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I love this. The catfish moniker is weird but I have definitely learned these lessons. I write very simple code because I've seen the hotshot stuff go bad, not

I love this. The catfish moniker is weird but I have definitely learned these lessons. I write very simple code because I've seen the hotshot stuff go bad, not because I don't understand the hotshot stuff. But, this way of working involves little glory or reward besides the money. You'll never be the genius that created the beautiful new thing, you'll always be the janitor who's stuck with fixing all the mistakes of the "genius". So just know that. One time a coworker said to me, you know, your stuff always just works and I never run into problems with it. That's about the extent of praise you'll get when you work like this. So know that too.

pteredactyl 9y ago
As a contractor, that's fine. Because I do not seek glory in the office. I seek glory 2 miles up on a Tuesday morning hike while all the zombies are at the office. Also, there's no traffic so, :). EDIT: 'miles up'
- guelo 9y ago
  Maybe you meant 2 miles up?
  - pteredactyl 9y ago
    Yea
- draw_down 9y ago
  That's cool,I've never been a contractor. Just always seem to end up cleaning up after old messes.
- laythea 9y ago
  I think that is depressing. I'm not saying don't go for a bike ride, but why not seek glory in something you spend 1/3 (+) of your life doing?
  - Sean1708 9y ago
    Why not seek glory in what you want to seek glory in and stop judging others based on what they want to seek glory in?
    - laythea 9y ago
      Jeeze... To call what I said a judgement is a bit over the top. It is an opinion, not a criticism, as there is nothing personal in my statement. Don't be too precious.
      - Sean1708 9y ago
        Fair maybe "judge" was too harsh a word, but you reply like this and you're calling me precious?
  - pteredactyl 9y ago
    Fair, but who said I spent 1/3 of my life doing it?
    - laythea 9y ago
      True. My point was that people spend a considerable amount of energy/time going to work, so might as well "apply" oneself. Not sure if that's what you mean by glory. But the two are usually linked.
bigger_cheese 9y ago
I work with a bunch of scientists and engineers(the non software type) I've seen some very 'ugly' code written by very smart people who they were never taught CS concepts so they often don't know about efficient algorithms or anything like that but they crank out tonnes of code that does useful work. I kind of fall into this janitor role. I often get people stopping by my desk how can I speed this up. Can you help me fix this bug etc. I think it's because I fall into the sweet spot where I have the domain knowledge (I have engineering degree) so that I can understand the problem they are trying to solve. It's also amusing that no matter the language (C, C++, Java, Basic etc) a large subset churn out code that looks a lot like Fortran 77.
- krylon 9y ago
  > a large subset churn out code that looks a lot like Fortran 77. REAL PROGRAMMERS can write FORTRAN code in any language, right? ;-)
krylon 9y ago
> I write very simple code because I've seen the hotshot stuff go bad, not because I don't understand the hotshot stuff. There is nothing like coming back and fixing some code you wrote a year ago (or longer) on a Friday afternoon when you have a train to catch and being able to pull it off because you can actually read that code and understand how it works right away. At first I missed the twisted pride in coming up with overly clever solutions, but I can always scratch that itch in toy projects I work on in my free time. But being able to call it a day on time and not having to work late in order to figure out WTF I was thinking a year ago is priceless. And as for glory - I still have to defend a programmer who quit long ago, because I was able to dive into his Delphi code base without any prior knowledge of Delphi or any knowledge of the problem domain and make meaningful changes to that code within a few days. Okay, so I had to pepper our accountants with questions relentlessly for hours, but in the end I understood enough of what they told me to make that change. ;-)

pteredactyl 9y ago

As a contractor, that's fine. Because I do not seek glory in the office. I seek glory 2 miles up on a Tuesday morning hike while all the zombies are at the office. Also, there's no traffic so, :). EDIT: 'miles up'

guelo 9y ago
Maybe you meant 2 miles up?
- pteredactyl 9y ago
  Yea
draw_down 9y ago
That's cool,I've never been a contractor. Just always seem to end up cleaning up after old messes.
laythea 9y ago
I think that is depressing. I'm not saying don't go for a bike ride, but why not seek glory in something you spend 1/3 (+) of your life doing?
- Sean1708 9y ago
  Why not seek glory in what you want to seek glory in and stop judging others based on what they want to seek glory in?
  - laythea 9y ago
    Jeeze... To call what I said a judgement is a bit over the top. It is an opinion, not a criticism, as there is nothing personal in my statement. Don't be too precious.
    - Sean1708 9y ago
      Fair maybe "judge" was too harsh a word, but you reply like this and you're calling me precious?
- pteredactyl 9y ago
  Fair, but who said I spent 1/3 of my life doing it?
  - laythea 9y ago
    True. My point was that people spend a considerable amount of energy/time going to work, so might as well "apply" oneself. Not sure if that's what you mean by glory. But the two are usually linked.

bigger_cheese 9y ago

I work with a bunch of scientists and engineers(the non software type) I've seen some very 'ugly' code written by very smart people who they were never taught CS concepts so they often don't know about efficient algorithms or anything like that but they crank out tonnes of code that does useful work. I kind of fall into this janitor role. I often get people stopping by my desk how can I speed this up. Can you help me fix this bug etc. I think it's because I fall into the sweet spot where I have the domain knowledge (I have engineering degree) so that I can understand the problem they are trying to solve. It's also amusing that no matter the language (C, C++, Java, Basic etc) a large subset churn out code that looks a lot like Fortran 77.

krylon 9y ago
> a large subset churn out code that looks a lot like Fortran 77. REAL PROGRAMMERS can write FORTRAN code in any language, right? ;-)

krylon 9y ago

> I write very simple code because I've seen the hotshot stuff go bad, not because I don't understand the hotshot stuff. There is nothing like coming back and fixing some code you wrote a year ago (or longer) on a Friday afternoon when you have a train to catch and being able to pull it off because you can actually read that code and understand how it works right away. At first I missed the twisted pride in coming up with overly clever solutions, but I can always scratch that itch in toy projects I work on in my free time. But being able to call it a day on time and not having to work late in order to figure out WTF I was thinking a year ago is priceless. And as for glory - I still have to defend a programmer who quit long ago, because I was able to dive into his Delphi code base without any prior knowledge of Delphi or any knowledge of the problem domain and make meaningful changes to that code within a few days. Okay, so I had to pepper our accountants with questions relentlessly for hours, but in the end I understood enough of what they told me to make that change. ;-)