5 ms·

> If you’re the kind of programmer who is likely to find compiler errors, you probably know who you are. I'm one of those that routinely find a bug in a librar

by gioele 9y ago

> If you’re the kind of programmer who is likely to find compiler errors, you probably know who you are. I'm one of those that routinely find a bug in a library during the very first use of its API. Every "quick weekend project" turns into "let's learn the build system of this library and send a patch/bug report to the maintainer". Does anybody know how can I turn this annoying superpower of mine into a job that is not basic Q/A?

lmm 9y ago
Might make you suited to security consulting?
SCHiM 9y ago
Go into security and turn that free bugreport into big budget bug bounties ;) If you can find bugs in libraries used in IOS/Android or something, that's worth money and gives you the chance to increase security for millions (billions?) of people.
majewsky 9y ago
I have a similar thing with typos. Give me a page of printed text, and there's a surprisingly high chance I will spot a typo within the first few seconds of looking at the page, no matter where the typo occurs on the page. (Might be confirmation bias, but I have been proofreading a lot of theses for my friends while in college, so it might be trained.)
adrianN 9y ago
Get into an industry that values Q/A a lot. Aerospace, rail, nuclear power plants. Q/A doesn't have to be a dead-end job, career-wise.
ggm 9y ago
<quote>Does anybody know how can I turn this annoying superpower of mine into a job that is not basic Q/A? </quote> What would you say, if I told you that this superpower was not basic Q/A? because basic Q/A is what the compiler is passing, all the time. The part you meant with vigour was the <b>job</b> part right? how do you make somebody want your awesome enough to pay you a living wage? It's either apple or Intel, because they are the two people financially vested in llvm.
- amake 9y ago
  If you're the kind of programmer who inputs HTML into a comment system that doesn't support it...
  - ggm 9y ago
    I'm not in QA. You obviously head the snark department very well. Expect promotion, but alas, not much more pay.
JackFr 9y ago
Your superpower is both a blessing and a curse. It's likely that your weekend projects are things you find interesting and it seems likely that the things you find interesting are bleeding edge. It's never going to get better. On the other hand, any good dev team would value someone who can not only find the bug, but patch it. You need to get somewhere where using the latest and greatest is encouraged..
empath75 9y ago
Yeah libraries are a different thing. I find bugs in python modules all the time.

by gioele 9y ago

lmm 9y ago

Might make you suited to security consulting?

SCHiM 9y ago

Go into security and turn that free bugreport into big budget bug bounties ;) If you can find bugs in libraries used in IOS/Android or something, that's worth money and gives you the chance to increase security for millions (billions?) of people.

majewsky 9y ago

I have a similar thing with typos. Give me a page of printed text, and there's a surprisingly high chance I will spot a typo within the first few seconds of looking at the page, no matter where the typo occurs on the page. (Might be confirmation bias, but I have been proofreading a lot of theses for my friends while in college, so it might be trained.)

adrianN 9y ago

Get into an industry that values Q/A a lot. Aerospace, rail, nuclear power plants. Q/A doesn't have to be a dead-end job, career-wise.

ggm 9y ago

<quote>Does anybody know how can I turn this annoying superpower of mine into a job that is not basic Q/A? </quote> What would you say, if I told you that this superpower was not basic Q/A? because basic Q/A is what the compiler is passing, all the time. The part you meant with vigour was the <b>job</b> part right? how do you make somebody want your awesome enough to pay you a living wage? It's either apple or Intel, because they are the two people financially vested in llvm.

amake 9y ago
If you're the kind of programmer who inputs HTML into a comment system that doesn't support it...
- ggm 9y ago
  I'm not in QA. You obviously head the snark department very well. Expect promotion, but alas, not much more pay.

JackFr 9y ago

Your superpower is both a blessing and a curse. It's likely that your weekend projects are things you find interesting and it seems likely that the things you find interesting are bleeding edge. It's never going to get better. On the other hand, any good dev team would value someone who can not only find the bug, but patch it. You need to get somewhere where using the latest and greatest is encouraged..

empath75 9y ago

Yeah libraries are a different thing. I find bugs in python modules all the time.