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Rules of thumb for a 1x developer

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Re: Rules of thumb for a 1x developer

#441

Post by mypalmike »

dleslie wrote: post #433
mypalmike wrote: post #289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do people really ask about hobbies? In actual professional job interviews? The other questions only lead to answers that involve your personal life if you choose to talk about your personal life. Job interviews are professional negotiation, not chats with friends. Where do you see yourself professionally in 5 years? Why would you mention your family? Asking if you're willing to put in lots of overtime should be a red…

Hobbies? Of course, particularly in entertainment software. It shows if you have a unique perspective that could be advantageous to the creative process. I would mention my family for any professional prediction because it is a guiding factor; in five years, I see myself continuing to be a product lead and hopefully working with my daughters on an independent project of their own. I work in entertainment software, in…

Asking a candidate's hobbies is a recipe for pure unconscious bias. It immediately hooks into your preconceptions about the type of person you'd expect a snowboarder/surfer/sewing enthusiast/furry/birdwatcher/lego collector/"I don't really have any hobbies besides programming"/whatever to be. There are better ways to get a glimpse at culture fit and creativity.

When I was younger and working in game development, I probably got asked about hobbies. Nowadays I'm generally pretty good at directing conversations like that politely back on track.

As for mentioning something you want to do with your kids in 5 years? In a job interview? I don't understand it but I suppose some people want to talk about their home lives during job interviews.

And thanks for reminding me one of the reasons I left game development. I don't miss having just work/work balance. :-)

Re: Rules of thumb for a 1x developer

#442

Post by cambalache »

sixstringtheory wrote: post #414
cambalache wrote: post #390

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you are an independent service worker yeah, I understand, go the extra mile with your customers, it is good for business. But if you are drone #139098123 in generic corporation X, you should not give a fuck on your reputation as long as you are doing your work. If they dump you, you go and get another job, there is a big world out there.

> you should not give a fuck on your reputation as long as you are doing your work But we're talking about reputation based on the quality/quantity of work you do. I think there's a difference between taking pride in your work, and breaking your back for your employer. I think the former is what's being advocated for in this thread. Also, if you feel like you're drone #139098123 in a soul sucking abyss, and can't be…

No, the original chain was about the choice of being full-gas all the time for your employer or pace yourself.

Re: Rules of thumb for a 1x developer

#443

Post by mam2 »

ptero wrote: post #64
noad wrote: post #21

I used to get called a 10x developer, I was also called a rockstar and a ninja and a 100x dev and every other compliment that was hip. Then I hit 30. That type of talk stopped. Then I hit 40. Now I will not be considered for any entry level, mid level, or senior level software dev job anywhere in the United States, despite being very desperate and willing to relocate for anything. Doesn't matter. Too old. I'm suppose…

In my experience being under 40 is not a prerequisite for being hired in software. A suggestion: two of the biggest turnoffs that I personally see and would work hard to avoid (not saying you have either of those): 1. Sounding desperate. Do not cast a very wide net at one company -- you can apply to mid level and principal level positions at different companies, but do not blanket all job postings at one company. Cho…

congrats you managed to hit an unprecedented level of condenscendance...

Spoiler: because you assumend he can find a job bevause he's desperate.

Your problems are not other people's.

Re: Rules of thumb for a 1x developer

#444

Post by benburleson »

tra3 wrote: post #419
benburleson wrote: post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anybody know if it's possible to block Amazon recruiters on Linkedin? If not, I'm going to ask the next one to flag me in their system, if that's possible.

Why would you burn bridges in such a way?

They're basically spam at this point. I'm just asking to not be cold-called.

And I really have no desire to work for that type of company. Love it as a customer, but not my cup of office.

Re: Rules of thumb for a 1x developer

#445

Post by war1025 »

imron wrote: post #427
war1025 wrote: post #309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Congratulations, you are now 3-10x developer. Congratulations. You are still getting paid the same. Boosts in productivity need to come with boosts in pay, otherwise the logical thing to do is to scale back your effort to a point where the amount you get done matches the amount you get paid for.

> Congratulations. You are still getting paid the same. After the first week, yes. Whether you are still being paid the same after a year depends on you and your negotiation skills.

It's a trade off. You can work harder and make more.

Or you can be equally productive, work less, and make the same.

In a world that complains about not having enough time, it's an option that many people seem too timid to take.

Re: Rules of thumb for a 1x developer

#446

Post by alexbanks »

cyrialize wrote: post #103

I've been a developer for about 3 years now. This is probably my own fault, but I feel pressured to be constantly doing something towards programming. I feel like I should either be reading a book or starting a project. I have 10+ programming books where I just finished reading one of them and I have way more unfinished projects than I could count. It's reassuring to see the push-back against the 10x developer idea,…

No. Average devs are average devs everywhere. Amazon's scale is different, but it's not like the scope of an individual dev's problems are inherently different at FAANG than not. Not everyone will work on the most intellectually intense pieces of code at FAANG companies; in fact most don't.

Re: Rules of thumb for a 1x developer

#447

Post by vosper »

tikiman163 wrote: post #381
A21z wrote: post #363

"Rule 11: Which database technology to choose: Choose SQL when you need to do ad hoc queries and/or you need support for ACID and transactions. Otherwise choose no-SQL" I think it should be the contrary: SQL by default, no-SQL if you have a specific need and know what you are doing.

To be completely frank, I'm seeing less and less reason to use traditional sql databases. MongoDB offers the ability to make sql queries and even has Acid transactions. Everything SQL can do, it does without slowing down when dealing with big data. The only thing it doesn't offer an efficient solution for is something SQL can't do either, and that's advanced search engine capabilities like Elasticsearch provides. Som…

I manage a team that's responsible for the Mongo DB that powers essentially the whole business. This is a 10 year old company that started right about when Mongo was trendy. After 10 years it's a nightmare to understand what's going on in that database.

And it's now extremely difficult to get off of it precisely because it doesn't have the schema and referential integrity and constraints that we need to be able to understand our data well enough to actually do the migration. We really want to switch to an RDBMS, but it's going to be risky and difficult.

You could say this is all bad engineering, and I guess that's true in a reductive sense. But it's like arguing that you don't need to climb with a safety rope because good climbers don't fall. Over 10 years and many engineers "bad" engineering happens.

I also believe that reasoning about data is hard, and you should therefore try to avoid doing it. You should do that hard thinking one time, and then rely on your database to enforce the rules until they need changing. Aka: Don't Make Me Think (About This Constantly).

If I believed in conspiracy theories I'd say that Mongo was one of the best vendor lock-in plays in tech. Mongo Corp is going to be profitable for a while because once you're down the Mongo rabbit hole it's a real pain to climb back out. But they'll host your database at least, so you don't also have to deal with that. I will give them credit for having a nice management UI.

But from my experience of the past few years I would never choose Mongo. For documents, Elasticsearch, or Postgres if you don't have too many. For relational data, a relational DB.

And Mongo's slow, too.

Re: Rules of thumb for a 1x developer

#448

Post by sixstringtheory »

cambalache wrote: post #442
sixstringtheory wrote: post #414

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you should not give a fuck on your reputation as long as you are doing your work But we're talking about reputation based on the quality/quantity of work you do. I think there's a difference between taking pride in your work, and breaking your back for your employer. I think the former is what's being advocated for in this thread. Also, if you feel like you're drone #139098123 in a soul sucking abyss, and can't be…

No, the original chain was about the choice of being full-gas all the time for your employer or pace yourself.

Let me sum up how I saw it go...

-you can get more done if you avoid addictive black holes for attention

--if they don't want you playing around they should pay you more than the salary you agreed to work for

---yup, still getting paid the same. company is getting theirs, go get yours (I think this reply was actually sarcastic)

----how do you live with yourself

-----if you have integrity you're dumb

------most people actually work for money, you'll probably get found out eventually otherwise

-------you won't get found out if you embed yourself in a big enough company where you can hide, rinse and repeat

It sounds less like an argument to pace one's self, and more like cynical entitlement.

Re: Rules of thumb for a 1x developer

#449

Post by Aeolun »

Bahamut wrote: post #126
cyrialize wrote: post #103

I've been a developer for about 3 years now. This is probably my own fault, but I feel pressured to be constantly doing something towards programming. I feel like I should either be reading a book or starting a project. I have 10+ programming books where I just finished reading one of them and I have way more unfinished projects than I could count. It's reassuring to see the push-back against the 10x developer idea,…

A 1x developer at one of the tier 1 tech companies is...just a 1x developer - doesn't really matter where you're at. Being a multiplier is not about just being technically proficient. It's about enabling your whole team to be more productive, and help getting to the right decisions, instead of decisions that might cost your team or coworkers huge amounts of extra work long term.

Also on getting your team to actually following those recommendations. I can be right every time, but still nobody wants to listen.

Re: Rules of thumb for a 1x developer

#450

Post by Aeolun »

imron wrote: post #164

Rules of Thumb for a 1x Developer During work hours stay away from: * HN * Facebook * Twitter * Reddit * Any other thing constantly distracting you and taking away your attention from your job Congratulations, you are now 3-10x developer.

Or you scale back work by 50% and now earn 100% more per worked hour!
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