4 ms·

It's not really developers who are hard to impress - it's just anonymous developers on internet forums

by boffinism 8y ago

wolfram74 8y ago
So would you say you are unimpressed by the author's thesis?
- boffinism 8y ago
  Haha yes, precisely.
ChrisSD 8y ago
If you want to impress developers wouldn't you simply get an FTP account, mount it locally with curlftpfs, and then use SVN or CVS on the mounted filesystem?
- swift532 8y ago
  What even?
  - sbradford26 8y ago
    It is making fun of the one of the top comment that was on the Show HN Dropbox. Here we go: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8863 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8863 Ninja'd, should have refreshed.
  - spiderfarmer 8y ago
    Someone mentioned the existence of this FTP "solution" as a reason why Dropbox would not succeed, when it was first shown here.
- guessmyname 8y ago
  Context: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8863 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8863
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
- noblethrasher 8y ago
  More context: https://zedshaw.com/2018/03/25/the-billionaires-vs-brandonm/ https://zedshaw.com/2018/03/25/the-billionaires-vs-brandonm/
- z3t4 8y ago
  As a developer it's very hard to see what kind of software normal people find useful. I happened to overhear a conversation about Dropbox, the idea that you could read-only share a document was simply amazing to them. I rolled my eyes then. But also knew at that moment that Dropbox would become very popular.
eksemplar 8y ago
I manage quite a lot of developers and I think the article has a point. Out of all the different IT personal I manage, developers are the only ones who seem to think they have to be correct all the time. That doesn’t exactly brew the best atmosphere, because how can you be?
- gnulinux 8y ago
  Where are developers like this? I've never encountered a person like that in my life ("have to be correct all the time"). Is this specific to FAANG? Which city? I'm familiar with startups in the Bay Area and Boston.
  - abraae 8y ago
    I agree with the sentiment though I'd reword it as "developers need to know that their understanding is correct at all times". This is uncontroversial, we can't build things well if our understanding is wrong, whether of user requirements, budget/political process, technology, existing infrastructure/whatever.
    - gnulinux 8y ago
      Sure, "developers need to know that their understanding is correct at all times", this describes most if not all developers I know but this is hardly a bad thing and in the conversation above this was used in a bad connotation ("that doesn’t exactly brew the best atmosphere"). I'm even more confused now.
  - icebraining 8y ago
    I've worked with such developers. It's not that they can literally never accept to be wrong, but their first instinct is always to deny any failures in their work and always point out flaws in the work of others, even if they're obviously untrue.
  - brandonmenc 8y ago
    > Where are developers like this? I've never encountered a person like that in my life ("have to be correct all the time"). Seriously? Every nerdy subculture is full of these people.

It's not really developers who are hard to impress - it's just anonymous developers on internet forums

wolfram74 8y ago

So would you say you are unimpressed by the author's thesis?

boffinism 8y ago
Haha yes, precisely.

ChrisSD 8y ago

If you want to impress developers wouldn't you simply get an FTP account, mount it locally with curlftpfs, and then use SVN or CVS on the mounted filesystem?

swift532 8y ago
What even?
- sbradford26 8y ago
  It is making fun of the one of the top comment that was on the Show HN Dropbox. Here we go: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8863 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8863 Ninja'd, should have refreshed.
- spiderfarmer 8y ago
  Someone mentioned the existence of this FTP "solution" as a reason why Dropbox would not succeed, when it was first shown here.
guessmyname 8y ago
Context: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8863 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8863
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
noblethrasher 8y ago
More context: https://zedshaw.com/2018/03/25/the-billionaires-vs-brandonm/ https://zedshaw.com/2018/03/25/the-billionaires-vs-brandonm/
z3t4 8y ago
As a developer it's very hard to see what kind of software normal people find useful. I happened to overhear a conversation about Dropbox, the idea that you could read-only share a document was simply amazing to them. I rolled my eyes then. But also knew at that moment that Dropbox would become very popular.

eksemplar 8y ago

I manage quite a lot of developers and I think the article has a point. Out of all the different IT personal I manage, developers are the only ones who seem to think they have to be correct all the time. That doesn’t exactly brew the best atmosphere, because how can you be?

gnulinux 8y ago
Where are developers like this? I've never encountered a person like that in my life ("have to be correct all the time"). Is this specific to FAANG? Which city? I'm familiar with startups in the Bay Area and Boston.
- abraae 8y ago
  I agree with the sentiment though I'd reword it as "developers need to know that their understanding is correct at all times". This is uncontroversial, we can't build things well if our understanding is wrong, whether of user requirements, budget/political process, technology, existing infrastructure/whatever.
  - gnulinux 8y ago
    Sure, "developers need to know that their understanding is correct at all times", this describes most if not all developers I know but this is hardly a bad thing and in the conversation above this was used in a bad connotation ("that doesn’t exactly brew the best atmosphere"). I'm even more confused now.
- icebraining 8y ago
  I've worked with such developers. It's not that they can literally never accept to be wrong, but their first instinct is always to deny any failures in their work and always point out flaws in the work of others, even if they're obviously untrue.
- brandonmenc 8y ago
  > Where are developers like this? I've never encountered a person like that in my life ("have to be correct all the time"). Seriously? Every nerdy subculture is full of these people.