it makes you wonder if the real success of companies like google really is in the uplifted, positive, work environment to help pull you out of that negative feedback loop.
Be nice to programmers
71–80 of 178 posts
Re: Be nice to programmers
#72Earlier quoted context omitted.
Now how often do you run into these subtle memory leaks? How often do you run into fundamental design flaws? Once, twice a year? If it happens so rarely, which for most developers I believe it does, why would you allow it to get you so jaded? Why would it be apart of your daily concerns or something you felt you needed to prepare for?
This depends heavily on the legacy of the codebase you are working with, I imagine. I'm thankful that I (nearly?) never run into serious design flaws, because the people that built this code before me did a really good job. I could easily imagine a worst-case scenario where the code you're maintaining was written by a stream of interns, implementing requirements written by committee, over the space of a dozen years.…
This is true, but if you are working on such a large code base, and you like the company you work for, you will be working on it for a long time. You will become familiar with the coding style (or lack of style) of the original programmers, and you will be able to recognize their mistakes quicker over time.
Rewriting it is always on option, maybe not the correct one, but it is an option. But probably better is to figure out how to rewrite it in pieces.
If you are working with a legacy coldfusion or php code base, god help you. But there are still ways to abstract the original code to allow you to implement a more gradual/iterative code rewrite strat.
Re: Be nice to programmers
#73A quote from the article: "There's so much about programming that is incredibly satisfying and empowering. But it doesn't change the fact that, for me, programming builds an acutely negative mindset over time."
The author of these words seems to miss the fact that all systems that move from one state to another require "negative feedback", but the "negative" in "negative feedback" doesn't have the meaning he's giving it.
The author sees programming as emphasizing the fact that software is usually broken. I see programming as emphasizing the fact that that I can fix it, and once fixed, it remains fixed forever. Compare that to "fixing" relationships, or government, or nearly anything else one can name, all of which respond to your efforts by getting worse.
When viewed this way, programming is (like mathematics) an escape from a world in which efforts to solve problems are either ineffective or make the original problem worse. The fact that the end result might actually be useful to someone is frosting on the cake.
Re: Be nice to programmers
#74It's this way in every job. Every chef should be thinking, "does what I made taste as good as it can?" Every car repairperson should be thinking "am I doing the best job of replacing this brake caliper? Not banging it around, not kinking the brake hose, not getting greasy fingerprints on the rotor?
In every job you should be thinking about the quality aspects.
It's just that in programming, the problems can numerous, subtle, and hard to find.
Re: Be nice to programmers
#75This brings up an interesting concept. All great creators (artists, programmers, woodworkers, hairdressers, etc) tend to be more pessimistic than optimistic. If you attitude is "Wow this program I wrote is totally awesome, I deserve a pat on the back", then you'll never improve upon your program and you'll end up never improving your skills and will end up a rosh katan[1]. You have to be the kind of person who sees e…
"I deserve a pat in the back" is not an optimistic attitude... It's self-indulging, that's all.
Optimists see bug reports as a way to improve things. Optimists bet on early tech because they see a bright future ahead (rails 0.9? ios 2.0?).
Being pessimistic will only feed your ulcer...
Re: Be nice to programmers
#76It's times like these I'm thankful for a life lesson I was taught about 4 years ago. I'm not a professional coder, but I do a significant amount of hacking and coding for one of my research fields (Computational Economics). I noticed this cycle too--this cycle of focusing on the negatives. It really did bring me down. I chatted with my adviser, who was married for a number of years to a child psychologist. She recomm…
I do this with things like Hacker News.
The challenge lies in getting motivated to go from the reward back to the work. :-)
Re: Be nice to programmers
#77I don't think it's useful or accurate to generalize about the subjective experience of programming.
Re: Be nice to programmers
#78Earlier quoted context omitted.
Programming always gets more difficult. I'm a much better developer than I was 10 years ago and I don't make the same design or development mistakes. But instead of writing perfect code, I'm working on larger and more difficult problems. In fact I'm now responsible for so many more platforms, systems, and programs that I probably spend more time dealing with problems than ever before.
I guess my take on it is different. The things that I've found to be the source of bugs/problems for me are areas that can scale to larger problems. Things like component communication, algorithm edge cases, typos, poor memory management, etc. For me, the error rate slowly goes down, because I've learned to compensate for my weaknesses. Maybe your (and his) weaknesses are not as portable to other and larger problems/…
I'm sure my error rate is a fraction what it used to be but I'm producing far more code and working on far larger problems. You better hope that areas of improvement on are the ones that scale to larger problems.
Re: Be nice to programmers
#79Earlier quoted context omitted.
But this is true of any "producing" profession. Any time you're creating something and "putting it out there", there's going to be a huge stream of criticism from every direction. Artists, writers, musicians, engineers, carpenters, etc.--all of their work is constantly under scrutiny by "the customer" and/or "the boss". Even non-producing professions have to deal with constant scrutiny of their performance and negati…
Salespeople make the sale sometimes. A doctor sees someone walk back in for their checkup who couldn't walk a week ago. A technical support person often says goodbye to a cheerful happy customer. Musicians may have to deal with criticism in the papers, but if they delist their phone number it's because of the fans , generally, not the critics. Actually that goes for almost all the creative industries. Developers have…
And if you're a programmer, sometimes you fix the big bug that a huge sale depends on, and sometimes you create a feature that your customers love.
And, I take it you've never ever been in sales.
What many companies do is put everyone's name on a board, and everyone's sales are complete public knowledge. Every time you make a sale, you walk up the board and add another tick to your column. It's a way to shame people into not being the worst salesperson in the company. And at the end of the month/quarter, you start all over again. My closest friend as well as my cousin went through this process, and quit after a couple of years of having their self-esteem completely trampled upon.
Re: Be nice to programmers
#80Earlier quoted context omitted.
But this is true of any "producing" profession. Any time you're creating something and "putting it out there", there's going to be a huge stream of criticism from every direction. Artists, writers, musicians, engineers, carpenters, etc.--all of their work is constantly under scrutiny by "the customer" and/or "the boss". Even non-producing professions have to deal with constant scrutiny of their performance and negati…
Salespeople make the sale sometimes. A doctor sees someone walk back in for their checkup who couldn't walk a week ago. A technical support person often says goodbye to a cheerful happy customer. Musicians may have to deal with criticism in the papers, but if they delist their phone number it's because of the fans , generally, not the critics. Actually that goes for almost all the creative industries. Developers have…
> Developers have very little positive to go off of
I don't know that I agree. Red, Green, Refactor. That continuous moment of hitting green. Every time you solve that problem. Every time you strike a bug off the list. There are so many measurable accomplishments programmers make.