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Genuine question then.. how are we supposed to function properly as software engineers, especially in jobs with long feedback loops? The nature of my job is th
by LZ_Khan 5y ago
Genuine question then.. how are we supposed to function properly as software engineers, especially in jobs with long feedback loops?
The nature of my job is that I'm almost more of a train conductor than a software engineer. I configure a job, run it, then wait for 10-30 minutes to get the results. I do this for maybe 5 jobs at a time, on 5 different projects. Naturally I feel a lot of stress and cognitive burden while doing this but I figured it's part of the job.
Is this normal for backend, distributed-computing heavy jobs? Is there a better strategy I can adopt? Should I try to get a new role with a shorter compile-test feedback loop?
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- jvidalv 5y agoGet a frontend job, instant compile time haha
- OhSoHumble 5y agoYeah, but the loss of sanity usually cancels out the productivity gains.
- pyridines 5y agoNot necessarily, our frontend repo takes almost as long as the backend to compile. I'm hoping we switch to esbuild at some point.
- nanagojo 5y agoCan't wait till it is feature complete and CRA and Nextjs embrace it.
- curiousllama 5y agoMultitasking in this context means doing multiple things concurrently, not consecutively. It may be hard to launch a job, switch over to configure another one, switch back when you get the results from the first, finish launching the second, reconfigure & relaunch the first, and then move on to the third while 1 & 2 are running etc etc etc... but it's not strictly multitasking, it's just ocntext switching. Also hard, also expensive, just different.
- tracyhenry 5y agoHave you tried to alert yourself when a long-running job finishes? I know it might exacerbate context switching, but it often feels bad to know that a job has finished long long ago and that I've been playing my phone without knowing it. A relevant HN post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26259007 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26259007
- selfhoster11 5y agoThank you for putting this into words. It's crazy how normalised it is to have long feedback loops, when we're working on interactive computers rather than punch cards.