Hordes Of Novices
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Hordes Of Novices
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Re: Hordes Of Novices
#2Hoard == a secret stash
Horde == a large group
Re: Hordes Of Novices
#3yes, Uncle Bob, we do need hordes of novices.
Because in the days of yore only monks and priests knew how to read and write, and that was bad. Getting everyone to read and write is good. 90% of what they write will be crap, but that's better than not having them write at all.
Obviously they're not going to be writing commercial or critical systems. Learning to code helps people deal with technology, but it doesn't make them professional coders. Just like learning to write a shopping list is useful but doesn't make me a journalist.
Opposing people learning things because what they might create with that knowledge is just wrong.
Re: Hordes Of Novices
#4yes, Uncle Bob, we do need hordes of novices. Because in the days of yore only monks and priests knew how to read and write, and that was bad. Getting everyone to read and write is good. 90% of what they write will be crap, but that's better than not having them write at all. Obviously they're not going to be writing commercial or critical systems. Learning to code helps people deal with technology, but it doesn't ma…
> Opposing people learning things because what they might create with that knowledge is just wrong
He doesn't oppose people learning things.
> Obviously they're not going to be writing commercial or critical systems.
No. That's exactly what he's talking about. The trend to hire more people rather than better people.
FTA: "Do we really need to keep on recruiting and training cannon fodder to throw at software projects? Or should we rethink this."
Take a few minutes to read the article.
Re: Hordes Of Novices
#5The overwhelming majority of bespoke software is a CRUD app in disguise (to a lesser or greater extent). You don't need to be an expert to develop things like that - a basic knowledge data structures, connecting to a database, and some UI and off you go. That isn't going to change. So I would argue that yes, we need the horde. We need more of the people at the "bottom" doing the boring stuff than we need at the top doing the hard stuff.
Re: Hordes Of Novices
#6The problem with mentoring programmers is: who is a good mentor? Looking back at when I started coding, very few of the senior people there would not have been good mentors. They simply weren't good enough. They would have taught me the wrong things.
Also, of course we need more good developers. The problem is that there aren't enough good people to be found (this is not a problem of too few places where you learn to code). Plus, the demand for more software seems pretty limitless.
Re: Hordes Of Novices
#7I believe there will be as many commercially created sites in the not so distant future as there will be houses.
programmers are the house builders of tomorrow, and they are needy, creating more jobs than the average bricklayer, so they drag a few non-educated along for the ride with them.
All in all a boon for all involved.
Re: Hordes Of Novices
#8He makes a good point that one more competent developer is much more valuable than multiple incompetent devs.
The first part of the piece, about how much software is needed and for how many uses, suggests another point he does not make -- namely that there is a lot of redundancy. In the universe of softare, how many independently developed, duplicative solutions to essentially the same functionality, code pattern or use case are there? Probably quite a lot, right?
The efforts of the limited number of good devs societies have on tap, obviously would go a lot further if there were more re-use and sharing. I know I'm an idealistic outlier in believing software should never have been deemed copyrightable, but the more we go in the "Free" direction - with GPL/BSD type licences and such - the better off we'll all be, in a macro view.
Re: Hordes Of Novices
#9It should be clear that what we need is more software developers, but people who are able to quickly rise above the level of novice.
Generally this is what the interview process is meant to weed out.
Re: Hordes Of Novices
#10The problem with mentoring programmers is: who is a good mentor? Looking back at when I started coding, very few of the senior people there would not have been good mentors. They simply weren't good enough. They would have taught me the wrong things. Also, of course we need more good developers. The problem is that there aren't enough good people to be found (this is not a problem of too few places where you learn to…
Yes. There's also difficulty in finding mentors. There are sites that pop up claiming to offer software mentorship, but most seem to be just people who are willing to help you with an issue you're having with your code. That is not a good mentor-protege relationship.