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Just Build It...

blog.stephaniestimac.com

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Re: Just Build It...

#51

Post by jve »

I'm not a designer but why the blog post & linked redesigned homepage font feels off?

I don't know what I dislike about it. HN font seems better to read. About the homepage:

- Is it all the excess space around the text?

- Is it that "Work Highlights" isn't aligned with anything?

- Is it the background switching that makes feel in 1 case there is a different font or font weight?

- Actually there is 3 background colors and in 1 case the font is even different color: white.

- The "Currently" feels a different font size than anything else. Actually it feels a different font for me.

- And it is not the same color as previous headers.

- The bullet points feel stuffed... or I don't know... the text above is different line height. Or maybe the excess space (doesn't fill the image height)?

I don't know what's right or wrong. Maybe I just like consistency :)

Sorry for the unsolicited part, it's more like I want to learn more myself :)

Re: Just Build It...

#52

Post by xeonmc »

ReactiveJelly wrote: post #29
keyle wrote: post #12

"also don't ever give someone an unsolicited code review on Twitter. It's rude." I'd personally welcome people's free code review, on any platform, when clearly the code "wasn't perfect". I don't see why someone would take offence from free advice, unless it was condescending. You're always free to ignore it. Eitherway, you won't excel in any topic without feedback.

But if you welcome it, it's not unsolicited

"An unsolicited advice, to be sure, but a welcome one."

Re: Just Build It...

#53

Post by oneshtein »

maxverse wrote: post #15
keyle wrote: post #12

"also don't ever give someone an unsolicited code review on Twitter. It's rude." I'd personally welcome people's free code review, on any platform, when clearly the code "wasn't perfect". I don't see why someone would take offence from free advice, unless it was condescending. You're always free to ignore it. Eitherway, you won't excel in any topic without feedback.

I disagree. Unsolicited feedback lacks context and might not be intended to help the developer. Feedback to someone you don't know should be offered only if they're explicitly asking for it.

Why you providing your feedback here? Can you self-analyse and report, please.

Re: Just Build It...

#54

Post by AndrewPGameDev »

keyle wrote: post #12

"also don't ever give someone an unsolicited code review on Twitter. It's rude." I'd personally welcome people's free code review, on any platform, when clearly the code "wasn't perfect". I don't see why someone would take offence from free advice, unless it was condescending. You're always free to ignore it. Eitherway, you won't excel in any topic without feedback.

Suppose you were 60 years old with 3 kids who live out of the house. You like to go golfing on the weekends, and have no intentions of ever going pro. This weekend, you get to the golf course to see a series of robots have been installed on the course. When you swing, they always give constructive, helpful feedback to try to improve your golf swing. You cannot turn the robots advice off.

I would feel horribly patronized in this scenario. I don't go golfing to get better at it, I go golfing to relax. Similarly someone can program and not necessarily want to be better at it. It depends on their goals and desires. Giving someone advice before asking means you have to guess at what their goal even is. In many contexts (work) this is fine but in general it is not.

To answer your question, the reason why someone might reasonably take offense to unsolicited advice is that unsolicited advice is inherently condescending because it implies that the advisor knows more about the topic than the advisee. It also implies that the advisor knows the advisees skill level and goals. It's kinda insulting, and in another way it's almost controlling as the advisor reframes the discussion around "being good at X". I don't want to be good at golf, I want to enjoy my time golfing.

Re: Just Build It...

#55

Post by mosselman »

AndrewPGameDev wrote: post #54
keyle wrote: post #12

"also don't ever give someone an unsolicited code review on Twitter. It's rude." I'd personally welcome people's free code review, on any platform, when clearly the code "wasn't perfect". I don't see why someone would take offence from free advice, unless it was condescending. You're always free to ignore it. Eitherway, you won't excel in any topic without feedback.

Suppose you were 60 years old with 3 kids who live out of the house. You like to go golfing on the weekends, and have no intentions of ever going pro. This weekend, you get to the golf course to see a series of robots have been installed on the course. When you swing, they always give constructive, helpful feedback to try to improve your golf swing. You cannot turn the robots advice off. I would feel horribly patroni…

I completely don’t agree about your analysis of what givers of advice might feel like. Some people just want to share what little they know in the hopes that others return the favour.

Let’s say you are installing bike seats for your kid, but you attach it in a way that 3 minutes into the ride your child would fall off. A neighbour sees this and comes over, unasked, to tell you you did the straps wrong. Are you now insulted or glad someone taught you something important?

In general the problem about people who feel insulted about things is that it is their own interpretation. Insult lives with yourself. You can choose not to be. Why would you put so much power into other people’s hands?

Don’t get me wrong, I can get insulted, so it is a constant work in progress.

I feel like in your story instead of robots, people would be more like receiving unsolicited advice. A machine is a machine. If you get offended by advice from machines you have totally different problems.

Re: Just Build It...

#56

Post by ihateolives »

jve wrote: post #51

I'm not a designer but why the blog post & linked redesigned homepage font feels off? I don't know what I dislike about it. HN font seems better to read. About the homepage: - Is it all the excess space around the text? - Is it that "Work Highlights" isn't aligned with anything? - Is it the background switching that makes feel in 1 case there is a different font or font weight? - Actually there is 3 background colors…

"Is the code perfect? No, of course not (also don't ever give someone an unsolicited code review on Twitter. It's rude.)"

Re: Just Build It...

#57

Post by dorkwood »

edgarvaldes wrote: post #5
kingforaday wrote: post #2

"One group is instructed to submit 100 photos over the quarter and the other group is instructed to submit one perfect photo. The group that is instructed to submit 100 photos gets better because they start right away and start taking photos and learn about composition. While the other group doesn't get better because they hem and haw over what a perfect photo is." If true, I would want a refund if placed in the latt…

Is this a real variation of the myth of the ceramics teacher and the two groups? It's the same method.

The photography version is the original. It was retold as ceramics in the book 'Art & Fear', because the authors (who were photographers themselves) were trying to appeal to a broader range of artists.

https://austinkleon.com/2020/12/10/quantity-leads-to-quality...

Re: Just Build It...

#58

Post by layer8 »

maxverse wrote: post #15
keyle wrote: post #12

"also don't ever give someone an unsolicited code review on Twitter. It's rude." I'd personally welcome people's free code review, on any platform, when clearly the code "wasn't perfect". I don't see why someone would take offence from free advice, unless it was condescending. You're always free to ignore it. Eitherway, you won't excel in any topic without feedback.

I disagree. Unsolicited feedback lacks context and might not be intended to help the developer. Feedback to someone you don't know should be offered only if they're explicitly asking for it.

FYI, you’ve just given feedback to someone you don’t know and who didn’t explicitly ask for it.

Re: Just Build It...

#59

Post by thek3nger »

I agree. For months, I wanted to ditch Bootstrap from my blog theme and implement all the CSS from scratch. But the idea of making a "perfect" theme was daunting. Then, at some point, I just decided to go for it and publish my very incomplete WIP theme anyway. Working on it "live" has been liberating and, honestly, more fun than expected.

Re: Just Build It...

#60

Post by phforms »

What helped me the most in programming and design was to shift my thinking away from trying to create a complete (or “perfect”) product right from the start and towards creating a minimal product with the most essential feature set first and iterating from there. I guess this is what the author wanted to point out.

It helps me to avoid getting overwhelmed with complexity and, as a nice side-effect, to avoid premature abstraction and optimization. Most of all, it helps me (as mentioned in the article) to actually build something. It is also quite satisfying and motivating to quickly get to a state where your product already works and to build on top of that, making something better that already works.

I used to work like that when I began programming, because I just wanted to solve a problem for myself and put it out there as quickly as possible. I had to re-learn this way of thinking as my ambitions grew and as I wanted to make things “perfect” and be “professional”.

Of course, in this approach lies the danger of accumulating features and complexity, so it is important to keep the focus on the problem or the “essence” of what the product is supposed to be.

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