4 ms·

Interesting article though it feels a bit incomplete. The writer very briefly introduces this concept of a "reality moment" , gives an example and that's that.

Interesting article though it feels a bit incomplete. The writer very briefly introduces this concept of a "reality moment" , gives an example and that's that. The example is interesting and the concept rings true; I'd like to see more time spent discussing the concept in and of itself. The only time I remember seeing this addressed outside of a "programmers are bad at estimating tasks so do x to get better estimates" context was a post by Jeff Atwood about the tendency of programmers to look at something like StackOverflow and see, basically, two CREATE TABLE statements[1]. The reality moment, then, sounds like the moment one sees past that "weekend worth of coding". A bit more fleshing out, maybe with an examination of why we think this way would be a great read. [1]: http://blog.codinghorror.com/code-its-trivial/ http://blog.codinghorror.com/code-its-trivial/

meric 11y ago
Reality moment usually sets in a bit late for me. When I used to get a new job or contract I used to have incredible initial enthusiasm. Even three months in dealing with spaghetti code and inexperienced programmers I think to myself improvement in my working environment is around the corner and I'm going to be able to fix things myself. And then the reality moment sets in. Why did I agree to this In the first place - I'm working in a terribly unorganised company, being underpaid working with inexperienced programmers who never has a chance to improve properly because the company was too stingy to hire enough good and experienced programmers. But then I look at the state of things - they have been improving because I kept thinking I could fix it, the only issue is I should have been paid more as I've done a lot for the company. Stressed and frustrated I go looking for a new job. The process grants me a big boost of enthusiasm. I interview at a company that really likes me. I see some red flags with the way they produce software, but I ignore them and bury them in the back of my mind. "Do I stay at my place where my effort is having an effect or do I go to this new company?" This new company sounds so exciting! This time I'm thinking I might be happier taking this job offer back to my current company and get a good pay rise, but I'm not 100% decided yet.

meric 11y ago

Reality moment usually sets in a bit late for me. When I used to get a new job or contract I used to have incredible initial enthusiasm. Even three months in dealing with spaghetti code and inexperienced programmers I think to myself improvement in my working environment is around the corner and I'm going to be able to fix things myself. And then the reality moment sets in. Why did I agree to this In the first place - I'm working in a terribly unorganised company, being underpaid working with inexperienced programmers who never has a chance to improve properly because the company was too stingy to hire enough good and experienced programmers. But then I look at the state of things - they have been improving because I kept thinking I could fix it, the only issue is I should have been paid more as I've done a lot for the company. Stressed and frustrated I go looking for a new job. The process grants me a big boost of enthusiasm. I interview at a company that really likes me. I see some red flags with the way they produce software, but I ignore them and bury them in the back of my mind. "Do I stay at my place where my effort is having an effect or do I go to this new company?" This new company sounds so exciting! This time I'm thinking I might be happier taking this job offer back to my current company and get a good pay rise, but I'm not 100% decided yet.