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The difference between a programmer & a hacker

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Re: The difference between a programmer & a hacker

#41

Post by JoeAltmaier »

pwim wrote: post #40
VolatileVoid wrote: post #29

This bothers me. I consider myself very passionate about programming - I think most people who know me would consider me to be a hacker. That said, I work for a company that does not allow its code to be open-sourced. The job is demanding and after I put in 60+ hours a week, I simply feel worn out. On top of that, I have an 8 month old son which means that my sleep is fragmented at the best of times. If you're unwill…

Most start up companies have open source at the core of their philosophy, so it naturally follows that people working at such companies will have a rich open source portfolio. For instance, today I contributed a fix to a plugin we're using. Making open source contributions is just part of my normal workflow. If you are working at a company that doesn't value open source now, and you don't contribute to open source, i…

Sounds like cult-speak. "If you're not one of us, you're against us. Join us! Or be damned to eternity!" Lighten up.

Lots of startups disdain open source, for good reason. Been working at startups for 20 years, and none of them used open source for more than incidental reasons.

Re: The difference between a programmer & a hacker

#42

Post by jbrough »

"...typical career programmer that doesn't touch a line of code between Friday night and Monday morning."

do late-night and weekend commits to a Github Firewall account count?

A pretty polarised view, here: we are all either 'career' 501 programmers, or disenchanted hackers?

What of the guys who choose companies they're passionate about and which inspire them to find spare coding time after hours and during weekends? You know, the kind of role you don't need an opining recruiter to source on your behalf.

Re: The difference between a programmer & a hacker

#43

Post by mdkess »

yummyfajitas wrote: post #28
marcusf wrote: post #16

"You can't fake passion" Honestly though, this gives a decent three step template for how to get yourself on the top of the pile in about ~1-5h worth of work: 1. Register a GitHub account, fork some projects that look cool 2. Register a domain, set up a yourname.github.com page for hosting, and add your contact info and link to github, whatever. Set up a mail redirector. 3. Upload your own project. If you don't have…

People already do everything you said. It's pretty easy to spot. Just look for a bunch of forked projects with no commits by the person in question, a high ratio of forked to original projects, etc. The biggest giveaway is that there are no projects which are just for fun. Incidentally, I've observed that the "just for fun" projects is a good trick for identifying a serious economist as well. A real economist Tyler C…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Theory_of_Interstellar_Trad...

Re: The difference between a programmer & a hacker

#44

Post by yummyfajitas »

mdkess wrote: post #43
yummyfajitas wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People already do everything you said. It's pretty easy to spot. Just look for a bunch of forked projects with no commits by the person in question, a high ratio of forked to original projects, etc. The biggest giveaway is that there are no projects which are just for fun. Incidentally, I've observed that the "just for fun" projects is a good trick for identifying a serious economist as well. A real economist Tyler C…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Theory_of_Interstellar_Trad...

I should have clarified that I meant modern Krugman. Back in the day he was awesome. Thanks.

[edit: just noticed someone downmodded you. WTF, how does your valuable correction to my comment deserve a downvote?!?]

Re: The difference between a programmer & a hacker

#45

Post by aprogrammer901 »

I am a junior level developer and in both jobs that I have had since graduating, to the senior developers the term programmer refers to a professional software developer who takes pride in their work and does things correctly, while the term hacker can either mean someone who is attacking a system, or someone who comes up with kludge solutions to temporarily 'cover up' poor design decisions i.e. a 'hack'.

Re: The difference between a programmer & a hacker

#46

Post by tablet »

There is one outstanding hacker in our company. He is one of the smartest people I've met. He knows so much and incredibly deep. However, he has no blog. He has no github account. He does not share own code anywhere. He does not use social networks. Your advices quite correct, but quite dangerous at the same time. I learned that CV are often misleading, so better to contact a person and ask some questions...

Re: The difference between a programmer & a hacker

#47

Post by ticktock »

aprogrammer901 wrote: post #45

I am a junior level developer and in both jobs that I have had since graduating, to the senior developers the term programmer refers to a professional software developer who takes pride in their work and does things correctly, while the term hacker can either mean someone who is attacking a system, or someone who comes up with kludge solutions to temporarily 'cover up' poor design decisions i.e. a 'hack'.

exactly - steve buckley's blog post uses the word "hacker" for shock value which reduces to spam for anyone who knows the difference between a hacker and a programmer.

Re: The difference between a programmer & a hacker

#48

Post by kstenerud »

VolatileVoid wrote: post #29

This bothers me. I consider myself very passionate about programming - I think most people who know me would consider me to be a hacker. That said, I work for a company that does not allow its code to be open-sourced. The job is demanding and after I put in 60+ hours a week, I simply feel worn out. On top of that, I have an 8 month old son which means that my sleep is fragmented at the best of times. If you're unwill…

Here's the problem from the company's perspective:

You get thousands of resumes, and you can't possibly call every one of them. So you try to find ways to build a funnel, hoping that your heuristics are weeding out the majority of those who are unsuitable for the position and keeping the majority of those who are suitable.

It's not that the company is being a dick, or that they don't value the candidate's time; it's simply that they can't possibly find each and every needle in the haystack, or find any at all unless they start filtering on SOMETHING.

So unless you have something compelling on your resume and cover letter that makes you stand out (not saying it has to be source code; just saying it has to be compelling), you're a lot more likely to be filtered out of the first funnel and never make it to the phone screen to have a dialog.

Re: The difference between a programmer & a hacker

#49

Post by computerslol »

The "every good hacker has a github account" sentiment is a bit scary to me.

As far as I know, after signing my hiring contract, all of my work is owned by the company. Even work done at home; owned by the company. I do not believe this is unusual, every company I have worked for has had me sign a similar contract. If I make the perfect sandwich, the recipe is company property. I am not allowed to distribute company owned assets without the company's permission; and I am not going to ask the company for permission to share code they haven't seen on github.

Even if I wasn't contractually restricted, I would not contribute to a github account. My spare time is spent working on research projects for my corporation's benefit. Many of these become real products. A few I've had patented. These make us real money; github does not.

I hope I am not, in the future, disregarded for a job because I am missing a link to a github account in my resume.

Re: The difference between a programmer & a hacker

#50

Post by kstenerud »

r0s wrote: post #39

I'm a junior level web developer in my first year at a salary job for such. I'm self taught and motivated, with a good CV and lots of completed projects under my belt. Now it's become obvious my work has a serious visibility problem. Still pulling less-than-average wages, I asked my employer for a performance review which resulted in above average praise. Naturally I'm curious about the difference between my work and…

It's never a good thing to feel unappreciated or underpaid. If your employer refuses to give you what you consider a fair wage, start looking elsewhere. Many employers tend to operate on inertia: Unless you're about to leave, it's easier to just ignore your problems. It's up to you to spur them into action, which it sounds like you've been doing to varying degrees, but if they still refuse to move, you have to kick it up a notch. Find a better offer from another company. If your current company truly values you, they will try to keep you on board. If not, you have a better offer anyway and will likely be valued more at the new place.
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