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I’m not really a good web developer, I'm just good at Googling things

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Re: I’m not really a good web developer, I'm just good at Googling things

#71

Post by awinder »

klez wrote: post #42
awinder wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’d honestly love to know what people are comparing to javascript when they complain about rate of change / having to learn, unless it’s just a mental bias on learning something new vs something they’re comfortable with. I’m in a new position working on python and spring APIs and it’s effectively the same deal — researching means filtering through bitrotted methods and advice over a 4-5 year period, new methods & lib…

Try C. You can find stuff from 20 years ago and it's still mostly relevant. Or at least applicable.

This is what I’m talking about with this argument being a proxy against learning vs a legitimate difference. I just replaced a big chunk of a 20 year old C system this year. There was nothing even researchable in there because the vast majority was homegrown, or libraries were pulled in and source-modified after going stagnant on the 20 year journey. Same exact symptoms I’ve seen in every other ecosystem.

Re: I’m not really a good web developer, I'm just good at Googling things

#72

Post by zrobotics »

pteraspidomorph wrote: post #54
mrmonkeyman wrote: post #47

Google is getting worse though. I sometimes find myself using duck or gasp, bing. Damn SEO BS is killing it.

I suspect Google Search can no longer function as well as it once did without being informed by everything Google knows about you (malicious use of SEO might very well be the reason). You could try fiddling with the privacy settings in your account, especially if you blocked anything (edit: or remove privacy protections from your web browser), and see if that makes it better. I just use DDG for most things these days…

Even with all the personalized knowledge Google has, often they still serve worse results than DDG. At this point, I think Google is relying far too much on their historical knowledge about me, since i almost always see results related to previous searches, which clutter the relevant results for my specific search string.

Re: I’m not really a good web developer, I'm just good at Googling things

#73

Post by ben509 »

Rerarom wrote: post #34
kawsper wrote: post #9

Using search engines sometimes feel like a lost art if you spend any time in Facebook groups, where people will ask mundande, simple, and easily Googleable questions. Sometimes I wonder if people do it to fill some sort of social need, and don't particularly care for the answer.

For all the people who replied to this supporting the "social need" view - there are enough unGoogleable questions you can draw a conversation around.

Also, giving people a signal that you're lazy or view them as a resource to exploit is an awful way to start a conversation.

Any given community's patience is, unfortunately, subject to the tragedy of the commons.

Re: I’m not really a good web developer, I'm just good at Googling things

#74

Post by karmakaze »

My twist on this is:

I am a good back-end developer, I'm good at Googling things.

The things I tend to be Googling are typically either superficial, like syntax, or specific as in I know exactly what I want, how do I construct it in x language or y framework? It's quite rare that I have a problem and don't know how to approach it and they're the most fun. Sadly, it's also rare to need to look for algorithms. Just avoiding the run-of-the-mill complexity problems using common patterns or data-structures is sufficient. When they're not (e.g. performance or scale constraints), also fun times.

Re: I’m not really a good web developer, I'm just good at Googling things

#76

Post by ben509 »

badatshipping wrote: post #66

This just shows how shallow web programming is in intellectual content. If your expertise consists of stuff that can be looked up on the fly, all you need to join the field is a high enough IQ to comprehend those ideas at all. There’s no need for deep thinking or mastery. In what other technical field can you simply google everything? And is that because other fields are merely more obscure, or because they’re actual…

As someone who works on math intensive back-end stuff, and routinely can't google things, I'll defend web-devs:

Most occupations are not intellectual in the slightest, nor do they require a high IQ. They do require other talents, though, such as a sense of aesthetics or technical ability, in this case.

Not being intellectually rigorous doesn't mean they don't require careful thought or mastery.

I could absolutely perform any of the individual steps required to design a website, and have done this. But I either rely on somebody else's template or my designs tend to look like shit. Mostly, I think, the sheer patience to tweak CSS, let alone testing it on a dozen browsers and mobile devices, is often beyond me. Or (Christ, be my shield) dealing with end users.

The simple act of repetitively designing many hundreds of websites and then getting feedback from actual people as to how they work with those sites, that is mastery and it does take careful thought. So, yes, they're constantly looking up "recipes" to combine into code.

Speaking as someone who is on the "tool-making" side of the house, that's the point. I want to make tools that other people can use and combine into new things; if I write a compiler, the goal is that someone can use it without having to learn compiler theory.

Re: I’m not really a good web developer, I'm just good at Googling things

#77

Post by hombre_fatal »

lazerwalker wrote: post #37
jim-jim-jim wrote: post #28

One of the things I don't like about webdev (among many) is that I even have to Google in the first place. Manpages are so much more immediate and accessible. I also think that anything js-adjacent has a real culture problem. Trying to dredge an answer out of a Medium tutorial written in a cloying tone and interspersed with pointless gifs can be such a groan enducing experience. I'm hoping that the community will mat…

Do you personally have recs for how to parse manpages? In my experience, I've found them far more difficult to grok than e.g. the MDN JavaScript docs. Particularly if I'm trying to look up a tool that I don't already have familiarity with, as opposed to e.g. just trying to look up the correct syntax for a flag.

Yeah, manpages feel like the equivalent of being served a book on a subject where I just want to know a quick incantation. Like reading the entire wikipedia entry on cats just to settle a dispute on how many toes they have (18 btw).

I think manpages are a popular thing to worship here for nerd points but people don't use them nearly as much as they say they do because nobody actually wants to read a manual when they are trying to Get Things Done. Also, some things are just incredibly hard to figure out, like ffmpeg arguments.

Check out http://bropages.org/

Re: I’m not really a good web developer, I'm just good at Googling things

#79

Post by doubleorseven »

sandwall wrote: post #40

I think this statement is widely applicable ... "I'm not a good ____, I'm just good at googling things." You name it, it fits. Knowing when and how to ask for help is essential to everything and an important skill for everyone.

Yes exactly. The future of schools will have to integrate "knowing how to find something quickly and efficiently" into it's core along side "doubt anything you find online".
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