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

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

#741

Post by CRConrad »

Graffur wrote: post #412

> 11. One of the biggest differences between a senior engineer and a junior engineer is that they’ve formed opinions about the way things should be I don't like this one. IMO it tells you nothing and assumes everyone shares the same culture of pushing opinions.

> > 11. One of the biggest differences between a senior engineer and a junior engineer is that they’ve formed opinions about the way things should be

> I don't like this one. IMO it tells you nothing and assumes everyone shares the same culture of pushing opinions.

I like it, and think it tells you a lot. It doesn't say they have to be pushing their opinions, just that they should have some.

And honestly, can anyone really know a lot about something and not form an opinion about it? Ask someone, "So, what do you think about ...?", and if their answer is "I don't think anything about it", then most likely you know that yeah, they haven't thought about it.

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

#742

Post by cryptica »

prancer_or_vix wrote: post #208
cryptica wrote: post #5

Amazingly, I agree with every single point. >> Nobody asks “why” enough This point is the most important IMO. It's so common for people to do things without asking themselves why they're doing it. Every line of code should fulfill a clear purpose. You want to avoid writing code which is difficult to explain to a non-technical person. >> People don’t really want innovation... If you believe in what you’re doing, and k…

> developers who work for big companies will get jealous and they will reject you. If you're very good, you need to pretend to be mediocre and above all; compliant. To add to what another poster said, it's not jealousy. Big companies move slow because generally, to get big, they had to be successful (to some extent) and changing too much all at once is a risk that the bureaucracy isn't always comfortable with. One of…

Maybe. It could be a fear of anybody who is talented enough and ambitious enough to potentially disrupt the pecking order within the company. Unfortunately, it feels like almost all the big companies are like this.

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

#743

Post by baobabKoodaa »

CRConrad wrote: post #726
baobabKoodaa wrote: post #507

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> we would never become as good as tourist. Huh, "tourist"? Typo for "Turing"?

No, not a typo. "tourist" is Gennady Korotkevich, I explained this upthread.

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

#744

Post by Annatar »

koonsolo wrote: post #31
Annatar wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I reached quite the opposite conclusion: the purpose of software is to make a computer do work. Then again, I purposely refrain from writing end-user software and focus on backend automation. It is a deliberate choice.

Do you keep your code human readable? Why?

I do. It’s a point of pride in my work.

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

#745

Post by CRConrad »

baobabKoodaa wrote: post #743
CRConrad wrote: post #726

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> we would never become as good as tourist. Huh, "tourist"? Typo for "Turing"?

No, not a typo. "tourist" is Gennady Korotkevich, I explained this upthread.

Ah, gotcha, found it now. Sorry, I'd missed that, and was thoroughly confused by the pseudonym.
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