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You're not entirely wrong, but that's a very bitter interpretation. A more charitable interpretation of "passion" would be... I'm nominally a Python & Scala pr

by tomp 8y ago

You're not entirely wrong, but that's a very bitter interpretation. A more charitable interpretation of "passion" would be... I'm nominally a Python & Scala programmer (according to my CV), but I can also competently talk about OCaml, Haskell, Rust, instruction scheduling, tracing JIT compiler implementation, propagating type inference, TCP stack, C memory model, register allocation, hardware concurrency primitives and ring 0 privileges. Compare that to another Python programmer that once tried to convince me that when a C++ program tries to access unallocated memory "the computer just throws an exception".

scarface74 8y ago
Honest question, I’m not trying to denigrate anyone who takes an interest in software development for its own sake. But would you consider someone passionate if they said that they only care about learning a language/technology/framework that is marketable and doesn’t believe in learning for its own sake? Unless the Python developer is actually writing C++, I don’t think he would ever need to learn the intricacies of C to be a good developer. But take that opinion with a large grain of salt. I spent 12 years bit twiddling in C/C++, 10 in C#, and have been doing Python for a grand total of 6 months so I definitely haven’t done anything complicated with Python.
- tomp 8y ago
  Nah obviously not. I just listed what I know. I mean looking at the list you could maybe tell that I'm mostly interested in programming language implementation (I forgot to list all my Linux and Windows sysops skills that I've gained from years of managing said systems). The end result is, that (1) my knowledge and skills extend way beyond any of my past or present job descriptions, and (2) (this is probably even more important for employers/productivity) that I'm capable of, and curious enough to actually want to, learning quickly/deeply and solving hard problems that might not have an obvious instant-knowledge-based solution. I think that anyone that has ever had an interest to go "beyond" (in any way) the obvious, or immediately what's necessary in his/her day job, would built such a knowledge base - but could of course be completely unrelated to mine (e.g. networking specialist, cryptography geek, hardware/embedded engineer, ...).
vonmoltke 8y ago
What you describe here has little to do with passion. It's about knowledge and interest.
- tomp 8y ago
  Passion => interest => knowledge.
  - scarface74 8y ago
    Not necessarily. (Raises hand) Wants to stay competitive and be able to earn near the top of local market => interest => knowledge.

by tomp 8y ago

scarface74 8y ago

Honest question, I’m not trying to denigrate anyone who takes an interest in software development for its own sake. But would you consider someone passionate if they said that they only care about learning a language/technology/framework that is marketable and doesn’t believe in learning for its own sake? Unless the Python developer is actually writing C++, I don’t think he would ever need to learn the intricacies of C to be a good developer. But take that opinion with a large grain of salt. I spent 12 years bit twiddling in C/C++, 10 in C#, and have been doing Python for a grand total of 6 months so I definitely haven’t done anything complicated with Python.

tomp 8y ago
Nah obviously not. I just listed what I know. I mean looking at the list you could maybe tell that I'm mostly interested in programming language implementation (I forgot to list all my Linux and Windows sysops skills that I've gained from years of managing said systems). The end result is, that (1) my knowledge and skills extend way beyond any of my past or present job descriptions, and (2) (this is probably even more important for employers/productivity) that I'm capable of, and curious enough to actually want to, learning quickly/deeply and solving hard problems that might not have an obvious instant-knowledge-based solution. I think that anyone that has ever had an interest to go "beyond" (in any way) the obvious, or immediately what's necessary in his/her day job, would built such a knowledge base - but could of course be completely unrelated to mine (e.g. networking specialist, cryptography geek, hardware/embedded engineer, ...).

vonmoltke 8y ago

What you describe here has little to do with passion. It's about knowledge and interest.

tomp 8y ago
Passion => interest => knowledge.
- scarface74 8y ago
  Not necessarily. (Raises hand) Wants to stay competitive and be able to earn near the top of local market => interest => knowledge.