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Ask HN: Why aren't you coding?

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Re: Ask HN: Why aren't you coding?

#81

Post by onion2k »

yetihehe wrote: post #22

I'm constantly bombarded with "quick" questions from coworkers about how some part of my code works (or more often why it doesn't). After several such interruptions it's harder and harder to even try to focus, maybe some kind of neurosis, fear of being interrupted once you are again in flow?

I've been in the same situation and I found the solution was to do less. Unblocking coworkers is valid work, and spending more time on code so that they're not blocked in the first place is also very useful. By doing that I found the overall team velocity went up even though my personal point count fell.

Re: Ask HN: Why aren't you coding?

#82

Post by kodah »

tomxor wrote: post #13

I am paid to solve problems, programming is one part of that, thinking about the problem and the code is a prerequisite to programming. Sometimes one needs to step back and let things sink in rather than continuous action (programming)... while doing that you can even play games, I'll admit some activities are better than others for the purpose of de-focusing your subconscious - but sometimes you also just need a sho…

Came here to say this. Coding is one part of the job but mostly what I get paid to do is solve problems. I've worked on projects that were more process oriented and produced zero code whatsoever and still had the sort of outcomes good software does.

The vast majority of my job, outside of writing efficient and secure code, is learning about other systems and domains. Software Engineers can be employed in anything from financial technology to healthcare to kids toys. You're going to have to step outside of your depth a lot and at least having some shallow platform to stand on is imperative.

Re: Ask HN: Why aren't you coding?

#86

Post by meheleventyone »

Mainly because I’m helping other people be able to code. One of the interesting things about the 10x engineer meme is that they’re 10x because they improve the productivity of their team. Well extend that to DevRel and that’s maybe another order of magnitude or two of effect again. Extend that to the average person looking to build and it’s another order or perhaps two again. Hopefully the stuff I’m doing now will get ten people off the ground immediately (I already know it’s reached at least this many people) but another 1000 going this year and another 10,000 if not more going over the next two years.

Whereas my programming and design work has only reached tens of thousands interacting with it over the last two years this is hopefully seeding for a big future.

Re: Ask HN: Why aren't you coding?

#88

Post by ambicapter »

I'm most comfortable coding in a unix environment, but I built/bought a windows computer to play video games on, and I'm too lazy to either install a linux distro on here, or setup a dev environment using WSL, etc. Also, I don't really have any projects in mind that are grabbing my fancy.

Re: Ask HN: Why aren't you coding?

#89

Post by arsenide »

Recently...

1. On StackOverflow learning more about how C# works under the hood to understand memory/CPU usage (newer to C#, used C++ in a past life)

2. Building/debugging a spreadsheet in Excel (not a software engineer by job description)

3. Debugging software issues on hardware by messing with the hardware

4. Thinking about how to code to solve the problem; drawing/writing things out, etc.; rather than just diving in head-first (need to do this more...)

Re: Ask HN: Why aren't you coding?

#90

Post by pkaye »

Thorentis wrote: post #77
anonymoushn wrote: post #51

The last time I was paid to be a developer by a company, the most prominent reasons I was not writing code were: 1. I am in the 5th meeting to discuss the details of a 10-page document about a feature that would take 100LOC to write if we weren't using Spring. 2. I am waiting for a dependency manager that is incapable of resuming downloads to download my dependencies from the private repository of dependencies which…

> it is my responsibility to ensure that the alerting is actually working > delegating tasks is some fake thing to make others feel good Somebody has to ultimately be responsible though right? If you're a team lead, isn't it still your responsibility to make sure the work your team has done is actually working before you tell your manager that it is?

If the developer, QA and SRE signed off on it, what more should the team lead do?
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