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I've experienced this so many times, it's depressing. Often it goes something like this, I'll sit near the guys (it's always guys) in the other team and overhea
by le-mark 9y ago
I've experienced this so many times, it's depressing. Often it goes something like this, I'll sit near the guys (it's always guys) in the other team and overhear how they're planning to implement something, when the library or framework they're using already does that, but they don't know about it. If I say something, I'm ignored, and they go off and write a bunch of buggy code that causes everyone problems down the line.
Other times, it's someone new to the team|company|career who's given a task that directly impacts my area of the app, and they go off and build some monstrously over engineered solution to a not difficult problem, without asking for client (ie my) input. Once had to work with a guy who would implement plugins for the build system for trivial stuff for example.
One that stands out is a guy (experienced, 10 year+) who was hired on to implement a one off for a client such that he was able to re-use a lot of existing code. He systematically went though and cut and paste entire source tree's into a new project. This time, I threw caution to the wind; "don't do that, package it and use it as a library!", no effect. A couple of months later the same guy comes to me with a bunch of bugs related to hard coded paths in the code he'd moved, but hadn't updated the paths. Oh I was a jackass; told ya so, didn't listen did ya?
I have struggled with this over the years. I have tried to be super diplomatic and circumspect. I have tried staying silent, I have tried talking to leads and managers. Here's the thing: nothing works. I have come to believe there is something in the DNA of (some) developers that prohibits asking for or taking advice.
> myself was once in a situation where I thought myself a star team member only to find out later that I was not helping much, and that is putting it mildly. I wasted 12-18 months before I figured this out and moved on.
This is incredibly self aware, and I congratulate you. I believe most developers achieve this after some period of time in the industry, but some never do.
Edit; added a bunch of stuff, this is a sore point for me apparently.
- AznHisoka 9y agoI think you were made to be a solopreneur.
- fhood 9y agoI just want you to know that should you ever happen to see me attempting to re-implement code that already exists, please please please tell me.
- Chris2048 9y ago> He systematically went though and cut and paste entire source tree's into a new project wait, did he not have an explanation of this?
- virtuexru 9y agoMaybe it's because you come off as a pompous prick? Instead of acting like a know it all you should perhaps come at the situation from a more diplomatic perspective.
- draw_down 9y agoThis is to GP's point: you're not perceived as trying to help, you're perceived as being a pompous ass. As they say, no good deed goes unpunished. This is why I just leave places that have this type of shit going on, you can't help and people will not listen. You can actively harm your career/reputation if you try. Just go somewhere better.
- le-mark 9y agoYeah, don't down vote this, it's valid. All I can say is I've been hyper aware of this, I've really tried to not be pompous or condescending. It's always, ok, this again, let's try the Socratic method this time. Or, ok, this time I'll cite the documentation. But yeah, like others have said, I don't try anymore. Unless it directly impacts what I'm working on. Then I'm just a dick, or move on.
- diyseguy 9y agoOh god, I've been there too. It's like watching code cancer develop and I'm helpless to stop it. Maybe if they can name an anti-pattern for this that can be readily referred to. I usually try to refer people to Clean Code by Robert C. Martin. But everyone presupposes they are smarter than me and old guys like him and smarter than the people who already wrote and tested and attained widespread adoptance (word?) of whatever library or framework already does this stuff he's re-writing. I've come to believe its an attempt to establish job security by writing vast tangles of custom code all their own. Trouble is when you have non technical managers who see him churning away - checking in loads of code and spending hours 'fixing' bugs (he introduced himself) so on paper he comes out looking way more 'productive' than others - so he becomes a darling.
- bryanrasmussen 9y agoI think that many developers are worried about being seen as stupid, one way they choose to handle this fear is to not take advice - the macho developer route. It is not a tactic conducive to success at programming, but it is a tactic conducive to handling the fear of not being smart enough.