I think Uncle Bobs advice is mostly bad and am afraid to admit it because it’s like a (cargo) cult now.
Confessions of a Software Developer: No More Self-Censorship
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Re: Confessions of a Software Developer: No More Self-Censorship
#42Every 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…
> Somehow we were better at using remote tools while literally in the same office than some teams are at using them now while fully remote.
This is sort of the point. Remote tools work great when you have spent a lot of time building relationships and rapport with the people involved. That's hard to do in professional settings, and extremely hard to do in remote professional settings.
Letting teams that know each other well work remotely works great. Building teams remotely is very hard.
I'm a diehard for remote work, but we have to be realistic abouts limitations.
Re: Confessions of a Software Developer: No More Self-Censorship
#43My knowledge-gap confession: even after many years with the languages, I can't write a main() in Python or Java without looking up the format.
I set up some .NET services years ago. Since then it was just adding new stuff. If I was asked how to set up another service, I would have no idea how to do it
Re: Confessions of a Software Developer: No More Self-Censorship
#44Like the post overall, but the last section is a bit weird for "confessions" as it's all HIGHLY subjective. For example, I worked at a company where no one worked from home and we paired 100% of the time. When COVID hit, we started pairing over Tuple and I found it to be a superior experience to pairing in person (Tuple's drawing and attention drawing tools are far more accurate than my finger, I can use my own keybo…
I suppose I included the last section as a "confession" because I spent years pre-pandemic wishing I could go remote, talking loudly about how open office spaces were bad, etc. That, plus it's embarrassing to admit that I dislike remote work even though I am a remote worker. And not just a remote worker, but an enfranchised remote worker living 3 hours away from the nearest city with an international airport. I made…
Awfully nice, isn't it? You get all the privileges of being a remote worker, while "confessing" that remote work sucks to upper management who read your blog, giving them justification to deny other people the same opportunity you have. If you genuinely believe remote work sucks, you should own up to it, sell your property, and move to a city rather than reaping the benefits of it to the extent of your entire life being dependent on it while talking about how bad it is. The fact that you haven't done that indicates to me that you actually quite enjoy the benefits more than you suffer the drawbacks, but aren't acknowledging it, instead choosing to denigrate remote work for having any drawbacks at all.
Re: Confessions of a Software Developer: No More Self-Censorship
#45My knowledge-gap confession: even after many years with the languages, I can't write a main() in Python or Java without looking up the format.
Continuing the confessions: I do php.net/ at least twice a day
Is that a bad thing? I also call man several times per day, most times I think I already know the calling semantics, but there is always some nitpick about the calling semantics or a bug description, that I didn't had in mind.
Re: Confessions of a Software Developer: No More Self-Censorship
#46> Remote work sucks Work sucks in general. Remote work is of course not perfect, but its problems need to be compared against non-remote work problems..
Remote work isn’t for everyone. Their point of view is just as valid as your point of view. And this is my biggest complaint about arguments about remote working. People turn it into something that’s evidence-based when actually it’s a deeply subjective topic and thus different personality types thrive in different working environments.
People have painted themselves in a corner re: remote work and get wacky in discussions about it. Lots of emo, not much fact.
Re: Confessions of a Software Developer: No More Self-Censorship
#47My knowledge-gap confession: even after many years with the languages, I can't write a main() in Python or Java without looking up the format.
I’ve spent so much time in both the .NET and JS worlds that I can't even begin to count how many times I’ve typed `Where` when I meant `filter` or vice versa.
Re: Confessions of a Software Developer: No More Self-Censorship
#48Here’s a great idea for a good opportunist: A “Confessions of a Software Developer” website where devs can come in and make anonymous confessions.
Probably already a subreddit for it like r/programminghorror.
Re: Confessions of a Software Developer: No More Self-Censorship
#49My knowledge-gap confession: even after many years with the languages, I can't write a main() in Python or Java without looking up the format.
What, `def main():`? Or do you mean the __name__ == "__main__" thing for distinguishing whether the code was imported?
I can successfully type "def main()" and not "function main()", unless I'm switching between JavaScript and Python and forget which language I'm in :-). It's the if statement with all the underscores that I need to check every time.
Re: Confessions of a Software Developer: No More Self-Censorship
#50> left inner join While I do appreciate this joke (and I do hope this is a joke), I've recently had a project majorly held up because a lead dev didn't understand SQL. It's great to admit gaps but it's equally important to close those gaps. > As a hiring manager I interviewed software engineers and tried to filter for object-oriented knowledge. Retroactively, it’s clear I was hypocritical. As some one who has been on…
Not exactly your main point, but where’d you go to learn calculus? I did the usual classes in high school but none since, and I’d love to develop a better appreciation for it.
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