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I think you and I are doing completely different types of software development or live in very different bubbles. > Those are two almost separate tracks No the

by jitix 9y ago

I think you and I are doing completely different types of software development or live in very different bubbles. > Those are two almost separate tracks No they are not. If you come up with some innovation/improvement in your field you should present it to a broader audience. It's not like these seminars and meetups have non-technical audience. So you don't need Elon Musk level of charisma. It's just sharing knowledge. > Majority of developers I know, regardless of age, don't like writing in general Not true for me. Most good developers I know like to share their knowledge and opinions via different channels. > Few do and it is great when they do WTF! why is not documenting stuff acceptable where you work? what happens when the component needs updates/fixes long after the developer has left? At least document enough stuff so that somebody else can be brought up to speed quickly. Maintainability is a key requirement in modern software. > skill and contributions If you're doing the same thing your skill doesn't really improve much after 3-4 years. Most best practices are documented or are otherwise passed down from senior engineers to junior engineers. So it's not like somebody with 20 years experience will write better code than somebody with 5 years experience. As an anecdotal evidence, I started out fresh out of college 8 years back, did J2EE and some frontend (pre-HTML5).. after 3 years I realized that I knew pretty much known everything about enterprise J2EE patterns and practices as any other person. So I moved into big data (hadoop, MR, etc.), learned stuff, mentored people, etc. Last year I realized that big data field is big enough with enough documentation and established practices that you can train a developer in 2 years to do what I was doing. So I moved into machine learning. I hope to ride this wave for the next 5-6 years until it becomes apparent that any college graduate can be trained to do my work with a couple of years of mentoring.

watwut 9y ago
> Not true for me. Most good developers I know like to share their knowledge and opinions via different channels. You measure extroversion there. Good introverted developers exist too - in fact developers be more introverted then general population (there are stats on that). So do very good shy or humble developers. While real developers are on average nowhere near the nerd stereotype with social anxiety, plenty good developers are a bit like that (They dont talk much unless they know you a bit). > WTF! why is not documenting stuff acceptable where you work? What does that have to do with blogging? I said they dont like writing. I did not said they don't write documentation or comments when needed. How did you managed to twist "not liking to write" in context of blogs to "maintainable software"? For that matter, real documentation, the one that is targeted at users, is written by technical writers mostly. Developers job is to explain it to writer - it is mostly that docs are more then full time jobs and good technical writer are really better at explaining stuff. > How did you managed to twist "measure skills and contributions instead of projecting cool" to "doing the same thing dozens years"? Seriously. The worst developer out there is is the one that does not do tasks that he does not like. You seem to treat it like the norm and assume that if someone does not visibly loudly jump up and down then he is going to slack it or something. I don't think it is possible to know everything there is to know about application servers in three years. There are many positions that require neither breadth nor depth and that is fine. If you are in position to mentor people just a year after you entered the field, then the field is too easy and new. I mean, of course any good college graduate can do big data or artificial intelligence. Why would not they? They are best equipped to do math heavy things and they are already adults. Ability to confidently bullshit after 3 months of learning is not the only way how to be a good developer.

by jitix 9y ago

watwut 9y ago

> Not true for me. Most good developers I know like to share their knowledge and opinions via different channels. You measure extroversion there. Good introverted developers exist too - in fact developers be more introverted then general population (there are stats on that). So do very good shy or humble developers. While real developers are on average nowhere near the nerd stereotype with social anxiety, plenty good developers are a bit like that (They dont talk much unless they know you a bit). > WTF! why is not documenting stuff acceptable where you work? What does that have to do with blogging? I said they dont like writing. I did not said they don't write documentation or comments when needed. How did you managed to twist "not liking to write" in context of blogs to "maintainable software"? For that matter, real documentation, the one that is targeted at users, is written by technical writers mostly. Developers job is to explain it to writer - it is mostly that docs are more then full time jobs and good technical writer are really better at explaining stuff. > How did you managed to twist "measure skills and contributions instead of projecting cool" to "doing the same thing dozens years"? Seriously. The worst developer out there is is the one that does not do tasks that he does not like. You seem to treat it like the norm and assume that if someone does not visibly loudly jump up and down then he is going to slack it or something. I don't think it is possible to know everything there is to know about application servers in three years. There are many positions that require neither breadth nor depth and that is fine. If you are in position to mentor people just a year after you entered the field, then the field is too easy and new. I mean, of course any good college graduate can do big data or artificial intelligence. Why would not they? They are best equipped to do math heavy things and they are already adults. Ability to confidently bullshit after 3 months of learning is not the only way how to be a good developer.