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Anywhere that focusses on pair programming would be an obvious start. Similarly, watch out for use of the term "cowboy coder" applied to anyone who'd rather wo

by dasmoth 10y ago

Anywhere that focusses on pair programming would be an obvious start. Similarly, watch out for use of the term "cowboy coder" applied to anyone who'd rather work through a problem in private rather than engage in highly collaborative processes. Both of these terms, in my experience, accompany a mindset that says that single developers don't produce anything of value. (This isn't to say that collaboration is valuable or that there aren't many problems that need a bunch of coders to efficiently attack, but rather a fear that the industry is forgetting what a strong solo developer can achieve.)

ci5er 10y ago
Thanks for that - quick service even on a Sunday! I'd be the last to denigrate the value of the occasional developer cage-match at the white board, the technical dive-down lunch or water cooler chat, but I've never worked on a project that didn't leave coders well over half their time to work as they see fit. Or that did pair-coding[1] beyond the several weeks of on-boarding. I've probably been missing out, but what you describe sounds like a recipe for working hard (read: putting in the hours) without getting code written or having strict accountability. Is this the new thing? Diffusion of accountability? I'm probably taking what you are saying to a ridiculous limit/extreme, but that sounds like a disaster for introverts. I mean, it's work, not a social club -- how do the introverts get on in such an environment? [1] The projects I've been involved with have usually embedded test developers to work in tango with the functional code developers, but I suspect that this isn't what you are referring to as "pair programming".
- dasmoth 10y ago
  Pair programming, in this context, means two people sharing a workstation. No "single developer" code allowed, at least when it's taken to extremes. Agree with much of what you say and... >>> how do the introverts get on in such an environment? ...in my experience, not great. Out of curiosity, what kind of area do you work in?
  - ci5er 10y ago
    > Out of curiosity, what kind of area do you work in? I started out in semiconductor design (Motorola) in Tokyo (systems engineering - developing MCU firmware for consumer product customers. Sony and Canon were my main customers). This was a long (?) time ago - the mid-to-late 80s into the 90s. In the mid-to-late 90s, I did a startup developing software for electronics payments and banking on the Internet that sold its wares to the largest banks in various countries around the world (and sometimes the country's big telecom vendor if they were feeling feisty enough to take on their banking clients). In the early-to-mid 00's I tried (and often failed) to construct deals around aquaculture, mobile data telecom back-haul and coal-to-whatever conversion projects. This decade, in a addition to kick-starting software development teams for non-technical startup founders, I seem to be settling in around clinical informatics. I'm hankering to try and see if it is now possible to construct a "remote-first" company for enterprise software in healthcare IT. But I'm old and old fashioned. I tend to bring in people who have substantial development experience (there are always exceptions for brilliant young talent), and I've learned that people like to work like they like to work and to try to enable their productivity in their own style, not inculcate them in the "one true way" I want them to work. I'm guessing I said something really out-of-touch to trigger the question. What was it? :-)
- Stratoscope 10y ago
  There are companies that only do pair programming and apparently never let a developer work alone. Pivotal Labs is probably the best-known example: https://www.google.com/#q=pivotal+labs+pair+programming https://www.google.com/#q=pivotal+labs+pair+programming There are some interesting comments in that search, both from Pivotal and from other people, some of whom love pair programming and some who can't stand it.
  - ci5er 10y ago
    Thanks!
ontouchstart 10y ago
Here are a few exceptions https://www.sqlite.org https://www.sqlite.org https://github.com/antirez/redis https://github.com/antirez/redis

by dasmoth 10y ago

ci5er 10y ago

Thanks for that - quick service even on a Sunday! I'd be the last to denigrate the value of the occasional developer cage-match at the white board, the technical dive-down lunch or water cooler chat, but I've never worked on a project that didn't leave coders well over half their time to work as they see fit. Or that did pair-coding[1] beyond the several weeks of on-boarding. I've probably been missing out, but what you describe sounds like a recipe for working hard (read: putting in the hours) without getting code written or having strict accountability. Is this the new thing? Diffusion of accountability? I'm probably taking what you are saying to a ridiculous limit/extreme, but that sounds like a disaster for introverts. I mean, it's work, not a social club -- how do the introverts get on in such an environment? [1] The projects I've been involved with have usually embedded test developers to work in tango with the functional code developers, but I suspect that this isn't what you are referring to as "pair programming".

dasmoth 10y ago
Pair programming, in this context, means two people sharing a workstation. No "single developer" code allowed, at least when it's taken to extremes. Agree with much of what you say and... >>> how do the introverts get on in such an environment? ...in my experience, not great. Out of curiosity, what kind of area do you work in?
- ci5er 10y ago
  > Out of curiosity, what kind of area do you work in? I started out in semiconductor design (Motorola) in Tokyo (systems engineering - developing MCU firmware for consumer product customers. Sony and Canon were my main customers). This was a long (?) time ago - the mid-to-late 80s into the 90s. In the mid-to-late 90s, I did a startup developing software for electronics payments and banking on the Internet that sold its wares to the largest banks in various countries around the world (and sometimes the country's big telecom vendor if they were feeling feisty enough to take on their banking clients). In the early-to-mid 00's I tried (and often failed) to construct deals around aquaculture, mobile data telecom back-haul and coal-to-whatever conversion projects. This decade, in a addition to kick-starting software development teams for non-technical startup founders, I seem to be settling in around clinical informatics. I'm hankering to try and see if it is now possible to construct a "remote-first" company for enterprise software in healthcare IT. But I'm old and old fashioned. I tend to bring in people who have substantial development experience (there are always exceptions for brilliant young talent), and I've learned that people like to work like they like to work and to try to enable their productivity in their own style, not inculcate them in the "one true way" I want them to work. I'm guessing I said something really out-of-touch to trigger the question. What was it? :-)
Stratoscope 10y ago
There are companies that only do pair programming and apparently never let a developer work alone. Pivotal Labs is probably the best-known example: https://www.google.com/#q=pivotal+labs+pair+programming https://www.google.com/#q=pivotal+labs+pair+programming There are some interesting comments in that search, both from Pivotal and from other people, some of whom love pair programming and some who can't stand it.
- ci5er 10y ago
  Thanks!

ontouchstart 10y ago

Here are a few exceptions https://www.sqlite.org https://www.sqlite.org https://github.com/antirez/redis https://github.com/antirez/redis