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Confessions of a Software Developer: No More Self-Censorship

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Re: Confessions of a Software Developer: No More Self-Censorship

#281

Post by jayd16 »

_ea1k wrote: post #22

Every time that I read this about remote work, all I can think is how much I miss IRC and the culture that came from it. We were doing remote work effectively decades ago. Don't have hallway conversations to fix bugs? Easy, just post your problems on the team chat and someone (often one of several people) would love to drop by to help. I'm not sure exactly all of the forces that have led to this changing so much, but…

You're comparing a subset of passionate users that was supplementing in-person collaboration with the general population and no in-person. It's not going to be as good as the self selected users.

Re: Confessions of a Software Developer: No More Self-Censorship

#282

Post by mekoka »

ryanackley wrote: post #221
saghm wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't take issue with what you've said about remote work despite very much having the opposite opinion to you because you phrased it as your own personal opinion. This blog post does pretty much the opposite though; its analysis of remote work is pretty much entirely just generalizations of their own experience, but phrased as if they're objective truth. It was an especially weird editorial choice to make use of th…

It feels like you're blaming the author for the lazy thinking of someone who might read his opinion and take it as objective fact. The 7 times 9 analogy doesn't track it all. 7x9 = 63 is an objective fact by definition . His thoughts on remote work are an opinion by definition . If other people decide that what he says is dogmatic, blame it on their own lack of critical thinking skills. The meta-point of the article…

Giving a blank check to anything someone says because they disclaimed that they'll be uttering opinions? That sounds kinda naive. Have you never heard someone include facts to support their opinions? Would you disagree that it's fair game to attack opinions presented as facts? The "problematic" paragraph jumps out because the assertive generalizations moot the earlier agreement that the author is sharing their experience. The proclamations are not subjective they're factual. Perhaps re-read that passage yourself while donning your own critical thinking hat.

Re: Confessions of a Software Developer: No More Self-Censorship

#283

Post by TRiG_Ireland »

wiseowise wrote: post #266
tomyedwab wrote: post #143

Well written article full of humility and vulnerability? I love it. My reaction: you don't need to feel ashamed of not knowing something, there is far too much to know and I'm still learning new techniques and concepts 37 years in, so I would never judge you for it. I would also not judge you for having your own preferences and opinions. I too prefer working in an office to remote work, but when I say this out loud o…

> I would also not judge you for having your own preferences and opinions. I too prefer working in an office to remote work, but when I say this out loud other developers take it as advocating RTO or saying remote work is worse when it just doesn't suit my personality. I get that it's a touchy subject but there is no need to get up in my face about it. You ever wonder why? Serfes finally got freedom after corona, but…

That is a very strange (and very emotional) take. I find it easier to focus with some other people around me, so long as they're being quiet. An office (or a library) is easier to work in than my house. I also really like the idea of separation between my home and my workplace. If I was rich and had room in my house for a separate office I could close the door on when the workday was over, perhaps I'd feel differently.

So I'd prefer to work in an office, so long as it was nearby and the commute was short and my officemates were fairly quiet. This does not mean that I'm "advocating for serfdom". Working for an employer is no more (and no less) serfdom in an office than it is at home.

Re: Confessions of a Software Developer: No More Self-Censorship

#284

Post by throwaway150 »

> This incident was one of the most toxic things I’ve ever experienced, and it lasted for days.

Yet when I look at the conversation itself, I cannot find anything that seems directly hostile towards them:

https://archive.md/q8htc

https://lobste.rs/c/mejg0v

I do not see personal attacks from either side. I see a normal debate with some snark now and then, which is hardly unusual in online discussions. I may be missing something that happened out of view, but from what is available, the tone does not appear toxic.

It looks like a normal debate, very prolonged, but a normal debate until the author gets banned: https://lobste.rs/~7u026ne9se I don't understand why they get banned though. I see no bad interaction from either side.

A moderator rebukes the OP for starting a fight: https://lobste.rs/s/gkpmli#c_mejg0v I don't understand this either. Both sides were equally forceful in the debate. But the debate was always civil. Yet only one side receives a rebuke. The whole incident seems strange to me.

More weirdness:

https://github.com/standardebooks/tools/pull/828

https://github.com/standardebooks/tools/pull/829

Re: Confessions of a Software Developer: No More Self-Censorship

#285

Post by sedatk »

tpmoney wrote: post #279
sedatk wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Obviously, because it was a fictional, simplified example for the post. My real use case was more complicated and involved multiple developers working on different parts of that flow. The problem with if-else chains is it's easy for a programmer to forget to handle a case that another developer added in the called component. Unit tests can't help a spec miscommunication. But, visitor pattern can as it forces the hand…

As a "half way" point, modern (21+) java brings pattern matching switch statements to the language, but you'd probably construct the F# version in Java using a sealed "marker" interface. Something like sealed interface Result permits ValidationError, SearchQuery, UserProfile {} Along with the specific implementations of those ValidationError, SearchQuery and UserProfile classes and then a switch statement like: Resul…

Sealed interface doesn’t look bad for some use cases. I wish C# had it too.

Re: Confessions of a Software Developer: No More Self-Censorship

#286

Post by [deleted] »

TRiG_Ireland wrote: post #283
wiseowise wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I would also not judge you for having your own preferences and opinions. I too prefer working in an office to remote work, but when I say this out loud other developers take it as advocating RTO or saying remote work is worse when it just doesn't suit my personality. I get that it's a touchy subject but there is no need to get up in my face about it. You ever wonder why? Serfes finally got freedom after corona, but…

That is a very strange (and very emotional) take. I find it easier to focus with some other people around me, so long as they're being quiet. An office (or a library) is easier to work in than my house. I also really like the idea of separation between my home and my workplace. If I was rich and had room in my house for a separate office I could close the door on when the workday was over, perhaps I'd feel differentl…

[deleted]

Re: Confessions of a Software Developer: No More Self-Censorship

#287

Post by [deleted] »

javawizard wrote: post #90
anonymous908213 wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't find the conversation to be especially disrespectful. The people in the thread in question attempted to shame him, to some extent. Shame is a social measure to coerce people who are behaving contrary to society's expectations to change their behaviour. However, while shaming him, they did not especially resort to childish name-calling or ad hominem. They reasoned with him extensively as to why his behaviour w…

I don't know, I'd kind of like to see their responses before passing that much judgement on them. > you're advocating for a toxicly positive carebear forum Please stop putting words in my mouth.

[deleted]

Re: Confessions of a Software Developer: No More Self-Censorship

#288

Post by mekoka »

rib3ye wrote: post #249
cgriswald wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

His opinion on remote work is an opinion. The reasons he gives for having that opinion are not presented as opinion, but as fact.

Is your reasoning for your opinion that he didn’t preface his opinion as “in my opinion”? His words read the same as any editorial I’ve seen.

> Remote work eliminates a lot of problems with office work: commutes, inefficient use of real estate, and land value distortion. But software development is better when you breathe the same air as the folks you work with.

It's pretty hard to know where the opinion is.

The whole paragraph presents as though author is relating known symptoms of a disease. We're never really sure which they themself actually experienced. They look more like arguments in support of a cause.

Author is totally entitled to open that door, but then it also becomes fair game to attack the perspective.

Re: Confessions of a Software Developer: No More Self-Censorship

#289

Post by flir »

sailfast wrote: post #150
flir wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agile. Case in point.

Did you read the article? :)

Uh.... Caught me red handed.

Ok, gonna go read it.

(Hmm. The author says "Follow Scrum, Lean / Kanban, or eXtreme Programming to the letter, and let your team focus on the product."

I disagree - quite vehmently. I guess that's obvious, given that I'm calling out the various capital-A agile methodoliges, and the parasitical industry around them, as harmful/bloated/mostly pointless. But how did you figure out I hadn't read the blog post from that? Now I have, I just think he's wrong).

Re: Confessions of a Software Developer: No More Self-Censorship

#290

Post by hnlmorg »

Aeolun wrote: post #225
hnlmorg wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How far back are we talking? 90s? 80s? 70s? For the 70s, I would agree with you. But the moment home users, and particularly kids, gained access to the internet, you started to see a subculture of trolling. Source: I was one of those 80s kids. It’s not something I’m proud of, but writing bots to troll message boards and scrapers for porn and warez played just as significant role in my journey into my IT profession as…

Well, yes. We definitely fucked with the systems, and to a lesser extent the people. But 80s internet didn’t have shit like swatting. Or what Mr. Beast makes people go through for entertainment. And everyone was in on it. We were all trolling, and being trolled, and perfectly well aware of what trolling was. But now people deliberately target and exploit the vulnerable on the internet. I feel like the only thing you…

Mr Beast isn’t the internet. He’s a TV show host. And there’s been exploitative TV shows for decades. This isn’t a format Mr Beast invented.

As for security, that was always an issue. Malware, denial of services attacks, etc aren’t a recent phenomena. And hacking was so prevalent that even Hollywood caught wind, hence the slew of hacker movies in the 80s and 90s (Wargames, TRON, Hackers, Anti Trust, Swordfish, Lawnmower Man, and so on and so forth).

The problem isn’t that internet etiquette has gotten worse. The problem is that there is so much more online these days that the attack surface has grown by several orders magnitude. Like how there’s more road accidents now than there was in the 70s despite driving tests progressively getting tougher (in most countries). People aren’t worse drivers, there’s just more roads and busier with more vehicles.

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