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Most tech content is bullshit

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Re: Most tech content is bullshit

#401

Post by Bekwnn »

hardwaregeek wrote: post #331

There's a particular brand of young developer where every opinion comes from a blog post, talk or HN comment. They have strong views on many different topics and believe that they're knowledgeable and smarter than the average developer^[1]. The only issue? They don't have actual experience to back this up. Because not only is most tech content bullshit, the small percentage that isn't BS may not apply to their situat…

I think I possibly fall into this category of developer. I'm currently a few years into game development in the AAA space. The people I listen to most in descending order are Casey Muratori, Andrew Kelley, and Jonathan Blow.

I try to take their opinions with a grain of salt and find my own balance of considerations/tradeoffs. A common sentiment between them that I agree with is that software is a lot of commercial software is often an order of magnitude too slow in important places and that object oriented programming is almost always taken far too far.

I also look up to a few senior programmers I work with who have in-the-same-ballpark values as them.

On a whole, I think reading and listening to them has made me a better developer than if I just fumbled around to draw my own opinions completely from scratch.

I think being that type of young dev is probably fine so long as you keep your dogmatism and humility in check, and ensure your mentors are a spread of different individuals.

I think that's better than other young devs not seeking out information to try and grow.

Re: Most tech content is bullshit

#402

Post by rotifer »

azemetre wrote: post #290
jjice wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems kind of like the video game crash of 1983[0]. A flood of low quality content that begins to drown out the high quality content. One of the best things about the internet is that anyone can create and publish what they want. One of the worst parts about the internet is that anyone can create and publish what they want. I'm a big fan of books because that is where a lot of experts seem to prefer to publish their…

What are some high quality books you’d recommend that are somewhat recent (last ten years)? The only ones I can say, that I’ve also read, are YDKJS and Secrets JavaScript Ninja (work in web, but willing to read anything, good information is good information regardless of the tech).

Here are some books that have stood out for me. They cover some of the technologies that I either have to work with, or am personally interested in.

Effective Java by Joshua Bloch

Practical, actionable guidelines. The first edition was the best, the second was diluted somewhat by having to cover generics, in the third he admits that he doesn't really use Java much anymore... Despite that, it's well-written and still a good book.

The Linux Programming Interface by Michael Kerrisk

Covers some of the history of the Linux/Unix API, describes it in detail, has plenty of examples, compares different APIs that do similar things so you can make an informed choice (e.g. System V vs. POSIX message queues).

If any book in this list stands out for me, it's probably this one. It might be partly due to the surprise factor of how enjoyable and well-written a 1000+ page, near-reference book is.

Programming in Haskell by Graham Hutton

An intro to the language and how to approach problem solving from a functional P.O.V. Not as comprehensive as some other intros to Haskell, but Hutton is a good writer and educator, making it a good read.

Designing Data-Intensive Applications by Martin Kleppmann

Provides an overview of a number of topics related to databases, distributed systems, consensus, etc. Lots of references (many of them online) if you like that in a book. Enjoyable to read.

Parallel and Concurrent Programming in Haskell by Simon Marlow

Probably a must-read if you're into Haskell; probably too esoteric if you're not... Well written.

Type-Driven Development with Idris by Edwin Brady

Describes a programming language similar to Haskell, but strict by default and with dependent types designed-in from the start. Also describes techniques for leveraging the type system to construct functions (the type-driven part of the title). Well written.

Hacker's Delight by Henry S. Warren

Low-level bit twiddling. 'Nuff said.

Re: Most tech content is bullshit

#403

Post by yawaramin »

whack wrote: post #279

Call me a cynic, but the whole "think critically and figure it out for yourself" solution is inefficient at best, harmful at worst. Global warming skepticism is exactly the kind of thing that often occurs when people trust their own judgement more than that of subject matter experts. There are very effective ways to get high quality recommendations, with minimal effort on your part. Want to get good medical advice? F…

All of that sounds good in theory until we reach this point:

> Looking for good software engineering advice? Do the same thing with developers.

Which brings us back to the OP:

> Most tech content is bullshit

So we've now come full circle. Hence I would point you to another post that came out recently that would be useful to understand what you wrote: https://nibblestew.blogspot.com/2020/04/your-statement-is-10...

Re: Most tech content is bullshit

#404

Post by inopinatus »

com2kid wrote: post #389
inopinatus wrote: post #385

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Spotify’s returns to creators are pitifully small, and since they’re basically a distributor not a publisher, they don’t offer advances on royalties. So maybe the economics would disincentivize authorship.

I was thinking of everything being under one publishing house, basically a company that just writes high quality documentation and nothing else. The "like spotify" was more in reference to pay once, get everything imaginable.

Sure, but the functional aspect immediately unpacks into commercial consequences.

This also explains the difference between publishers and distributors, and the dissimilar risks they accept.

I'd suggest something more like Netflix as a model; they are primarily a distributor and only very rarely a publisher; their library has a selection of standard classics, recently(ish) popular content for which the original publisher has more incentive to license than sell direct, plus rotating items of interest to keep the catalog feeling fresh for ongoing customers.

(note that even so-called "Netflix Original" content is mostly produced by other companies).

It's been thought of, of course. The search history of "Netflix for e-books" is in practice a mixture of junkyards like Scribd and "what-if" questions on Quora. There's likely a causality dilemma with achieving the catalog scale necessary for success, mediated by the conservative strategies and revenue fears of existing publishers, all of whose investors/owners are entrenched incumbents that see their businesses as perpetuities (steady, low-margin cash printers) rather than growth ventures.

Basically, they won't do it, until they see it can be done.

Re: Most tech content is bullshit

#405

Post by hardwaregeek »

Bekwnn wrote: post #401
hardwaregeek wrote: post #331

There's a particular brand of young developer where every opinion comes from a blog post, talk or HN comment. They have strong views on many different topics and believe that they're knowledgeable and smarter than the average developer^[1]. The only issue? They don't have actual experience to back this up. Because not only is most tech content bullshit, the small percentage that isn't BS may not apply to their situat…

I think I possibly fall into this category of developer. I'm currently a few years into game development in the AAA space. The people I listen to most in descending order are Casey Muratori, Andrew Kelley, and Jonathan Blow. I try to take their opinions with a grain of salt and find my own balance of considerations/tradeoffs. A common sentiment between them that I agree with is that software is a lot of commercial so…

Yeah you're quite similar to people I know, especially in your view of performance and choice of sources. I definitely agree that bottom line, seeking out info is a net benefit.

I have a fair amount of respect for game developers. However at the same time I feel they can make the assumption that all development should follow their practices. That everybody should be writing in C++/Zig/Jai/Rust, using data oriented programming and avoiding objects like the plague. That if other developers were just smart enough they'd make everything ridiculously fast and awesome. Not every game developer thinks this way, obviously, but there is a subset.

The problem with this line of thinking is that it assumes all developers have the same priorities. In actuality game development is an extremely rare area where there are close-to real time requirements. Not painting the screen every 1/24th of a second is a disaster in game dev. Meanwhile GitHub uses Rails in all of its object oriented, garbage collected, interpreted horror. And nobody cares!

I suspect if a troop of elite game developers were dropped into your average web development job, they'd spend an unreasonable amount of time optimizing perf, only to have their lunch eaten by someone who focused on user facing issues. Not that web development is hard or anything. It's just a different set of requirements.

Watching jblow et al is definitely great! But there might be a point where you're put on a team using OOP and asking them to refactor to DOP with bulk allocation because you gotta get that cache utilization will just earn you stares and no buy-in. Or you might be running a startup and realize that all the time you spent getting all requests under 100ms could have been spent writing features.

Re: Most tech content is bullshit

#406

Post by someguydave »

whack wrote: post #279

Call me a cynic, but the whole "think critically and figure it out for yourself" solution is inefficient at best, harmful at worst. Global warming skepticism is exactly the kind of thing that often occurs when people trust their own judgement more than that of subject matter experts. There are very effective ways to get high quality recommendations, with minimal effort on your part. Want to get good medical advice? F…

Humans have only been writing software for less than a century, mostly the last 50 years. That's nothing like other professions like blacksmithing or writing. It will take centuries until people learn how to write software well.

Re: Most tech content is bullshit

#407

Post by logicprog »

gbjw wrote: post #382
logicprog wrote: post #379

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like that method of discovery is how I learn best, because I learn WHY something is the way it is, and how it's actually used outside of toy examples. Plus, it's just how most people are built to learn. And yes, books not being searchable is basically THE reason I never use programming books.

Hmm, perhaps, but I find that book indices can be better than a raw search of some term (easier to find more substantial entries).

I've never found that to be true, but I'm just kind of bad at using books as references maybe. I always get extremely frustrated flipping through.

Re: Most tech content is bullshit

#408

Post by chillfox »

ghufran_syed wrote: post #361
donmcronald wrote: post #335

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think part of the problem is that publishers did a bad job of pricing their digital products and missed an opportunity to increase sales volume. In my opinion they got greedy thinking they could increase volume and prices at the same time, so digital products were priced way too high. I had a Safari Books subscription for a little while, but I got rid of it. I can't remember the exact pricing, but IIRC it was aroun…

I think it’s around 20/month now for O’Reilly learning (the new name for safari books). I’ve had it for around 5 years now, and I don’t ever recall having a limit on number of items. I feel like they have actually got better, with some really good video courses included as well. I’m just completing the second of two courses which are available elsewhere for $99 each, so I’ve almost paid for the year. I really like th…

Just looked it up and the website is showing me $49/month or $499/year.

https://www.oreilly.com/online-learning/pricing.html

Re: Most tech content is bullshit

#409

Post by a-nikolaev »

RNCTX wrote: post #383
a-nikolaev wrote: post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Okay old man, show me your age and knowledge: do you know about Oleg Kiselyov and his amazing articles? See here: http://okmij.org/ftp/

It's not my age and knowledge, it has been this way since before I was born in the case of the derivatives of C. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programming_languages_used_in_... The most ubiquitous languages used in the most highly trafficked websites in the world are Javascript (1995), PHP (1995), Python (1990), C++ (1979), and Java (1994). No, I do not keep up with individuals' blogs and articles. I am very familiar…

Your argument is weak. Popularity of a language does not correlate well with the average knowledge of the users of the language.

OCaml and Scheme are both very old languages. The original dialect of OCaml (Robin Milner's ML) was created in 1973. Scheme was also created around the same time in the 1970s, and Lisp even earlier, so the technology I refer to is hardly a novelty from aether. Rather, the opposite is true, they are all older than Python, JS, and the derivatives of C.

People using these less popular languages are not blogging/posting a lot, spending more time writing code. Nevertheless, most online discussion is high-quality with high signal-to-noise ratio, much easier to learn new things, find good code and smart people.

Re: Most tech content is bullshit

#410

Post by bryanrasmussen »

Nextgrid wrote: post #219
karolisram wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m ashamed to say that was me at some point. On top of that, those articles did nothing to further my career. All that mattered so far is my past experience, projects and how well I can (leet)code. Now if I start blogging again, it will have to be purely out of intellectual curiosity.

I confirm this doesn't do anything for your career, or at least not as much as just focusing that time on actual, paid work . I find that in my career my resume and experience that's on it as opposed to any side-projects or attempts at writing.

Yes, however on helping the career I think the writing is like a nice little detail on the resume, a way to make it standout a bit more, I also found that in a recent interview for a project an article I had just written on SVG was naturally relevant. As a general rule talking about little articles you've written isn't going to naturally happen in the interview because the interview process is focused on past work and horrible trick questions.

It has also been somewhat useful in projects where a concern with documentation has been expressed because the writing is a better example of my ability to document things than having worked on a lot of projects where you may be able to go see what we shipped but not be able to see anything of the documentation.

I think of the writing as the equivalent of a side project:

* it allows me to focus on something I want to learn

* it helps to make what I learn stick in my head

* it gives me a deadline and people who will send me emails to say how's it going with that

* it works as documentation for what I've learned

* it gives me a trivial amount of money for having taken the time to learn something. Basically the last article I wrote is paying for an annual Dropbox account, and a couple days worth of food for my family. It was way too much work for that to be worthwhile, but I did learn some things that will help with later stuff.

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