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Snobbery exists everywhere. Programmers snobbishly complain about bad programmers. Workers snobbishly complain about people who hire workers to do their work fo

Snobbery exists everywhere. Programmers snobbishly complain about bad programmers. Workers snobbishly complain about people who hire workers to do their work for them. Rich complain about poor. Poor complain about rich. Everyone wants to feel superior and snobbery provides that.

collyw 9y ago
As a programmer I complain about working with bad programmers because it usually makes future work more difficult. Is that snobbery?
- SomeStupidPoint 9y ago
  Yes? I mean, there's a good chance that the person you're complaining about didn't have all the same benefits you've had -- education, mentoring, upbringing, genetic, whatever. It's a very explicit "why can't everyone be as great as I am?" It also makes you a bad coworker: if you have energy to whine, you have energy to teach. Ed: It would be nice if the people who disagree would explain why. I'm honestly curious why people complaining about coworkers think it's anything but an entitled whine.
  - collyw 9y ago
    I have worked with good experienced developers and crappy developers. Its a lot easier working with the first group.
  - rootusrootus 9y ago
    Have you ever tried to teach someone who is uninterested in learning? Or simply unable? They do exist, definitely. Right now I've got someone on my team who has excellent knowledge of academic computer science principles, and no appreciation for practical reality. This is a constant source of friction since real life so rarely looks like a textbook problem. We have tried, and tried, and tried to explain that, but he continues to be a merciless pedant and on top of that his code is simply atrocious. This is what I would call a bad programmer, and I don't feel the least bit snobbish for wanting him off my team.
  - collyw 9y ago
    I guess I should clarify my point. We (the IT department in my company) have been teaching the content editor (she updated the wordpress site) how to do HTML and some Python. She is effectively a junior developer now. I am completely fine with teaching people if they are keen to learn and I know people have to start somewhere. What got on my nerves was previous co-workers when you try and show them a better way of doing something and they just don't care. They do it to keep you happy there and then, then back to their crappy ways a week later and usually I need to clean up the mess involved. Give me an enthusiastic newbie over an unenthusiastic "one year ten times" developer any day.

collyw 9y ago

As a programmer I complain about working with bad programmers because it usually makes future work more difficult. Is that snobbery?

SomeStupidPoint 9y ago
Yes? I mean, there's a good chance that the person you're complaining about didn't have all the same benefits you've had -- education, mentoring, upbringing, genetic, whatever. It's a very explicit "why can't everyone be as great as I am?" It also makes you a bad coworker: if you have energy to whine, you have energy to teach. Ed: It would be nice if the people who disagree would explain why. I'm honestly curious why people complaining about coworkers think it's anything but an entitled whine.
- collyw 9y ago
  I have worked with good experienced developers and crappy developers. Its a lot easier working with the first group.
- rootusrootus 9y ago
  Have you ever tried to teach someone who is uninterested in learning? Or simply unable? They do exist, definitely. Right now I've got someone on my team who has excellent knowledge of academic computer science principles, and no appreciation for practical reality. This is a constant source of friction since real life so rarely looks like a textbook problem. We have tried, and tried, and tried to explain that, but he continues to be a merciless pedant and on top of that his code is simply atrocious. This is what I would call a bad programmer, and I don't feel the least bit snobbish for wanting him off my team.
- collyw 9y ago
  I guess I should clarify my point. We (the IT department in my company) have been teaching the content editor (she updated the wordpress site) how to do HTML and some Python. She is effectively a junior developer now. I am completely fine with teaching people if they are keen to learn and I know people have to start somewhere. What got on my nerves was previous co-workers when you try and show them a better way of doing something and they just don't care. They do it to keep you happy there and then, then back to their crappy ways a week later and usually I need to clean up the mess involved. Give me an enthusiastic newbie over an unenthusiastic "one year ten times" developer any day.