4 ms·

Or incredibly low expectations for programmers in general, which is fair. If you pick 100 random run-of-the-mill programmers from any corporation, and ask them

by elb2020 5y ago

Or incredibly low expectations for programmers in general, which is fair. If you pick 100 random run-of-the-mill programmers from any corporation, and ask them to repeat this exercise, 95 of them would not even get out of the starting blocks. I liked it.

rapind 5y ago
The remaining 5 would talk like an elitist about their peers?
- TimTheTinker 5y ago
  In my experience, those that are actually the smartest are also down-to-earth and approachable -- the sort that you can have very interesting, thoughtful conversations with and enjoy being around. I suspect folks who had bad experiences with a "smart" person might have been dealing with someone who was a "big fish in a small pond", who hadn't been sufficiently humbled by going to (or trying to go to, haha) a more appropriately challenging level of education or professional practice. So generally, I think the difference is that truly smart and knowledgeable people have serious respect for the vast body of knowledge they haven't acquired.
  - adenozine 5y ago
    To piggyback on this, some of the people I've worked with in the past that could be called "smartest" are people with a natural aptitude for explaining things. I've definitely met people who hadn't been humbled by life yet, and they're not too grating imo to deal with, provided they have good social skills and work ethic. But there are those who innately understand that a lot of software team communication is about conveying an idea that is potentially unfamiliar to someone, and cooperating with them. I remember the first time someone showed me how to use Makefiles. I had seen them, I comprehended their usage, but when I was shown how easy it is to actually form them and use them for different purposes, it was incredibly eye-opening. That conversation couldn't have been but 7-8mins. That man was actually my boss for a while later on, before he had a bad car accident. Another example might be my old mentor who helped me grok syntax-rules for the first time, over a lunch break, with a pen and paper. It just clicked, and I learned. My point is, the combination of social skills + intelligent explanations + teaching practice is a powerful one.
- elb2020 5y ago
  Maybe it sounded a bit elitist. I myself am not a game programmer, and I would indeed be among the 95 struggling to get out of the starting blocks. I do like low-level stuff, however, and I choose to be impressed by projects like this!
  - AnIdiotOnTheNet 5y ago
    Being impressed by something and calling it "masterful" are very different things.
    - adenozine 5y ago
      Nobody has ever called your work masterful, have they? That must be why you've been so dismissive and rude in this thread, because you feel sad. :(
      - AnIdiotOnTheNet 5y ago
        I don't feel I am being rude or dismissive. I have nothing negative to say about this project or its results. I just find the idea of calling a relatively simple bit of lighting "masterful" very strange. It'd be a bit like someone looking at something I have written, like a serialization routine, and saying that my use of bitshifting and masking was "masterful". That kind of thing is very basic for the domain.

rapind 5y ago

The remaining 5 would talk like an elitist about their peers?

TimTheTinker 5y ago
In my experience, those that are actually the smartest are also down-to-earth and approachable -- the sort that you can have very interesting, thoughtful conversations with and enjoy being around. I suspect folks who had bad experiences with a "smart" person might have been dealing with someone who was a "big fish in a small pond", who hadn't been sufficiently humbled by going to (or trying to go to, haha) a more appropriately challenging level of education or professional practice. So generally, I think the difference is that truly smart and knowledgeable people have serious respect for the vast body of knowledge they haven't acquired.
- adenozine 5y ago
  To piggyback on this, some of the people I've worked with in the past that could be called "smartest" are people with a natural aptitude for explaining things. I've definitely met people who hadn't been humbled by life yet, and they're not too grating imo to deal with, provided they have good social skills and work ethic. But there are those who innately understand that a lot of software team communication is about conveying an idea that is potentially unfamiliar to someone, and cooperating with them. I remember the first time someone showed me how to use Makefiles. I had seen them, I comprehended their usage, but when I was shown how easy it is to actually form them and use them for different purposes, it was incredibly eye-opening. That conversation couldn't have been but 7-8mins. That man was actually my boss for a while later on, before he had a bad car accident. Another example might be my old mentor who helped me grok syntax-rules for the first time, over a lunch break, with a pen and paper. It just clicked, and I learned. My point is, the combination of social skills + intelligent explanations + teaching practice is a powerful one.
elb2020 5y ago
Maybe it sounded a bit elitist. I myself am not a game programmer, and I would indeed be among the 95 struggling to get out of the starting blocks. I do like low-level stuff, however, and I choose to be impressed by projects like this!
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 5y ago
  Being impressed by something and calling it "masterful" are very different things.
  - adenozine 5y ago
    Nobody has ever called your work masterful, have they? That must be why you've been so dismissive and rude in this thread, because you feel sad. :(
    - AnIdiotOnTheNet 5y ago
      I don't feel I am being rude or dismissive. I have nothing negative to say about this project or its results. I just find the idea of calling a relatively simple bit of lighting "masterful" very strange. It'd be a bit like someone looking at something I have written, like a serialization routine, and saying that my use of bitshifting and masking was "masterful". That kind of thing is very basic for the domain.