doubt it will come soon enough for me to benefit from.

Re: How to be a sane programmer

#22

Post by buckbova »

Duhck wrote: post #2

Heres the problem I have with this entire discussion -- and this post does address it a bit -- but programming IS a creative role and needs to be treated as such. Many organizations hire programmers as technical roles, but they are generally creatives. A lot of them are night owls, who ebb and flow between long productive stints and proverbial 'writers block'. Many of the best developers I know have a creative desire…

The majority of programming is analyzing a problem domain and applying the right design pattern. It is not creative. The longer I am at it, well over a decade now, the more this applies.

Re: How to be a sane programmer

#23

Post by southphillyman »

tedkalaw wrote: post #5

I still find the pressure to work on side projects in your free time difficult to come to terms with. There's often discussion about how if you don't like what you're doing, then you should find a new job - and easily, if you're in the bay area. I know a lot of really talented devs that don't work on side projects because they are completely consumed by, and love, their work and can't imagine doing anything else. Wha…

How do you guys continue learning if not through side projects? Do you only care about the stack you use at work? The point of doing side projects isn't coding for the sake of coding. It's either to solve a real problem or a means to highlight current technical interests.

Re: How to be a sane programmer

#24

Post by eikenberry »

buckbova wrote: post #22
Duhck wrote: post #2

Heres the problem I have with this entire discussion -- and this post does address it a bit -- but programming IS a creative role and needs to be treated as such. Many organizations hire programmers as technical roles, but they are generally creatives. A lot of them are night owls, who ebb and flow between long productive stints and proverbial 'writers block'. Many of the best developers I know have a creative desire…

The majority of programming is analyzing a problem domain and applying the right design pattern. It is not creative. The longer I am at it, well over a decade now, the more this applies.

I disagree that development has come anywhere close to optimizing our design patterns. People are still coming up with better patterns for even basic CRUD and static site generation apps. Coming up with new patterns and improving existing patterns is what we do.

Re: How to be a sane programmer

#25

Post by netfire »

buckbova wrote: post #22
Duhck wrote: post #2

Heres the problem I have with this entire discussion -- and this post does address it a bit -- but programming IS a creative role and needs to be treated as such. Many organizations hire programmers as technical roles, but they are generally creatives. A lot of them are night owls, who ebb and flow between long productive stints and proverbial 'writers block'. Many of the best developers I know have a creative desire…

The majority of programming is analyzing a problem domain and applying the right design pattern. It is not creative. The longer I am at it, well over a decade now, the more this applies.

What do you define as creativity then? You could say that the majority of writing is composing sentences with nouns and verbs if you look at it from such a low level. (or that artists are just applying specialized techniques to add to or subtract from a medium).

I suppose that you could leave the creativity in engineering to other people (designers, product managers, etc), but my experience has been that you end up a far better product when you engage developers early on in the brainstorming and product planning process and let them help decide what the product should be.

Re: How to be a sane programmer

#26

Post by ForHackernews »

michaelochurch wrote: post #7

Impostor syndrome is an artifact of dimensionality. There are hundreds of answers for "What does it mean to be a good programmer?" We have back-end and front-end, "devops" and "DBA" and "data science". We've let the colonizers (business guys) divide us for their purposes (not ours) and we're muddled. It's hard to know if we're good at our jobs because our jobs are constantly changing (and, sometimes, in ways that lea…

> Would you want to be operated on by a doctor with the pay and social status of an average programmer?

I don't care about the social status of my medical providers, I care about their competence.

The last few times I've been to a clinic, I've been seen by nurse practitioners instead of MDs. They've been very capable, and noticeably less expensive than an MD visit. Lots of the rules around medical practice are nothing more than the AMA acting as a guild system to artificially restrict supply and inflate salaries.

Re: How to be a sane programmer

#27

Post by lgieron »

Duhck wrote: post #2

Heres the problem I have with this entire discussion -- and this post does address it a bit -- but programming IS a creative role and needs to be treated as such. Many organizations hire programmers as technical roles, but they are generally creatives. A lot of them are night owls, who ebb and flow between long productive stints and proverbial 'writers block'. Many of the best developers I know have a creative desire…

> Many of the best developers I know have a creative desire and just writing code for 10 hours a day doesn't satiate it.

To paraphrase, many of the best X (X being developers, managers, accountants, salesmen etc.) have a creative desire and just doing their job for 10 hours a day doesn't satiate it. That's why they indulge in create activities in their free time.

Re: How to be a sane programmer

#28

Post by themodelplumber »

qwerta wrote: post #15

I think problem are working conditions. Modern programmer is expected to work in coffee shop on tiny laptop, practically worst conditions imaginable. If I ask for decent private office and 3x32" screens I just get blank faces and bullshit excuses. Since I started working for myself remotely, I can sustain 10 hours of uninterrupted concentration. Before in office it was more like 30 minutes of concentration per day.

How much of your productivity gain from the 3x32" screens is attributable to extra space for persistent applications (i.e. always keeping an IDE open on screen N)? Just curious.

Re: How to be a sane programmer

#29

Post by beebs93 »

chriswarbo wrote: post #16
tedkalaw wrote: post #5

I still find the pressure to work on side projects in your free time difficult to come to terms with. There's often discussion about how if you don't like what you're doing, then you should find a new job - and easily, if you're in the bay area. I know a lot of really talented devs that don't work on side projects because they are completely consumed by, and love, their work and can't imagine doing anything else. Wha…

"What if your passion is your day job?" Then pursue it with a passion. "I find it difficult to go hard at work and put 100% in and then come home and work on side projects." Then don't. "Usually, I'd rather spend time with friends and family." Then do. "This seems to disqualify me from a lot of job postings." If getting the job requires a large time commitment to side-projects, then they're not side-projects. If you'…

Geezuz Murphy I was almost yelling this at the screen as I read the OP's comments.

There is no single template to improving as a programmer while staying both mentally and physically healthy.

Define your goals and align your life to meet them; do NOT align your life to meet goals defined by others.

Re: How to be a sane programmer

#30

Post by ptr »

chriswarbo wrote: post #17
AznHisoka wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personally I find it insane to go home and work on a side project after work, if it's not something you hope to make money from.

If a side-project did make any money, what would you spend it on? Perhaps you'd spend some on entertainment, or to further your education, or to finally fix those minor annoyances that you come across day to day. Maybe you'd invest some in a project that you think has great potential to change the world? Pro tip: many people work on side-projects for exactly those reasons. They just cut out the middle man (money).

Not to forget those that are hoping to create some extra money (and/or passive income) to put off the next consulting gig for a while.
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