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You've already gotten a lot of good perspectives. I have two tangential observations. First: a lot of applied software engineering has the overarching goal of

by sowbug 8y ago

You've already gotten a lot of good perspectives. I have two tangential observations. First: a lot of applied software engineering has the overarching goal of allowing developers to quickly build useful, stable, and secure products with relatively little knowledge of complexity principles or the implementation of the underlying system. Your successful career demonstrates the achievement of that goal. This is good. But it has absolutely nothing to do with your ability to build the tools you use, any more than a writer would know how to manufacture a pencil from raw materials. They're completely unrelated skills. But that was the whole point from the start of the profession! Second: your spelling of "fiancée" is incorrect. The word comes from the French word fiancer, to betrothe. In French, you add the equivalent of the -ed suffix by changing -er to -é. Then for a female subject, you add another e. So "fianc" + "é" + "e" = betrothed woman. Using a è (backward accent) at the end of a French word isn't just wrong; it's more or less impossible (at least I can't think of a word that ends with è). Compare a snippet of JavaScript like if )a == 3) { b = 3: } You're an experienced JS developer, so you can spot the two syntax errors from a mile away. That's what "fianceè" looks like to a reader for whom accents are significant. Just stick with "fiancee" without accents, and you can't go wrong. Sorry to hit you when you're down.

fbonawiede 8y ago
I completely agreè on your first remark!
FearNotDaniel 8y ago
> Just stick with "fiancee" without accents, and you can't go wrong. Unfortunately you can... I've seen many uses in modern English where people assume it is the double e at the end that makes the final vowel pronouncable in French, with no mental model of what the acute accent is there for nor what the second e signifies, and hence described their male fiancé as a "fiancee". After all, fiancé (male) and fiancée (female) both sound the same in English, and if you spell "fiance" correctly but without the accent, it looks like it should be read as "fee-awnss". In all though, I think this is a useful metaphor for the OP's question: as a working programmer, creating value for a business by building applications without having to understand what's going on inside the computer, he should be able to expect that his tool (editor/development environment) would not only autocorrect the spelling of fiancée for him, but in case of doubt perhaps pop up a wizard to politely enquire whether he was engaged to a man or a woman and adjust the output accordingly; meanwhile his betrothed is busy learning the rules of French grammar and orthography and asking him to help her understand how and why his tools work the way they do - something which he is, quite rightly, oblivious about. Of course, if I found myself in the same position, and had the time to spare, I would try to work through the same course materials alongside her because my curiosity would see it as a fantastic opportunity to learn the CS principles that I never picked up in college; then when she or I got stuck on something, I could add the contextual experience I'd picked up from years of 'surface level' business programming to gain a different perspective on the course content and hopefully fill in what's missing. Just like, for example, if I had years of truck driving experience I may have a little more insight into engine maintenance than someone who doesn't, but it doesn't make me an expert in that area. Failing that, I'd explain honestly that our two disciplines have nothing in common other than vaguely being "connected with computers", then try my best to help her out in the same way I would if she was learning law or history or chemistry - just keep asking questions about the parts she does understand, the precursors to the problem she is up against, then try to reason it out loud with her and more often than not, the act of explaining in words the prior steps will help her to crystallize some insight in her own head that will fill in the gaps.

by sowbug 8y ago

fbonawiede 8y ago

I completely agreè on your first remark!

FearNotDaniel 8y ago

> Just stick with "fiancee" without accents, and you can't go wrong. Unfortunately you can... I've seen many uses in modern English where people assume it is the double e at the end that makes the final vowel pronouncable in French, with no mental model of what the acute accent is there for nor what the second e signifies, and hence described their male fiancé as a "fiancee". After all, fiancé (male) and fiancée (female) both sound the same in English, and if you spell "fiance" correctly but without the accent, it looks like it should be read as "fee-awnss". In all though, I think this is a useful metaphor for the OP's question: as a working programmer, creating value for a business by building applications without having to understand what's going on inside the computer, he should be able to expect that his tool (editor/development environment) would not only autocorrect the spelling of fiancée for him, but in case of doubt perhaps pop up a wizard to politely enquire whether he was engaged to a man or a woman and adjust the output accordingly; meanwhile his betrothed is busy learning the rules of French grammar and orthography and asking him to help her understand how and why his tools work the way they do - something which he is, quite rightly, oblivious about. Of course, if I found myself in the same position, and had the time to spare, I would try to work through the same course materials alongside her because my curiosity would see it as a fantastic opportunity to learn the CS principles that I never picked up in college; then when she or I got stuck on something, I could add the contextual experience I'd picked up from years of 'surface level' business programming to gain a different perspective on the course content and hopefully fill in what's missing. Just like, for example, if I had years of truck driving experience I may have a little more insight into engine maintenance than someone who doesn't, but it doesn't make me an expert in that area. Failing that, I'd explain honestly that our two disciplines have nothing in common other than vaguely being "connected with computers", then try my best to help her out in the same way I would if she was learning law or history or chemistry - just keep asking questions about the parts she does understand, the precursors to the problem she is up against, then try to reason it out loud with her and more often than not, the act of explaining in words the prior steps will help her to crystallize some insight in her own head that will fill in the gaps.