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I call this 'feeding the machine'. There's the thing you want to do, the interesting, valuable, real-world problem you're trying to solve. But you're using a li
by thom 11y ago
I call this 'feeding the machine'. There's the thing you want to do, the interesting, valuable, real-world problem you're trying to solve. But you're using a library, that has a dependency, that doesn't build on your machine, because of your version of the compiler, and the new version isn't in your package repository, so you have to download and build it, but your version of readline is wrong and so on and so on. You're feeding the machine constantly, when you feel that it's supposed to be working for you.
It sucks, but it doesn't end. Every once in a while you're be in a nice place where you're using familiar tools and libraries and doing familiar work, but every new project and technology brings potential new demands to feed the machine.
You can have a long, happy and prosperous career working with a single stack that someone has made work on your OS of choice, but if you don't enjoy feeding the machine, there is a ceiling on your flexibility and problem solving ability.
- cesarbs 11y ago> You can have a long, happy and prosperous career working with a single stack that someone has made work on your OS of choice, but if you don't enjoy feeding the machine, there is a ceiling on your flexibility and problem solving ability. That's what gets to me the most. I'm fairly confident in my problem solving abilities and coding skills. But I frequently lose all motivation to do good work when 80% of what I do is "feed the machine". There are times when doing it makes sense for the problem at hand, and then I feel motivated, but most of the time feeding the machine is about dealing with shitty code, bad documentation and unnecessary overengineering.
- kohanz 11y agoI really like this analogy! The only thing I'll add is that I don't think you necessarily have to enjoy "feeding the machine", but as you said, you need to realize that it doesn't go away and that a lot of our value as software developers comes from our ability to continue to make forward progress when it happens (and sometimes even inventing a new way around it). I certainly don't always enjoy it while it's happening, but I do feel a sense of accomplishment when it's finished. This phenomenon is one also of the biggest reasons people who set out to "learn to code" end up giving up.
- metasean 11y agoalso known as Yak Shaving - http://www.hanselman.com/blog/YakShavingDefinedIllGetThatDoneAsSoonAsIShaveThisYak.aspx http://www.hanselman.com/blog/YakShavingDefinedIllGetThatDon...