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I learned Unity the wrong way

darkounity.com

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Re: I learned Unity the wrong way

#61

Post by eterm »

chupasaurus wrote: post #55
eterm wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, that's frustrating. But you know what's also frustrating? Code bases which involve multi-step manual steps to build. You should be able to get a working local environment with a single command. You should be able to get a working local build with a single build command. If you have depedent projects, they should either be in a monorepo, or delivered through a packaging system so they are not depend on the speci…

> If you have depedent projects, they should either be in a monorepo, or delivered through a packaging system so they are not depend on the specific local naming of other repos. Git submodules is a thing ...

I'm not a fan of submodules, but indeed that also solves the problem OP described.

Re: I learned Unity the wrong way

#62

Post by jamesfinlayson »

altmanaltman wrote: post #41
jamesfinlayson wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ugh... I've had two bad hires in two years that were exactly like this - if you can't follow simple instructions, how have you survived in this career for this long?

I mean the only other alternative, since they survived this long and it happened two unique times in a year, is that you are the problem.

No, I've onboarded a few people people over the years and everyone until now has been able to follow instructions. In one case the guy had stuff going in his personal life but it wasn't a case of me being unhappy with his output (which I would have understood) but he just didn't follow instructions. In the other case I'm 99% sure my manager and the recruiter misrepresented the job and he didn't want to be here but... grind it out until you find something new (which he did after 6 weeks). Instead he wasted my time and ended up leaving with a bad reputation.

Re: I learned Unity the wrong way

#63

Post by jamesfinlayson »

lossyalgo wrote: post #54
eterm wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, that's frustrating. But you know what's also frustrating? Code bases which involve multi-step manual steps to build. You should be able to get a working local environment with a single command. You should be able to get a working local build with a single build command. If you have depedent projects, they should either be in a monorepo, or delivered through a packaging system so they are not depend on the speci…

I agree, and there are other fun gotchas that even more frustrating and convoluted. But everything is thoroughly documented and I even explicitly pointed out those potential issues before I gave them the assignment. When the errors first occurred, I pointed out the fix, which was ignored, multiple times. Should it be that difficult to rename a couple folders? The compiler errors were fairly easy to understand: can't…

With you on this one - I worked with a hopeless tester years ago - gave him a detailed test plan with a nice sequence of steps to follow to set up the scenario. I have no idea why but he decided to do the steps out of order, then wondered why my patch didn't do what it was meant to.

Re: I learned Unity the wrong way

#64

Post by jamesfinlayson »

eterm wrote: post #49
lossyalgo wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ugh... we have a new colleague who does this repeatedly. Most recently, I said in order to build, you need to do this: - git clone - git clone - git clone What do they do? git clone repo1, 2, 3 without giving parameter, which clones into default folders named after the repos. Build fails of course because repo1 depends on repo2 and 3 being named specifically. He sends me the error log (remote colleague, yay) and I sa…

Sure, that's frustrating. But you know what's also frustrating? Code bases which involve multi-step manual steps to build. You should be able to get a working local environment with a single command. You should be able to get a working local build with a single build command. If you have depedent projects, they should either be in a monorepo, or delivered through a packaging system so they are not depend on the speci…

I agree but it's probably more common than you think. I had a job where the setup involved running one setup command twice because the first time always failed. But that was called out in the documentation so it was fine. The reason it wasn't fixed is because the project was well on the way to being end of lifed so it wasn't worth it at all to fix the crappy set-up process.

Re: I learned Unity the wrong way

#65

Post by socalgal2 »

argee wrote: post #3
lelanthran wrote: post #2

I submitted this because I thought it was a good and nuanced (if long) take. FTFA: > If I had AI in 2019, I would not have lasted 3 years before the interview crashed me. I would have lasted longer, and the crash would have been worse.

It's worth pointing out that: 1. Much of the core lesson in this article has nothing to do with Unity specifically, and applies to self-taught programmers in general; and 2. This person has a vested interest in making you believe learning Unity is especially difficult.

> and applies to programmers in general;

There, fixed that for you.

So many college educated programmers I've worked with that have zero real world experience and so make a ton of poor decisions with code design.

Re: I learned Unity the wrong way

#66

Post by tharkun__ »

lossyalgo wrote: post #54
eterm wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, that's frustrating. But you know what's also frustrating? Code bases which involve multi-step manual steps to build. You should be able to get a working local environment with a single command. You should be able to get a working local build with a single build command. If you have depedent projects, they should either be in a monorepo, or delivered through a packaging system so they are not depend on the speci…

I agree, and there are other fun gotchas that even more frustrating and convoluted. But everything is thoroughly documented and I even explicitly pointed out those potential issues before I gave them the assignment. When the errors first occurred, I pointed out the fix, which was ignored, multiple times. Should it be that difficult to rename a couple folders? The compiler errors were fairly easy to understand: can't…

See, I would probably have been the guy that ignores the dest part. On purpose. Just to see whether this pile of poo shits itself and how much.

I would also recognize what happened when I see the error messages though and then silent quit until I've been with you guys for long enough my resume doesn't take a hit just because your interview process duped me into starting at your place.

Yes this sounds harsh. I know. Nothing against you personally. But I've been at too many such places. One can do things better.

Re: I learned Unity the wrong way

#67

Post by Animats »

eterm wrote: post #49
lossyalgo wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ugh... we have a new colleague who does this repeatedly. Most recently, I said in order to build, you need to do this: - git clone - git clone - git clone What do they do? git clone repo1, 2, 3 without giving parameter, which clones into default folders named after the repos. Build fails of course because repo1 depends on repo2 and 3 being named specifically. He sends me the error log (remote colleague, yay) and I sa…

Sure, that's frustrating. But you know what's also frustrating? Code bases which involve multi-step manual steps to build. You should be able to get a working local environment with a single command. You should be able to get a working local build with a single build command. If you have depedent projects, they should either be in a monorepo, or delivered through a packaging system so they are not depend on the speci…

> But you know what's also frustrating? Code bases which involve multi-step manual steps to build.

Yes. That's what bash scripts are for.

Re: I learned Unity the wrong way

#68

Post by Animats »

We're going to see much more of this. It's possible to get a lot done without actually knowing how to program now. Amusingly, this was with Unity, and didn't even involve AI. We're going to have a whole generation of developers who can't really program. But they can open the hood and mess with the internals. They're more than users, but less than programmers.

Not clear how this plays out.

Re: I learned Unity the wrong way

#69

Post by ryandrake »

lossyalgo wrote: post #54
eterm wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, that's frustrating. But you know what's also frustrating? Code bases which involve multi-step manual steps to build. You should be able to get a working local environment with a single command. You should be able to get a working local build with a single build command. If you have depedent projects, they should either be in a monorepo, or delivered through a packaging system so they are not depend on the speci…

I agree, and there are other fun gotchas that even more frustrating and convoluted. But everything is thoroughly documented and I even explicitly pointed out those potential issues before I gave them the assignment. When the errors first occurred, I pointed out the fix, which was ignored, multiple times. Should it be that difficult to rename a couple folders? The compiler errors were fairly easy to understand: can't…

I hear you, but I still feel for the coworker, and if I newly joined a company and learned on my first day that they are failing the Joel Test[1] here in 2026, I would get that sinking feeling in my stomach that I made a huge mistake. There is no longer a valid excuse for having a build like that. "It's documented..." and "Nobody wants to touch..." "Not worth it to..." "Can't justify..." are all huge red flags.

1: https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2000/08/09/the-joel-test-12-s...

Re: I learned Unity the wrong way

#70

Post by InexSquirrel »

bambataa wrote: post #14

Extremely well-written and honest post. The struggle with being self-taught is that you don’t know what you don’t know. This is probably even worse in areas like Unity, where the coding part is sort of a sideshow to the main event. Nowadays the problem is you lack the discernment to evaluate AI output. I wrote The Conputer Science Book ( https://a.co/d/01e62STx ) to act as that basic building block and help orient se…

I'd also add:

- OP takes rectifying what they deem to be deficiencies seriously, and actively work to fill those gaps.

At first I was reading the article thinking "wtf, that can't be real" and by the end felt I had respect for OP, both for their self-reflection and their willingness to put in the effort to learn. Admirable, really.

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