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Confessions of a Software Developer: No More Self-Censorship

kerrick.blog

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Re: Confessions of a Software Developer: No More Self-Censorship

#81

Post by onjectic »

Kerrick wrote: post #80
cedws wrote: post #71

I think the author is too hard on themselves for not knowing things, probably coming from shame. I can only speak for myself but learning to shrug that off just how to say "I don't know X" or "I forgot X" is very freeing. I say I don't know shit all the time at work, and so do people I work with. We aren't encyclopedias. Just chuckle about it and figure it out and learn. I much prefer working with people who can just…

For some reason I'm able to say "I don't know" to coworkers and superiors at work with no problem, but I have a much harder time online where it may affect future employers' opinions of me.

Where are you conversing online that this is a concern?

Re: Confessions of a Software Developer: No More Self-Censorship

#82

Post by denkmoon »

cogman10 wrote: post #65
Kerrick wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Somehow we were better at using remote tools while literally in the same office than some teams are at using them now while fully remote. I couldn't agree more. I pushed to get the place I worked for to use Slack when it first launched, moving us off AIM (ha!). Our use of Slack when we shared an office in the twenty-teens was so much better than the use I've seen of Slack/competitors on fully-remote teams. I wonder…

I can't speak for everyone, but I'd say that I've noticed that younger devs simply do not chat. My team rooms are pretty dead. I'll send stuff there but by and large the team simply doesn't use chat functions.

Perhaps the youngins are more cognisant that it's all monitored. Knowing your employer can read everything and it _will_ be used against you has a chilling effect and I'm pretty sure that's part of it.

Re: Confessions of a Software Developer: No More Self-Censorship

#83

Post by kasey_junk »

LtWorf wrote: post #72
cogman10 wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't speak for everyone, but I'd say that I've noticed that younger devs simply do not chat. My team rooms are pretty dead. I'll send stuff there but by and large the team simply doesn't use chat functions.

It doesn't help that reporting people to HR is a way to career advancement.

I’ve never worked _anywhere_ where reporting someone to HR was anything but negative impacting for your prospects at the company. And I’ve worked at lots of places in many dimensions (company size, industry, age, etc)

Re: Confessions of a Software Developer: No More Self-Censorship

#84

Post by agumonkey »

_ea1k wrote: post #22

Every time that I read this about remote work, all I can think is how much I miss IRC and the culture that came from it. We were doing remote work effectively decades ago. Don't have hallway conversations to fix bugs? Easy, just post your problems on the team chat and someone (often one of several people) would love to drop by to help. I'm not sure exactly all of the forces that have led to this changing so much, but…

It's a strange pattern I observe often, whenever an idea gets promoted from organic-natural-human-ritual to official-new-visible-main-idea, it becomes bloated and off point.

Re: Confessions of a Software Developer: No More Self-Censorship

#85

Post by Kerrick »

anonymous908213 wrote: post #44
Kerrick wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suppose I included the last section as a "confession" because I spent years pre-pandemic wishing I could go remote, talking loudly about how open office spaces were bad, etc. That, plus it's embarrassing to admit that I dislike remote work even though I am a remote worker. And not just a remote worker, but an enfranchised remote worker living 3 hours away from the nearest city with an international airport. I made…

Awfully nice, isn't it? You get all the privileges of being a remote worker, while "confessing" that remote work sucks to upper management who read your blog, giving them justification to deny other people the same opportunity you have. If you genuinely believe remote work sucks, you should own up to it, sell your property, and move to a city rather than reaping the benefits of it to the extent of your entire life be…

> giving them justification to deny other people the same opportunity you have

I don't fear they'll deny others the opportunity for remote work. The company is "headquartered" in California, but I don't know if they even lease an office anymore. The CTO lives in the upper midwest, the architect lives on the east coast, my manager lives along the Mississippi River, and I live in the Ozarks.

> enjoy the benefits more than you suffer the drawbacks

Yes. I'm sorry, I thought I made that clear in the post. The benefits of remote work include, but are not limited to: no stress or time from commuting, an opportunity for geographic arbitrage, and the ability to build a better lifestyle around the lack of a commute. Beyond just the remote worker themself, a society that transitioned all office work to remote would also gain more benefits: more efficient use of real estate with entire office buildings rendered unnecessary, less chance of land value distortion due to centralization of workers, and less pollution due to fewer commutes.

I'm glad to also criticize in-office work for having other drawbacks. For example, I was rear-ended commuting to work more than once, the family needed the expense of two cars, we spent more on clothing, and the ambient level of noise being above 35 dBA was annoying.

Re: Confessions of a Software Developer: No More Self-Censorship

#86

Post by _ea1k »

seneca wrote: post #42
_ea1k wrote: post #22

Every time that I read this about remote work, all I can think is how much I miss IRC and the culture that came from it. We were doing remote work effectively decades ago. Don't have hallway conversations to fix bugs? Easy, just post your problems on the team chat and someone (often one of several people) would love to drop by to help. I'm not sure exactly all of the forces that have led to this changing so much, but…

> Somehow we were better at using remote tools while literally in the same office than some teams are at using them now while fully remote. This is sort of the point. Remote tools work great when you have spent a lot of time building relationships and rapport with the people involved. That's hard to do in professional settings, and extremely hard to do in remote professional settings. Letting teams that know each oth…

IDK, some of the remote teams that I've worked on were only able to meet in person once per year, if that. They were very communicative on the tools that we had though.

Re: Confessions of a Software Developer: No More Self-Censorship

#87

Post by MarcelOlsz »

denkmoon wrote: post #82
cogman10 wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't speak for everyone, but I'd say that I've noticed that younger devs simply do not chat. My team rooms are pretty dead. I'll send stuff there but by and large the team simply doesn't use chat functions.

Perhaps the youngins are more cognisant that it's all monitored. Knowing your employer can read everything and it _will_ be used against you has a chilling effect and I'm pretty sure that's part of it.

We had such incredibly heinous group chats on our Slack that if an admin perused through the logs we'd be instantly fired and the company shut down right then and there lol. The paranoia drove everyone nuts which made it more fun.

Re: Confessions of a Software Developer: No More Self-Censorship

#88

Post by MarcelOlsz »

kasey_junk wrote: post #83
LtWorf wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't help that reporting people to HR is a way to career advancement.

I’ve never worked _anywhere_ where reporting someone to HR was anything but negative impacting for your prospects at the company. And I’ve worked at lots of places in many dimensions (company size, industry, age, etc)

This usually applies to Big Bank.

Re: Confessions of a Software Developer: No More Self-Censorship

#89

Post by [deleted] »

_ea1k wrote: post #22

Every time that I read this about remote work, all I can think is how much I miss IRC and the culture that came from it. We were doing remote work effectively decades ago. Don't have hallway conversations to fix bugs? Easy, just post your problems on the team chat and someone (often one of several people) would love to drop by to help. I'm not sure exactly all of the forces that have led to this changing so much, but…

[deleted]

Re: Confessions of a Software Developer: No More Self-Censorship

#90

Post by javawizard »

anonymous908213 wrote: post #68
javawizard wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well that sucks. It's exactly the site that comes to mind when I think "most popular alternative to HN". I've generally found conversation there to be more respectful than HN, rather than less, when discussions get heated - so I had high hopes it would be a different site, but alas. This leaves a really bad taste in my mouth. Edit: you know what, screw it. In the spirit of "no more self censorship", here's the link:…

I don't find the conversation to be especially disrespectful. The people in the thread in question attempted to shame him, to some extent. Shame is a social measure to coerce people who are behaving contrary to society's expectations to change their behaviour. However, while shaming him, they did not especially resort to childish name-calling or ad hominem. They reasoned with him extensively as to why his behaviour w…

I don't know, I'd kind of like to see their responses before passing that much judgement on them.

> you're advocating for a toxicly positive carebear forum

Please stop putting words in my mouth.

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