4 ms·

If by "well documented" you mean "lots of people have whinged about it at great length", then I guess you're right. It's also a "tried and tested" method, too,

by efaref 10y ago

If by "well documented" you mean "lots of people have whinged about it at great length", then I guess you're right. It's also a "tried and tested" method, too, so it's got that going for it. I think if you approach them correctly (like the author suggests), then actually they're fine for their intended use. (Not perfect, but this is the real world, nothing's perfect). If you can't cope with scrawling some pseudocode on a whiteboard because that's "too much pressure" then you're going to really struggle when a deadline looms and we "absolutely must get this code out to the customer by Friday because a $50M contract is on the line."

xentronium 10y ago
> If by "well documented" you mean "lots of people have whinged about it at great length", then I guess you're right. It's also a "tried and tested" method, too, so it's got that going for it. You are wrong. Just because it's most used currently doesn't mean it's better. And it is actually well documented. @tokenadult posted this numerous times: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4879803 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4879803
vonmoltke 10y ago
> If you can't cope with scrawling some pseudocode on a whiteboard because that's "too much pressure" then you're going to really struggle when a deadline looms and we "absolutely must get this code out to the customer by Friday because a $50M contract is on the line." First, "scrawling some pseudocode on a whiteboard" and "we absolutely must get this code out to the customer by Friday because a $50M contract is on the line" are not the same thing and it is fallacious to use performance on one to infer performance on the other. "Stress" is not some universal feeling that differs from situation to situation only in amount. It has types, which different people handle differently. Second, related to my response to a sibling comment, if "we absolutely must get this code out to the customer by Friday because a $50M contract is on the line" has a high enough probability of occurring that it is worthwhile to screen candidates for ability to handle this, your company is fundamentally broken and you are trying to use your hiring to compensate for the real problems.

by efaref 10y ago

xentronium 10y ago

> If by "well documented" you mean "lots of people have whinged about it at great length", then I guess you're right. It's also a "tried and tested" method, too, so it's got that going for it. You are wrong. Just because it's most used currently doesn't mean it's better. And it is actually well documented. @tokenadult posted this numerous times: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4879803 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4879803

vonmoltke 10y ago

> If you can't cope with scrawling some pseudocode on a whiteboard because that's "too much pressure" then you're going to really struggle when a deadline looms and we "absolutely must get this code out to the customer by Friday because a $50M contract is on the line." First, "scrawling some pseudocode on a whiteboard" and "we absolutely must get this code out to the customer by Friday because a $50M contract is on the line" are not the same thing and it is fallacious to use performance on one to infer performance on the other. "Stress" is not some universal feeling that differs from situation to situation only in amount. It has types, which different people handle differently. Second, related to my response to a sibling comment, if "we absolutely must get this code out to the customer by Friday because a $50M contract is on the line" has a high enough probability of occurring that it is worthwhile to screen candidates for ability to handle this, your company is fundamentally broken and you are trying to use your hiring to compensate for the real problems.