Things I’ve learned in my 20 years as a software engineer • Hacker News Board

Re: Things I’ve learned in my 20 years as a software engineer

#671

Post by hnlmorg » Sat, Oct 09, 2021, 11:26 AM UTC

chown wrote: post #474

> No one is going to tell you in an interview that they are going to be unreliable, abusive, pompous, or never show up to meetings on time. People might claim they have “signals” for these things… I had a great interview with one of the FAANG companies. The technical interviews, 6 of them in a row!, felt more like they were wanting to see me fail spectacularly rather than focus on my approach of solving whiteboard pr…

I remember recruiting one junior and the HR representative asked that "What is your weakness" question. Personally I hate it because it almost never returns an interesting answer. However on this one occasion the junior did proceed to list off several genuine weaknesses. After about the 3rd point he listed I had to stop him from talking.

Ironically it was his honesty in that interview that won me over. For a junior role I'd rather than a rough diamond who I can shape than someone who already thinks they're perfect. And he turned out to be an incredibly good hire too.

Despite being a hiring manager for many years, I still dread getting asked this question myself. It is easily my least favourite interview question. Even the "Explain an occasion when you disagreed with your manager" question is much more favourable than being asking "what is your worst quality".

Re: Things I’ve learned in my 20 years as a software engineer

#672

Post by HolidayguyNOR » Sat, Oct 09, 2021, 11:26 AM UTC

theonething wrote: post #437

ghaff wrote: post #313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is especially true if the company uses "unlimited"/not-tracked/etc. time. Otherwise, unless you know someone at the place (and even then it can vary by group), you're left with making assumptions about norms that may not be accurate. Personally, I've never not used all my PTO in a given year and would consider being unable to do so a show stopper.

I really like the policy of "minimum mandatory time off" some companies have. That makes a big statement about where their priorities are in terms of care for their employees' well-being.

In Norway you're required by law to take four weeks and a day vacation every year. Almost everyone has five weeks vacation time in total. Both you and your employer can demand that three of those are continuous during summer, and most of the country shuts down three weeks in July.

Re: Things I’ve learned in my 20 years as a software engineer

#673

Post by Aeolun » Sat, Oct 09, 2021, 11:35 AM UTC

bluGill wrote: post #490

cat199 wrote: post #390

Earlier quoted context omitted.

plenty of people have families and abuse the crap out of them, and people without families that want one still need to socialize enough to meet people to eventually have a family book != cover

We interviewed someone a while back and she said (without being asked - asking questions on this line is illegal) she was prepared to leave her husband and kids to move here. It didn't affect our results, but we all agreed in the discussion after that was a negative sign if we were allowed to consider it. She probably would have been good, I hope her search went well.

If you say that during your interview unasked, what kind of company are you looking for?…

Re: Things I’ve learned in my 20 years as a software engineer

#674

Post by mherrmann » Sat, Oct 09, 2021, 12:33 PM UTC

> Software engineers should do anything that requires them to keep their written communication skills sharp.

In my opinion, code is nicest when it is written communication. When it is almost the same as teaching someone about a problem domain.

Re: Things I’ve learned in my 20 years as a software engineer

#675

Post by cutemonster » Sat, Oct 09, 2021, 12:52 PM UTC

baobabKoodaa wrote: post #507

faizshah wrote: post #435

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you’re missing the point or I was unclear. The point is not that masters at a skill don't exist. The point is that attributing their skill mostly to something innate rather than practice, study, etc is not supported by the body of research they review in the book (the book is written for a general audience, their academic research supports the arguments in the book).

There is a mountain of evidence to the contrary. No matter how much you or I would practice, study, etc. we would never become as good as tourist. Most people reach their plateau in competitive coding within 1 year. For example, here's my Codeforces profile: https://codeforces.com/profile/baobab Started in 2015, plateau'd in 2016 and no measurable improvement from subsequent 3 years of practice and study.

Chess is another example -- two people, the same amount of practice, can yield vastly different results

Thanks for the Codeforces link :-) didn't know about

Re: Things I’ve learned in my 20 years as a software engineer

#676

Post by cutemonster » Sat, Oct 09, 2021, 1:01 PM UTC

baobabKoodaa wrote: post #657

pksebben wrote: post #630

Earlier quoted context omitted.

is it at all possible that practice and study are insufficient to create further growth? What I think faizshah is talking about is that there is enormous complexity that goes into creating skill. what sort of community do you leverage for their knowledge? how frequently do you expose yourself to new ideas? do you practice abstraction in places other than code? do you practice effectively and take notes that you revie…

> is it at all possible that practice and study are insufficient to create further growth? What I think faizshah is talking about is that there is enormous complexity that goes into creating skill. Sure there is enormous complexity and many factors that go into creating skill, but that's a generic claim, whereas faizsah was making some specific claims. In particular, they were claiming that talent does not exist (or…

... And the limits are personal, and can vary immensely, unfair as it might be. Some people high jump 2.45 meter, or design a spaceship that flies to the moon, whilst most people couldn't do this in a thousand lifetimes

Usually, though, people don't do something for long enough to get close to their limits, so, generally in life, all this doesn't matter that much, does it.

And to keep trying and doing what one enjoy is good advice :-)

Re: Things I’ve learned in my 20 years as a software engineer

#677

Post by cutemonster » Sat, Oct 09, 2021, 1:16 PM UTC

yibg wrote: post #625

ryandrake wrote: post #293

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As your sports coach always said "You don't need talent to practice!" I'm not a huge believer of some mystical "innate ability" that people sometimes use to explain talent. Imagine a great concert pianist who plays flawlessly. After the concert, someone says, "Oh, you were born with such a wonderful gift of talent!" If I were that pianist, I'd be kind of offended--it totally ignores the decades of daily practice it t…

The 2 aren’t mutually exclusive. You need talent and hard work to be “the best” in any given field. It doesn’t matter how hard I practice, I’m not going to be a world class sprinter or a world famous singer, my body isn’t built for it. For some reason when it comes to physical limitations we accept it. But we reject it when it comes to mental capabilities. There are naturally smarter people, at least in specific area…

People understand things they can see, like, someone is short, then, how good s/he can get at basketball is a bit limited (right). Or, someone having a body shape good for running, but won't lift much weights.

But mental capabilities are invisible, and then it's harder for many people to see that there are different and personal limits.

Re: Things I’ve learned in my 20 years as a software engineer

#678

Post by cutemonster » Sat, Oct 09, 2021, 1:23 PM UTC

fighterpilot wrote: post #647

faizshah wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the opposite of how you should want any knowledge worker to think. If you believe that there’s some innate ability that makes people 10x better at a skill than you rather than hours of practice and study then you are much less likely to acquire that skill or learn those skills efficiently. You need to have a growth mindset to be an effective knowledge worker not a fixed mindset. This is discussed in the book…

There is an innate ability that drives it to a large extent: inherited intelligence. Recognizing this might not be helpful to the individual's motivation but that doesn't make it untrue. Not everyone can be a 10x (or 100x) Ramanujan-level genius, you really need to win the genetic lottery, in addition to working very hard, for elite level cognitive performance in STEM domains.

Are (were) you a fighterpilot for real? (I think then one needs to do cognitive intelligence tests?)

Re: Things I’ve learned in my 20 years as a software engineer

#679

Post by cutemonster » Sat, Oct 09, 2021, 1:30 PM UTC

nickelpro wrote: post #561

dudeman13 wrote: post #449

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are not the same thing, unless they achieve what a 1x programmer won't on a lifetime on a day-to-day basis. If the 10x, 100x or 1000x programmer does not do the 10x, 100x or 1000x times on average on their day to day then they are not 10x, 100x or 1000x programmers. (for whatever the heck a 1x programmer is, which people talking about 10x programmers oddly always skip on giving any decent definition)

Yes, exactly. The best programmers can produce code every day that a mediocre programmer cannot ever produce under any conditions. That is the entire point of the discussion. I don't even think it's that controversial of a statement, just shift to another field and I think it's self-evident. Paul Erdos could on any day produce better mathematics than the rest of us could produce in a lifetime. Not better maths than h…

Most people might never realized things like that, because they aren't good enough at math (or software) to see the difference between an ordinary everyday mathematician (if there was something like that -- maybe a high school mats teacher), and Paul Erdos.

Maybe from most people perspective, everyone else is about as bright as everyone else. Because they cannot tell the difference. (And instead people fallback to things like how others dress and how self confident they sound)

Re: Things I’ve learned in my 20 years as a software engineer

#680

Post by DeathArrow » Sat, Oct 09, 2021, 1:34 PM UTC

Sohcahtoa82 wrote: post #310

> “if they ask about time off in the first interview then they are never going to be there!” The fact that this attitude is common scares me when I'm doing interviews. Time off is incredibly important to me. What's the use of making a great income if you can't get the time off to enjoy it? The culture about the use of PTO varies wildly between companies. A friend of mine worked somewhere that supposedly gave 20 days…

It seems you live in US. In other parts of the world it's perfectly normal to have time off and benefit from it. But as a compensation wages are higher.

However, I prefer having some free time for myself than accumulate a large amount of money.