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Advice From An Old Programmer

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Re: Advice From An Old Programmer

#91

Post by d4nt »

randomdata wrote: post #66
d4nt wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. We seem to be trying so hard these days to make our organisational structures appear flat and informal (e.g. open plan office spaces, casual dress policies, "360 degree reviews" and an aversion to using job titles) that I feel it's just pushed the competition for status and respect underground. The people who've been around for a long time simply find other ways to show newcomers that they're important or that t…

> an aversion to using job titles I just never understood the purpose. Humans are not inelastic beings who are a fixed cog in the wheel. I guess my official title is developer, but I spend just as much time in UX/design and IT roles, not to mention managing people doing the same. And that is just at the place of my primary source of income. I work in other fields, completely unrelated to software, on the side. Out of…

I think it's a question of balance, at the other end of the spectrum you can get growing startups where the initial "everyone's on a level and talks about everything" approach no longer works and has given way to a combination of multiple people competing over the same territory and the old guard finding ways to remind the noobs what the pecking order is. In that kind of situation, a little hierarchy and a few harmless ways of recognising past achievement/tenure would make for a much more harmonious work place.

Re: Advice From An Old Programmer

#92

Post by zedshaw »

edw519 wrote: post #28

Thoughts from an Older Programmer... I've been programming for a very long time. Me too. So long that it's incredibly boring to me. Actually, it's more interesting to me than ever. ...I knew about 20 programming languages and could learn new ones in about a day to a week depending on how weird they were. I have a cursory knowledge of quite a few myself. But I know one really, really well. Eventually though this just…

> Please remove the sentence "They cannot."

Nobody asked you.

Re: Advice From An Old Programmer

#94

Post by zedshaw »

amirmc wrote: post #2

> "People who can code in biology, medicine, government, sociology, physics, history, and mathematics are respected and can do amazing things to advance those disciplines" True. I have a theoretical physics friend who's now applying a ton of machine-learning techniques to biophysics stuff (in an academic setting). I've no idea exactly what he's doing other than he's always snowed under and people keep coming back to…

Now that is interesting. I'm trying to imagine how you would apply machine learning to biology. Related to DNA sequences probably?

Re: Advice From An Old Programmer

#95

Post by zedshaw »

loup-vaillant wrote: post #70

> Which programming language you learn and use doesn't matter. Do not get sucked into the religion surrounding programming languages as that will only blind you to their true purpose of being your tool for doing interesting things. That, is a dangerously double-edged wording. I see two ways of interpreting this, which are almost opposite. (1) "Languages don't matter, in the sense that whichever you chose doesn't chan…

1) No I could actually write the same thing with the same quality in most any language I know, baring a few esoteric ones like brainfuck. One language may take me longer than others, but the error rate would not be higher or lower usually.

2) This is more what I'm saying.

Re: Advice From An Old Programmer

#96

Post by zedshaw »

ferids wrote: post #27

Also a part of this problem is that many programmers are assholes. Going out to the world while thinking "im to smart for the rest of the world, tha hell with them" is just a big social failure in general. One need to be able to see things out of different perspectives, a bit more open minded. Just because a person like to do other things in life then CS-stuff, does not mean they are automatically stupid. Programming…

You're right, the real way to be an asshole and have people love you for it is to say:

"im too tough for the rest of the world, tha hell with them"

Because being smart and confident is just uppity, but being tough and confident is baller yo.

Re: Advice From An Old Programmer

#98

Post by zedshaw »

vacri wrote: post #19

"Programming as an intellectual activity is the only art form that allows you to create interactive art." (his emphasis) Kinetic sculptures? Fashion? Hell, go to a science museum and you'll find endless halls of interactive art, little of which involves programming.

Let me know when you can tell a Fashion designer you hate their dress by writing on the back of some girl wearing it. Oh, and doing that without software.

Re: Advice From An Old Programmer

#99

Post by zedshaw »

j45 wrote: post #88
j45 wrote: post #80

This is brilliant advice. "What I discovered after this journey of learning is that it's not the languages that matter but what you do with them." For those developers who have only discovered the nirvana with one, or two languages, and love their rails, djangos, closures to death, just know that if one exists, there's always the possibility that there's more. Just because you aren't aware of them doesn't mean it doe…

Wow, I can't believe saying something similar to edw519, and the OP, got downvoted. At least, kind of explain, maybe why. I don't think there's anything inflammatory here. Thanks!

I wouldn't worry about it. This part of my book seems to get fairly polarize results or simple meandering talks about each person's own life and decisions so it most likely has nothing to do with your comment.
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