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The Best Programming Advice I Ever Got (2012)

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Re: The Best Programming Advice I Ever Got (2012)

#221

Post by rocky1138 »

XorNot wrote: post #197
rocky1138 wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The way capitalism is supposed to work is you quit this job and open a shop which does the same thing as the existing company but doesn't artificially reduce speed, using that as a competitive advantage. The end result is that the first company is required to either adopt your strategy or fail, either solution leading the consumer to a better result.

Which is why the no-compete was invented...

I've read that those may be illegal or unenforceable according to the law. Check your jurisdiction.

Re: The Best Programming Advice I Ever Got (2012)

#222

Post by dang »

WilliamEdward wrote: post #216
dang wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personal attacks will get you banned here, regardless of what details someone else left out. Please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and post civilly and substantively, or not at all.

This would be a personal attack if it was wrong to be stupid... But it's not. Everyone acts this way sometimes. I don't even suggest they are stupid all the time, just acted so in that moment, which again is completely fine but responsibility should be shifted. I'm sorry the use of that word is too much for you to handle, and I probably should have used another method to call out someone's mistakes. I'm also slightly…

It wasn't just that one word. Telling someone they "want to play the victim" is also a personal swipe, as is "this is 100% your fault" and even "you're clearly leaving out some important detail". In fact, your comment consisted of nothing but swipes!

Re: The Best Programming Advice I Ever Got (2012)

#223

Post by 0db532a0 »

vezycash wrote: post #213
0db532a0 wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve always been wary of one-to-ones with the manager for the same reason. Is it ever good to talk about problems with a manager, especially regarding other people? It’s like the prisoner’s dilemma. I still don’t know what’s best for me to talk about in this setting.

Remembering this is important: Trust is earned. Test people in different ways to see if they can be trusted. Share inconsequential secrets and see who else hears it. Once had a boss who'd let cash drop while walking to see what you'd do. If you can't trust em, update your CV and get busy getting a new job you become desperate. Edit: https://www.inc.com/wanda-thibodeaux/want-to-know-if-someone... Googled that for ya.…

I’m not sure things are so black and white. Although I would agree that trust is earned, I don’t think trust is the most important thing.

Rather than relying on trusting other people in the workplace, it would be better to develop a system where people both trust you and rely on you.

If I go to my manager and admit to him that I have problems, he will immediately suspect two things. One, that I don’t get on with people, and two, that I might rat him out one day.

I have not been able to apply these ideas in real life, as I have been much too idealistic. I’m looking for a new strategy.

Re: The Best Programming Advice I Ever Got (2012)

#224

Post by 0db532a0 »

NateEag wrote: post #211
0db532a0 wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve always been wary of one-to-ones with the manager for the same reason. Is it ever good to talk about problems with a manager, especially regarding other people? It’s like the prisoner’s dilemma. I still don’t know what’s best for me to talk about in this setting.

If you have a good manager, yes, it can be. A good one will often have years more experience at navigating tricky social and political situations than you do and will be able to help you work through any difficulties you're having with coworkers. Good managers are far rarer than good programmers, though. A decent litmus test for whether your manager can help with these kinds of problems is whether they've been on lot…

I’ve given up on the idea of good and bad people. I myself am good or bad depending on how it suits me. How could I do anything else?

From my experience a manager will choose the option he thinks is most beneficial to his continued employment in the company. This includes maximising team support/influence over for instance making a change in a product with measurable benefit to the company, a change which even he himself might agree is a good idea. Who could blame him? Any manager who didn’t act in this way would surely be naive and idealistic.

Assuming this is true for managers, what benefit could possibly be had from complaining about other colleagues. It could only serve to reduce his trust in me, and increase his fear that I would do the same to him.

It is very difficult to balance things like team support, ensuring that I have interesting work to do and also ensuring continued employment. I have been too naive and idealistic, and now I am looking for a change of strategy.

It’s all well and good to be aware of these realities, but much more difficult to put the conclusions into practice. Sometimes I think you’re just born with it.

Re: The Best Programming Advice I Ever Got (2012)

#225

Post by jeklj »

darkerside wrote: post #81
jeklj wrote: post #62

I did something similar once but failed to glean such a valuable lesson from the experience. My takeaway was, those people are touchy so leave their shit alone. Not because it’s right but because I’m just trying to get through my day, and i don’t need more politics in my working life. People can be assholes, it’s just how it is sometimes so let them be. Among my own team, if I raise points or ideas that get disregard…

I've fallen in the same trap. And you're right, you can't fight every battle. But I think the best approach is not to make it a battle in the first place. Sometimes bringing things up in the right way and with the right energy helps people be more receptive to your advice.

I don’t want to fight battles, at all. At least not in my working life but really not anywhere else either.

I’ve seen a lot and done a lot in my career, and I don’t feel I have anything to prove to anyone anymore. On the other hand I do find it enjoyable to discuss ideas in a collegial environment where people really are trying to figure out what’s best.

If we can agree on ideas as equals and proceed then great. If not, I’ll live. If someone gets mad because I had an idea to improve something I’m not going to get too twisted up about it. Life is too short for all this stuff, and it isn’t important in the scheme of things.

Re: The Best Programming Advice I Ever Got (2012)

#226

Post by scruple »

Tomte wrote: post #2

The author, Russ Olsen, has written a book, "Eloquent Ruby". It's probably the best programming book I've ever read. It teaches high-level concepts, hard technical stuff about how Ruby really works, and does so in a conversational voice. And in all of those points it succeeds spectacularly. He never sounds arrogant, he never feels colloquial to the point of being imprecise. Just… pleasant. I have cooled down on Ruby…

I've had a copy of Eloquent Ruby on my bookshelf for years, just sitting there collecting dust. I picked it up yesterday after reading this comment and, while I've only made it through the first four chapters, I have to echo the sentiment. Once I finish it, I'm going to give it to a junior on my team. I think they're at a point in their journey where the messages in this book will really help them.

Re: The Best Programming Advice I Ever Got (2012)

#227

Post by jpatokal »

0db532a0 wrote: post #223
vezycash wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Remembering this is important: Trust is earned. Test people in different ways to see if they can be trusted. Share inconsequential secrets and see who else hears it. Once had a boss who'd let cash drop while walking to see what you'd do. If you can't trust em, update your CV and get busy getting a new job you become desperate. Edit: https://www.inc.com/wanda-thibodeaux/want-to-know-if-someone... Googled that for ya.…

I’m not sure things are so black and white. Although I would agree that trust is earned, I don’t think trust is the most important thing. Rather than relying on trusting other people in the workplace, it would be better to develop a system where people both trust you and rely on you. If I go to my manager and admit to him that I have problems, he will immediately suspect two things. One, that I don’t get on with peop…

As a manager, it's far better for you to come to me with a problem than it is for me to hear about your problem from somebody else. (And if the manager is any good, they'll know about the problem already.)

Re: The Best Programming Advice I Ever Got (2012)

#228

Post by jhpriestley »

ThrowMeDown01 wrote: post #168
WilliamEdward wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're clearly leaving out some important detail, which makes me think this is 100% your fault and you were being stupid, even though you want to play the victim

One argument in favor of such an interpretation is that anytime somebody posts such an anecdote, and in various contexts that happens not infrequently, there is one giant thing all those story tellers forget: That everybody else only sees their side of the story, and that posting something that looks so one-sided "everybody was being stupid but me" is better not posted at all because of how unbelievable it looks, eve…

Your comment and many of the siblings just read to me as random victim blaming. "Oh, you were mistreated at work? I bet you are lying and incompetent and were actually entirely at fault."

the parent is relaying their personal experience, why would they have to add disclaimers about one-sidedness? A forum like this is literally just people telling "their side" on various topics.

I've been mistreated at work and find the parent comment very believable. If you haven't been, then you are either young or lucky. Good for you but please don't just discount other people's experiences.

Re: The Best Programming Advice I Ever Got (2012)

#229

Post by HeyLaughingBoy »

hueving wrote: post #165
StavrosK wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand this, or the linked article. Can someone explain to me what possible reason there can be for responding with disciplinary action when someone proposes an improvement?

An easy reason that often gets left out of these stories is that someone spent weeks on a rewrite without authorization rather than working on burning priorities.

I have to admit that, as an engineering manager, this is exactly what I was thinking!

Re: The Best Programming Advice I Ever Got (2012)

#230

Post by sinisterdeath »

sonnyblarney wrote: post #117
preommr wrote: post #39

On a related note, can someone elaborate on the performance of using sockets. I would assume given that it's on the same machine that there wouldn't be that big of a performance hit. Especially if the data being passed was done in big chunks to avoid the overhead of whatever protocol was being used. I know it's not the point of the article, i am just wondering about it for curiosity's sake.

Well, many systems do IPC and often this is done over sockets. Maybe a better question is, in 2018 why don't we have much better, cleaner, simple, IPC? If the system was slow due to this, it might have been the sheer quantity of data over the IPC/Socket. Looks like they were rendering on one side (i.e. 'making the picture') and then pushing that to a different process to rasterize, i.e. 'draw it on screen' which just…

I think a common approach for IPC these days is to use named pipes. Chromium uses it and I've used it in one of my projects. You still have to deal with serialization and deserialization overhead but its usually pretty quick.

https://www.chromium.org/developers/design-documents/inter-p...

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