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Wow, what a crock of shit. How did this get to the top of HN? - It seems the author has some problem with technical people but they never state what the proble

by sqldba 11y ago

Wow, what a crock of shit. How did this get to the top of HN? - It seems the author has some problem with technical people but they never state what the problem is. - The author identifies that technical people aren't strong on "Problem solving, teamwork, self-teaching, communication, attention to detail, organization, etc." What the shit? These are exactly what makes technical people so strong. Maybe the author doesn't like the terse and functional communication method used by technical people; but if they can't handle technical people or understand why we talk that way then they are the problem. - "we need to value non-code skills much more highly and explicitly." They never explain why you want to hire janitors with mathematics intuition, or brain surgeons who can also tap dance; but if you're a programmer then you damn well better be extrovert! I don't care if you can code just give me a nice conversation about sports and cars. Idiot. - "But resumes, interviews, the whole hiring process is set up to focus on technical ability." Actually a very tiny tiny portion of Silicon Valley hires on extreme programming challenges. The 99.999% rest of companies all over the rest of the world hire based on how much they like you in the interview - causing much frustration for people who are highly skilled and eager and ready to go for some job but got turned away because they were brogrammer enough. - "Hiring devs is really hard". What? How? Because there aren't enough? Because of some other problem? Just stating shit out of the ether doesn't make it true. A bit of introspection and elucidation would go a long way. - "Can't code? GTFO." If you were an engineer you'd be told to GTFO. If you were a pilot you'd be told to GTFO. If you were a surgeon you'd be told to GTFO. If you were an accountant you'd be told to GTFO. The only places that don't tell you to GTFO are fast food and strip joints. I can see the author holds IT skills in high esteem. This article is a pile of shit.

overgard 11y ago
It's classic, this person clearly does not understand shit about engineering, so they move the goal posts. "Oh its all the non engineering personality factors that are actually important... not like uh, what you can actually build... teamwork!" The rest of this reads like "all these nerds should share their NERDMAGICK so us normal people can do IMPORTANT THINGS"
maxwin 11y ago
Just don't understand why software devs tend to devalue their own work and skills as if it is something anyone can learn in a few days or weeks. I mean it is easy to start but very difficult to master.
abandonliberty 11y ago
I read your post before the article so I expected something completely different. You're clearly reading this article through a very interesting lens. You claim that "The author identifies that technical people aren't strong on "Problem solving, teamwork, self-teaching, communication, attention to detail, organization, etc." What the shit? These are exactly what makes technical people so strong." You may want to reread the first paragraph, because it AGREES with you: "I have number of recent example of people . . . already SO strong on the non-code aspects of programming . . . Problem solving, teamwork, self-teaching, communication, attention to detail, organization, etc. " Your other observations may have merit or they may be just as clouded as this one, so you don't seem like a very reliable source here.
- overgard 11y ago
  I got the impression from the article, like the parent post, that the author thinks these skills are more prevalent outside of tech. Why else would he suggest hiring for this above all else? Does he think that it's impossible to get people that are BOTH good communicators and solid engineers? These people aren't unicorns! I'd say the vast majority of coders I've worked with are totally fine at soft skills. If the author thinks that technical people can be equally strong in these people skills, then why are they advocating explicitly hiring non-technical people for the job? It's not like there's a scarcity of engineers that aren't total mouth-breathers. Just hire engineers that also happen to have good communication skills. You don't have to go to some absurd extreme of hiring incompetent people.

by sqldba 11y ago

overgard 11y ago

It's classic, this person clearly does not understand shit about engineering, so they move the goal posts. "Oh its all the non engineering personality factors that are actually important... not like uh, what you can actually build... teamwork!" The rest of this reads like "all these nerds should share their NERDMAGICK so us normal people can do IMPORTANT THINGS"

maxwin 11y ago

Just don't understand why software devs tend to devalue their own work and skills as if it is something anyone can learn in a few days or weeks. I mean it is easy to start but very difficult to master.

abandonliberty 11y ago

I read your post before the article so I expected something completely different. You're clearly reading this article through a very interesting lens. You claim that "The author identifies that technical people aren't strong on "Problem solving, teamwork, self-teaching, communication, attention to detail, organization, etc." What the shit? These are exactly what makes technical people so strong." You may want to reread the first paragraph, because it AGREES with you: "I have number of recent example of people . . . already SO strong on the non-code aspects of programming . . . Problem solving, teamwork, self-teaching, communication, attention to detail, organization, etc. " Your other observations may have merit or they may be just as clouded as this one, so you don't seem like a very reliable source here.

overgard 11y ago
I got the impression from the article, like the parent post, that the author thinks these skills are more prevalent outside of tech. Why else would he suggest hiring for this above all else? Does he think that it's impossible to get people that are BOTH good communicators and solid engineers? These people aren't unicorns! I'd say the vast majority of coders I've worked with are totally fine at soft skills. If the author thinks that technical people can be equally strong in these people skills, then why are they advocating explicitly hiring non-technical people for the job? It's not like there's a scarcity of engineers that aren't total mouth-breathers. Just hire engineers that also happen to have good communication skills. You don't have to go to some absurd extreme of hiring incompetent people.