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To me what separates the men from the boys in software development is the ability to get the job done effectively. In my experience, while the boys are playing
by dejb 19y ago
To me what separates the men from the boys in software development is the ability to get the job done effectively. In my experience, while the boys are playing with programming methods for the sake of it, the men are actually implementing functionality using the techniques that fit the job.
I must admit spending a fair bit of time as a boy though :)
- vikas5678 19y agoI really agree with this, because I've done so many things just for the heck of it, and for learning new cool things, etc while other big boys/men out there are implementing simple useful things which make them money.
- Hexstream 19y agoWell, you first have to be a boy to then grow into a man then (makes sense). Because to know what techniques fit the job, you have to know the available techniques, and to know them you have to learn them, and to learn them you either have to know or trust that they are or might be useful. You can't really know how useful they are before you know how they work, but you won't be bothered to learn how they work if you don't know how useful they are. It's a bootstrapping problem the solution of which is to accept that there's a percentage of new things you learn that will turn out not to be useful to you. So, there's a lot of value in using unfamiliar techniques just for the sake of it.
- dejb 19y agoI agree. Aquiring the right tools is important. As long as you remember that the tools are there to get the job done not the other way round. Preferably you can do the majority of your 'technique aquisition' on someone else's time so when you are coding in your own startup (or mine) you can focus on the problem at hand. I know I've implemented things before in ways that I now realize were pointlessly clever.