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As an oldster - two things that I really wish my younger self would have intimately realized. 1) As a software person your are employed to Solve Business Probl

As an oldster - two things that I really wish my younger self would have intimately realized. 1) As a software person your are employed to Solve Business Problems - NOT to write code, NOT to write tests, NOT to hack on platforms, NOT to be Agile. Solve the problem (or add the feature) - never lose sight of this. The value you bring is directly related to this. 2) People outside software development don't give a flying f* about most issues software related - but everyone has a computer, so most are poorly informed about technology and terrible at making right software choices - build products accordingly.

Benjammer 10y ago
>As a software person your are employed to Solve Business Problems - NOT to write code, NOT to write tests, NOT to hack on platforms, NOT to be Agile. Solve the problem (or add the feature) - never lose sight of this. The value you bring is directly related to this. My chemical engineering degree really instilled this idea in me early on, and it's by far the biggest motivating factor as to why I love to work at software startups. When a scientist discovers something in a lab, the ChemE's job is to then come in and figure out how to turn this discovery or innovation into a legitimate business. How do we scale this reaction up from a petri dish to a 10,000 gallon reactor? Where and how do we get the reagents? How much do they cost? Are there any hazardous byproducts? How do we dispose of them? I like to operate the same way as a software engineer. I'm an engineer, not a scientist. My job is to use technology to produce value for the business, while mitigating risks of that value eroding over time. All the work done should be focused on those two things. And it's not about focusing on those things instead of other things, it's more about realizing that anything worthwhile to do at work that you can come up with actually filters back to those two things anyway in some indirect fashion, so you might as well keep those ideas front and center.
- vvanders 10y ago
  That's a wonderful perspective. One thing I feel that's really missing from our field is some of the traditional engineering learnings and approaches from other industries. Nothing made me scoff at the idea of a "Software Engineer" more than when I started digging into some of the EE stuff. When you have a $1M tape out that goes wrong if one transistor is miswired. I just throw crap at the wall and see what sticks, EE and stuff like that is real engineering.
  - Clubber 10y ago
    >I just throw crap at the wall and see what sticks, EE and stuff like that is real engineering. That's one of the things I really love about writing software. You don't have to plan too much before you start to see some results and so you can really get creative quickly. If your thinking was wrong, just undo and try another angle.
sparrish 10y ago
I agree with both of these and would only add a #3. "No matter how much you try, you can’t stop people from sticking beans up their nose." https://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2011/07/08/beans-and-noses/ https://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2011/07/08/beans-and-noses/ The earlier you accept this, the farther ahead you'll be.
JamesBarney 10y ago
Theoretically point 1 is true but theory and practice can be very far apart. At the end of the day you're hired by a hiring manager to make him look good. Sometimes that involves solving business problems, sometimes that involves working 60 hours a week on a death march so that when the project inevitably fails the hiring manager can say the problem was impossible. Look how hard his team was working and still weren't able to accomplish it.
Clubber 10y ago
>1) As a software person your are employed to Solve Business Problems - NOT to write code, NOT to write tests, NOT to hack on platforms, NOT to be Agile. Solve the problem (or add the feature) - never lose sight of this. I couldn't agree more with this. When I was very young, I secretly wondered why people would pay me money to play with computers all day. Once I understood why, I was able make myself more valuable because I understood why I was valuable.
crdoconnor 10y ago
I've worked for a number of companies that did pay to "be agile". It was sort of a cargo cult thing sold by middle management to upper management or upper management to other upper management. Delivery of working software is supposed to trump everything else in theory, but in practice it often doesn't.

Benjammer 10y ago

>As a software person your are employed to Solve Business Problems - NOT to write code, NOT to write tests, NOT to hack on platforms, NOT to be Agile. Solve the problem (or add the feature) - never lose sight of this. The value you bring is directly related to this. My chemical engineering degree really instilled this idea in me early on, and it's by far the biggest motivating factor as to why I love to work at software startups. When a scientist discovers something in a lab, the ChemE's job is to then come in and figure out how to turn this discovery or innovation into a legitimate business. How do we scale this reaction up from a petri dish to a 10,000 gallon reactor? Where and how do we get the reagents? How much do they cost? Are there any hazardous byproducts? How do we dispose of them? I like to operate the same way as a software engineer. I'm an engineer, not a scientist. My job is to use technology to produce value for the business, while mitigating risks of that value eroding over time. All the work done should be focused on those two things. And it's not about focusing on those things instead of other things, it's more about realizing that anything worthwhile to do at work that you can come up with actually filters back to those two things anyway in some indirect fashion, so you might as well keep those ideas front and center.

vvanders 10y ago
That's a wonderful perspective. One thing I feel that's really missing from our field is some of the traditional engineering learnings and approaches from other industries. Nothing made me scoff at the idea of a "Software Engineer" more than when I started digging into some of the EE stuff. When you have a $1M tape out that goes wrong if one transistor is miswired. I just throw crap at the wall and see what sticks, EE and stuff like that is real engineering.
- Clubber 10y ago
  >I just throw crap at the wall and see what sticks, EE and stuff like that is real engineering. That's one of the things I really love about writing software. You don't have to plan too much before you start to see some results and so you can really get creative quickly. If your thinking was wrong, just undo and try another angle.

sparrish 10y ago

I agree with both of these and would only add a #3. "No matter how much you try, you can’t stop people from sticking beans up their nose." https://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2011/07/08/beans-and-noses/ https://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2011/07/08/beans-and-noses/ The earlier you accept this, the farther ahead you'll be.

JamesBarney 10y ago

Theoretically point 1 is true but theory and practice can be very far apart. At the end of the day you're hired by a hiring manager to make him look good. Sometimes that involves solving business problems, sometimes that involves working 60 hours a week on a death march so that when the project inevitably fails the hiring manager can say the problem was impossible. Look how hard his team was working and still weren't able to accomplish it.

Clubber 10y ago

>1) As a software person your are employed to Solve Business Problems - NOT to write code, NOT to write tests, NOT to hack on platforms, NOT to be Agile. Solve the problem (or add the feature) - never lose sight of this. I couldn't agree more with this. When I was very young, I secretly wondered why people would pay me money to play with computers all day. Once I understood why, I was able make myself more valuable because I understood why I was valuable.

crdoconnor 10y ago

I've worked for a number of companies that did pay to "be agile". It was sort of a cargo cult thing sold by middle management to upper management or upper management to other upper management. Delivery of working software is supposed to trump everything else in theory, but in practice it often doesn't.