7 ms·

Probably the most important bit of the entire article, which you can probably get from many self help career books (applies to all, not just programmers): "Ask

by jcbeard 10y ago

Probably the most important bit of the entire article, which you can probably get from many self help career books (applies to all, not just programmers): "Ask others to explain why they do things, but don't just accept dogmatic reasoning. Demand examples and inquire about context, so that you can try to imagine what it is like to be in their shoes. Doing this is tremendously valuable because it allows you to see the strengths and weaknesses of ideas in their natural habitats." One thing I can add is always question. There's a reason kids ask tons of questions, they want to know. Asking questions not only increases your own knowledge, and that of the person answering, but it also creates a culture where complacency is extinct. The one thing I hate more than people that litter are people that say "oh, well, that's the way I've always done it." There's lots more I dislike above that, but...complacency is the death of innovation. Then again, sometimes things just work....but that shouldn't stop you from trying to improve it.

mVChr 10y ago
This reminds me of the woman who was teaching her daughter to cook a pot roast the way she remembered her mom doing it. You take the meat, cut off four inches from one end and throw that away, put the rest in the pan in the oven at 350 for 3 hours. One holiday when the daughter was hosting grandma came over early to help and saw her cutting the end off the pot roast. She asked why and the daughter said that was how her mom said she did it. "Oh child, I only did that because our pan was too small!"
- xom 10y ago
  A WarCraft III commentator told the story of how he once saw a pro, during the opening, send his Demon Hunter to the healing fountain on a certain map, and he started doing the same with the same timing on that map. One day he met the pro in person and asked why he'd done it, and the pro said, To see if the opponent's Blademaster was there.
  - tbihl 10y ago
    Can you explain? I'm familiar with the mechanics and abilities, but probably not the tactics.
    - woebtz 10y ago
      The Demon Hunter and Blademaster is each player's respective hero/champion and essentially a free powerful unit. The DH player has the advantage during the early game, so is scouting around the map (the Fountain of Health being a likely location) to find an easy fight.
branchless 10y ago
but we've always littered, it'll be fine...
sbov 10y ago
Sure. Sometimes. Othertimes, you have to recognize that you aren't an expert, and that the real "why" is beyond your reach. If you're in this situation, you're probably better going with the herd. I run across this sometimes with my boss. He asks why we do X, can't we do Y? I respond: X is common and a well vetted practice, I don't know the security implications of Y. Then he says: lets use Y unless you can think of a concrete reason not to. In the meantime, I'm not really qualified to analyze Y in the way X has been analyzed. I would rather stick with X, even if my reason is dogmatic.
- skj 10y ago
  That's just your boss being dogmatic. Your reason for wanting to do X seemed valid to me, but then again I have no idea what Y was or why your boss wanted to do it.
- Paul-ish 10y ago
  >X is common and a well vetted practice, I don't know the security implications of Y. What isn't concrete about this? Does your boss invent his own HMAC schemes?
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
- jacobolus 10y ago
  > Othertimes, you have to recognize that you aren't an expert, and that the real "why" is beyond your reach. If you're in this situation, you're probably better going with the herd. Yep. And as a society we are great at this, which makes it almost impossible to improve any part of our culture basic enough to be taken for granted. That’s how we end up with a base ten number system, a weird irregular calendar, really silly spelling rules, suboptimal mathematical abstractions, inflexible shoes, office furniture and computer input devices which cause serious injuries, roughly the same computer architecture since the 60s, or the marvelous absurdity that is the modern web software stack, not to mention bloody centuries-old feuds between neighboring tribes. Also the main reason advertising and propaganda work so well. “Everyone else does it, so you should too” is an incredibly effective way to shortcut reasoning.
zamalek 10y ago
Dogma is the roadblock to a lot of progress, not only software development. > Asking questions not only increases your own knowledge Acknowledgement of being wrong or in doubt is a prerequisite of asking a question. Our current approach to education discourages being wrong - although it is difficult to imagine any other system with the amount of children that need to be educated today.

by jcbeard 10y ago

mVChr 10y ago

This reminds me of the woman who was teaching her daughter to cook a pot roast the way she remembered her mom doing it. You take the meat, cut off four inches from one end and throw that away, put the rest in the pan in the oven at 350 for 3 hours. One holiday when the daughter was hosting grandma came over early to help and saw her cutting the end off the pot roast. She asked why and the daughter said that was how her mom said she did it. "Oh child, I only did that because our pan was too small!"

xom 10y ago
A WarCraft III commentator told the story of how he once saw a pro, during the opening, send his Demon Hunter to the healing fountain on a certain map, and he started doing the same with the same timing on that map. One day he met the pro in person and asked why he'd done it, and the pro said, To see if the opponent's Blademaster was there.
- tbihl 10y ago
  Can you explain? I'm familiar with the mechanics and abilities, but probably not the tactics.
  - woebtz 10y ago
    The Demon Hunter and Blademaster is each player's respective hero/champion and essentially a free powerful unit. The DH player has the advantage during the early game, so is scouting around the map (the Fountain of Health being a likely location) to find an easy fight.

branchless 10y ago

but we've always littered, it'll be fine...

sbov 10y ago

Sure. Sometimes. Othertimes, you have to recognize that you aren't an expert, and that the real "why" is beyond your reach. If you're in this situation, you're probably better going with the herd. I run across this sometimes with my boss. He asks why we do X, can't we do Y? I respond: X is common and a well vetted practice, I don't know the security implications of Y. Then he says: lets use Y unless you can think of a concrete reason not to. In the meantime, I'm not really qualified to analyze Y in the way X has been analyzed. I would rather stick with X, even if my reason is dogmatic.

skj 10y ago
That's just your boss being dogmatic. Your reason for wanting to do X seemed valid to me, but then again I have no idea what Y was or why your boss wanted to do it.
Paul-ish 10y ago
>X is common and a well vetted practice, I don't know the security implications of Y. What isn't concrete about this? Does your boss invent his own HMAC schemes?
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
jacobolus 10y ago
> Othertimes, you have to recognize that you aren't an expert, and that the real "why" is beyond your reach. If you're in this situation, you're probably better going with the herd. Yep. And as a society we are great at this, which makes it almost impossible to improve any part of our culture basic enough to be taken for granted. That’s how we end up with a base ten number system, a weird irregular calendar, really silly spelling rules, suboptimal mathematical abstractions, inflexible shoes, office furniture and computer input devices which cause serious injuries, roughly the same computer architecture since the 60s, or the marvelous absurdity that is the modern web software stack, not to mention bloody centuries-old feuds between neighboring tribes. Also the main reason advertising and propaganda work so well. “Everyone else does it, so you should too” is an incredibly effective way to shortcut reasoning.

zamalek 10y ago

Dogma is the roadblock to a lot of progress, not only software development. > Asking questions not only increases your own knowledge Acknowledgement of being wrong or in doubt is a prerequisite of asking a question. Our current approach to education discourages being wrong - although it is difficult to imagine any other system with the amount of children that need to be educated today.