Live data from Hacker News

How to DOS a developer

who-t.blogspot.com

31–36 of 36 posts

Re: How to DOS a developer

#31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a myth IMHO, there is no evidence that this is true. I have observed a few devs who are not so good at understanding a different point of view while they are also fairly attention getting. I think this is where the idea comes from. Also, it's pretty hard for a non-dev to understand a dev's POV, which adds to the communications problems.

All is true. But please, nobody comes from doctors saying they're bad communicators. They say that they are educated. Some people accept that they don't understand and just heed the advice or ignore it altogether or something in between, while others try to learn enough about medicine to understand what the topic is. But everybody is an expert on software - since their mother told them so. I'm sick of being patronize…

But please, nobody comes from doctors saying they're bad communicators.

Actually, my girlfriend complains about this all the time. (She's African American.)

There have also been a number of recent studies that support this. In many cases, doctors have already decided the diagnosis after only 18 seconds. (So they completely tune out the rest, which is not always optimal.)

But everybody is an expert on software - since their mother told them so.

Everyone's also an expert on their own bodies. Ballplayers have been saying for years, "everyone in the stands is an expert." Programming isn't unique in this regard.

I'm an excellent communicator, I can figure out how to talk to anyone about anything

Possible red flag here. It's the other direction that's the hard part. Also the vital part.

Re: How to DOS a developer

#32
If anyone wants to contribute to a FOSS project but aren't confident about their coding chops: fleshing out bug reports and clearly defining their scope will make a HUGE difference.

Re: How to DOS a developer

#33
post #8

This is an example of my least-favourite type of HN story: "Devs are clever; users are stupid". While it is not untrue it misses the underlying problem: Devs are generally bad communicators and have an unrealistic assumption about the language and technical understanding of their users which they translate into "users are stupid". To get a feel for how this feels consider the last time you took a car to be fixed and…

Mechanics are clever and drivers are stupid. How many people take their car in and try to tell the mechanics what the fix is rather than describe the problem?

It's not about being clever or stupid at all. It's about being inconsiderate or unthoughtful. People of all stripes are guilty of that. Having been on the wrong end of it enough times I try very hard to give just a little thought to the role of the person to whom I'm speaking. When I go to my mechanic, I am the user and I want to make it easy for them to help me.

Re: How to DOS a developer

#34
post #8

This is an example of my least-favourite type of HN story: "Devs are clever; users are stupid". While it is not untrue it misses the underlying problem: Devs are generally bad communicators and have an unrealistic assumption about the language and technical understanding of their users which they translate into "users are stupid". To get a feel for how this feels consider the last time you took a car to be fixed and…

Your analogy falls apart because there isn't such a thing as an open source mechanic. I develop open source software and I get tired of things like feature requests that amount to "please rewrite this project to do the exact needs of my project/site."

If it's a reasonable request, I'll try to look at it, otherwise, tough luck unless you want to become a client. If one of my clients came to me and said "I did something and some other thing broke" I wouldn't snap at them, but when it's someone who's getting free support, then it's on them to take part of the responsibility to provide as much information as possible.

Re: How to DOS a developer

#35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All is true. But please, nobody comes from doctors saying they're bad communicators. They say that they are educated. Some people accept that they don't understand and just heed the advice or ignore it altogether or something in between, while others try to learn enough about medicine to understand what the topic is. But everybody is an expert on software - since their mother told them so. I'm sick of being patronize…

But please, nobody comes from doctors saying they're bad communicators. Actually, my girlfriend complains about this all the time. (She's African American.) There have also been a number of recent studies that support this. In many cases, doctors have already decided the diagnosis after only 18 seconds. (So they completely tune out the rest, which is not always optimal.) But everybody is an expert on software - since…

The other direction?

You mean that people don't know how to talk to me? I don't have tentacles growing out of my head you know... Could you elaborate a bit?

Re: How to DOS a developer

#36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But please, nobody comes from doctors saying they're bad communicators. Actually, my girlfriend complains about this all the time. (She's African American.) There have also been a number of recent studies that support this. In many cases, doctors have already decided the diagnosis after only 18 seconds. (So they completely tune out the rest, which is not always optimal.) But everybody is an expert on software - since…

The other direction? You mean that people don't know how to talk to me? I don't have tentacles growing out of my head you know... Could you elaborate a bit?

The other direction?

You mean that people don't know how to talk to me?

Excellent illustration of the issue. In answer to the 2nd question: It's possibly an intractable problem!

Post reply on HN