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Senior engineers are living in the future

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Re: Senior engineers are living in the future

#32
post #20

One of my classmates in college couldn't handle this. I'd glance at some awful Visual Studio compiler error and then point out a missing semicolon. He ended up feeling stupid, but I was trying to be encouraging because his code was pretty good aside from some missing punctuation, which will come with practice. He ended up switching majors.

I find that egos can be really fragile when people are just starting to learn things. Pointing out the mistakes so quickly can seem like a great help (and it is!) but some people react like they're staring at the sun. Instead, I find it better (except for how long it takes) to walk them through finding the problem as if it's really hard and just nudging them to the steps they'd need to take to find it themselves. The…

I think one of the quickest ways to make life easier and less stressful is to try to ignore the ego as much as possible.

Re: Senior engineers are living in the future

#34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you give an example of a failure at step 2?

A 10 years Java/PHP developer doesn't know how to use Golang on the job in 3 days.

A better example might be not learning from past mistakes, or asking the same question multiple times, even if framed in a different context.

Re: Senior engineers are living in the future

#36
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A 10 years Java/PHP developer doesn't know how to use Golang on the job in 3 days.

Why is 3 days, likely with competing priorities, a reasonable timeframe to learn a new language well enough to contribute production code in your estimation?

Just a JIRA task for next sprint with 2 points assigned !

Re: Senior engineers are living in the future

#37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A 10 years Java/PHP developer doesn't know how to use Golang on the job in 3 days.

I would never fault someone for not being able to pick up a language and use it competently in 3 days. I understand why you use this as an example, with having samey syntax, but there is still nuance. I think the bigger indicator is you've been in the industry for 10 years and call yourself a PHP/Java dev. At this point you should have dabbled in probably 10-100 ways of solving problems depending on what your 9-5 loo…

Who said you need competence, looks like that was your own insertion, haha. But seriously is it not unreasonable to be able to write some non-deep dive code in a new but similar language in just a few days? 3 days is a long time to read and ask questions.

Re: Senior engineers are living in the future

#38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, golang is a tough language. I am stuggling with helm/kubernetes and the new company's ecosystem where everybody is new in the team. We are expected to deliver according to a plan while we keep hunting for relevant info. I would say the second point is a lot more nuanced than stated.

> Well, golang is a tough language. This _could_ be true for some, but it directly conflicts with the stated goals of the language. Most people (that I've spoken to) would consider Go to be a simpler language, with fewer features, than other comparable languages.

The issue with Go is the implicit footguns you will inevitably hit. Starting out with Go sure feels like a super power because of the simplicity and productivity, until the code base has grown and you now meticulously inspect every single line to understand the entire context a change is bringing, because you do not trust it in isolation to be correct.

https://eng.uber.com/data-race-patterns-in-go/

Re: Senior engineers are living in the future

#39
post #20

One of my classmates in college couldn't handle this. I'd glance at some awful Visual Studio compiler error and then point out a missing semicolon. He ended up feeling stupid, but I was trying to be encouraging because his code was pretty good aside from some missing punctuation, which will come with practice. He ended up switching majors.

I find that egos can be really fragile when people are just starting to learn things. Pointing out the mistakes so quickly can seem like a great help (and it is!) but some people react like they're staring at the sun. Instead, I find it better (except for how long it takes) to walk them through finding the problem as if it's really hard and just nudging them to the steps they'd need to take to find it themselves. The…

Show a person the bug, you’re on the hook forever. Teach them how to debug, you’re needed less and less.
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