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"The personality traits for being a good programmer" Could you expand on this? I would be interested in what part you find 'rare' -- I find there are tons of d

by tudelo 7y ago

"The personality traits for being a good programmer" Could you expand on this? I would be interested in what part you find 'rare' -- I find there are tons of different niches/archetypes that a SWE can have.

hobofan 7y ago
My very anecdotal experience: After teaching/mentoring quite a few SWEs from varying skill levels, the two traits that I find are the most important and at the same time rare are: - Attention to detail - High frustration barrier Over the course of a career those become less and less important as one learns to use the appropriate tools (e.g. linters) and processes, but you still need them to get to that point. Especially for beginners, those two in practice most often break the "everyone can learn to program" trope, that I'd like to be true.
- cestith 7y ago
  Indeed, I think it's two different frustration barriers. There's a high barrier to being frustrated enough to stop working on a difficult problem to improve a situation. There's a fairly low barrier to being frustrated enough with an existing solution to want to make that improvement.
  - hobofan 7y ago
    I agree that that's also a very nice trait for a SWE to have, but I actually had the far more boring attention to detail in mind: Spotting syntactic errors in code and similar things like misspelling of variables, etc.. Hunting those down in the beginning also goes hand in hand with a high frustration barrier.
- magicalhippo 7y ago
  > everyone can learn to program Indeed. Everyone can learn to write code. Not everyone can learn to program. http://www.eis.mdx.ac.uk/research/PhDArea/saeed/SD_PPIG_2009.pdf http://www.eis.mdx.ac.uk/research/PhDArea/saeed/SD_PPIG_2009...
tmpz22 7y ago
For lack of a better descriptor: behavioral traits one might identify as autism. The person who for some reason is up on a Saturday night reading the NGINX source code in C to better implement their company's Lets Encrypt integration. The person who actually stepped through Kelsey Hightower's Kubernetes the Hard way just because they thought Kubernetes was really cool. The person who writes code for personal projects during "social hours" where others may be out with friends, out with their significant others, etc. EDIT: I'll leave it for the integrity/honesty of the comment, but here are some descriptors I wish I'd used in the first place instead of 'autism': * On the spectrum * Extreme Introvert * Socially disconnected * Ties self-value to work-output in extreme ways * Seeks joy from work versus social interaction & status
- hobofan 7y ago
  > For lack of a better descriptor: behavioral traits one might identify as autism. I wouldn't identify any of your examples as signs for someone being on the autistic spectrum.
- RookyNumbas 7y ago
  Heh, you do need a better descriptor. That is the media's idea of the autistic savant. A very small minority of people on the lesser end of the autism spectrum may have some of those traits. The reality for the other 99% is vastly different.
  - skissane 7y ago
    What about individuals with broad autism phenotype (BAP)? What the GP said probably does describe quite a few BAP individuals. (And the boundary between BAP and ASD is rather ill-defined and subjective anyway.)
- apalmer 7y ago
  none of these have anything to do with autism...
- skissane 7y ago
  I don't think people should be so hard on you for your terminology choice. The term "autism" is overly broad. One might be talking about: (1) Classical autism (2) Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) (3) Broader autism phenotype (BAP) If people were to understand you as talking about (3), well I don't think you said anything inaccurate. You obviously weren't talking about most individuals included under (1). As far as (2) goes, well at one end (2) includes (1), and at the other end (2) has a very vague boundary with (3).

by tudelo 7y ago

hobofan 7y ago

My very anecdotal experience: After teaching/mentoring quite a few SWEs from varying skill levels, the two traits that I find are the most important and at the same time rare are: - Attention to detail - High frustration barrier Over the course of a career those become less and less important as one learns to use the appropriate tools (e.g. linters) and processes, but you still need them to get to that point. Especially for beginners, those two in practice most often break the "everyone can learn to program" trope, that I'd like to be true.

cestith 7y ago
Indeed, I think it's two different frustration barriers. There's a high barrier to being frustrated enough to stop working on a difficult problem to improve a situation. There's a fairly low barrier to being frustrated enough with an existing solution to want to make that improvement.
- hobofan 7y ago
  I agree that that's also a very nice trait for a SWE to have, but I actually had the far more boring attention to detail in mind: Spotting syntactic errors in code and similar things like misspelling of variables, etc.. Hunting those down in the beginning also goes hand in hand with a high frustration barrier.
magicalhippo 7y ago
> everyone can learn to program Indeed. Everyone can learn to write code. Not everyone can learn to program. http://www.eis.mdx.ac.uk/research/PhDArea/saeed/SD_PPIG_2009.pdf http://www.eis.mdx.ac.uk/research/PhDArea/saeed/SD_PPIG_2009...

tmpz22 7y ago

For lack of a better descriptor: behavioral traits one might identify as autism. The person who for some reason is up on a Saturday night reading the NGINX source code in C to better implement their company's Lets Encrypt integration. The person who actually stepped through Kelsey Hightower's Kubernetes the Hard way just because they thought Kubernetes was really cool. The person who writes code for personal projects during "social hours" where others may be out with friends, out with their significant others, etc. EDIT: I'll leave it for the integrity/honesty of the comment, but here are some descriptors I wish I'd used in the first place instead of 'autism': * On the spectrum * Extreme Introvert * Socially disconnected * Ties self-value to work-output in extreme ways * Seeks joy from work versus social interaction & status

hobofan 7y ago
> For lack of a better descriptor: behavioral traits one might identify as autism. I wouldn't identify any of your examples as signs for someone being on the autistic spectrum.
RookyNumbas 7y ago
Heh, you do need a better descriptor. That is the media's idea of the autistic savant. A very small minority of people on the lesser end of the autism spectrum may have some of those traits. The reality for the other 99% is vastly different.
- skissane 7y ago
  What about individuals with broad autism phenotype (BAP)? What the GP said probably does describe quite a few BAP individuals. (And the boundary between BAP and ASD is rather ill-defined and subjective anyway.)
apalmer 7y ago
none of these have anything to do with autism...
skissane 7y ago
I don't think people should be so hard on you for your terminology choice. The term "autism" is overly broad. One might be talking about: (1) Classical autism (2) Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) (3) Broader autism phenotype (BAP) If people were to understand you as talking about (3), well I don't think you said anything inaccurate. You obviously weren't talking about most individuals included under (1). As far as (2) goes, well at one end (2) includes (1), and at the other end (2) has a very vague boundary with (3).