One common behavior seen in “mature” software engineers
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Re: One common behavior seen in “mature” software engineers
#2A few days ago, I wrote this comment[0], and followed it up with this one[1].
I am the most frequent consumer and refactorer [Ed. C'mon! That's gotta be a word!] of my code. Most of the breadcrumbs I leave, are for me.
I write about my approach here[2].
[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34602701
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34608516
[2] https://littlegreenviper.com/miscellany/leaving-a-legacy/
Re: One common behavior seen in “mature” software engineers
#3Couldn't agree more, and one of the more frustrating aspects of the job. I especially for situations where I find out that someone fixed a problem for x, even though they knew at the time the problem existed for y and z, but "no one reported it." So much time and productivity is wasted.
Re: One common behavior seen in “mature” software engineers
#4Prevention is better, but you often don't get the same rewards.
Re: One common behavior seen in “mature” software engineers
#5The idea of fixing a whole class of problems is common in safety critical software. When you find the cause of a bug its not just about fixing the bug but looking for this pattern of failure everywhere and fixing that and then understanding the aspects that led to this class of bugs to begin with and eliminating those. Its just good engineering to solve the class of problems not just the bug in front of you.
But I have also been part of a team that was replaced by another because we weren't heroic enough, because we had no bugs in our software and there was no drama for the business to get what it wanted and needed. Management rarely values this type of engineering.
Re: One common behavior seen in “mature” software engineers
#6"promotion is more about consistent level N+1 behavior, while one could get a high performance rating by solving many level N problems."
Not all companies are like this, and I find it common that new employees are not sufficiently taught what their company is like :
A) you have been performing well as N,promotion means "we feel / hope you're ready to work as N+1 in the future "
B) you've done great as N and have repeatedly performed N+1 tasks successfully. Promotion means "we recognize what you've already been doing "
First one is "proactive" and represents faith you'll do well at next band. In principle all you have to do is do your job well. There is risk though that you man not succeed after promotion if next band has radically different role or skillset.
Second one ensures you're prepared for your new band, but you cannot there just by doing your job well, and many people are unaware or don't have opportunity to do tasks of next band in their current role
Re: One common behavior seen in “mature” software engineers
#7Prevention is better, but you often don't get the same rewards.
Sad but true, I've grown to realize that it's important to highlight the applications that just work or were easy to extend because of a little foresight, otherwise it's too easy to forget. As I've done this more, I realize manager appreciate the reminder and reward the effort for these drama-free applications.
Re: One common behavior seen in “mature” software engineers
#8[dead]
Re: One common behavior seen in “mature” software engineers
#9The idea of fixing a whole class of problems is common in safety critical software. When you find the cause of a bug its not just about fixing the bug but looking for this pattern of failure everywhere and fixing that and then understanding the aspects that led to this class of bugs to begin with and eliminating those. Its just good engineering to solve the class of problems not just the bug in front of you. But I ha…
> because we had no bugs in our software and there was no drama for the business to get what it wanted and needed
I’m confused here. The business needed your software to have bugs for the drama? Surely this isn’t the whole story.
Re: One common behavior seen in “mature” software engineers
#10Prevention is better, but you often don't get the same rewards.
Best path to promotion as a high-level engineer is intentionally creating institutional-level problems that only you can fix at scale.