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Maybe "Bad Programmer" is more apt instead of "Hermit programmer" and yeah it is a no brainer that they are "dead"
by qazpot 5y ago
Maybe "Bad Programmer" is more apt instead of "Hermit programmer" and yeah it is a no brainer that they are "dead"
- dagw 5y agoMaybe "Bad Programmer" is more apt Some of the very best programmers I've ever met tick all those boxes. They could deliver in a week something other teams would struggle with for months. The problem of course came when other people would try to understand and build on what they had done. If you believe the quote that "Real Developers ship" then they where absolutely Real Developers.
- IlliOnato 5y agoI would not call such a programmer "best", or even "good". Maintainability is almost as important as code actually performing its task.
- pjerem 5y agoFor you and for me, sure. For management ? They delivered. And as they delivered, they are the number one choice for bootstraping this brand new important project they'll not have to maintain...
- pdimitar 5y agoI suppose it depends how we define "good" and "bad". To me "good" means "produce working code that can be easily picked up by others". Because of that I suppose I don't fall into this mythical group of programmers that can crank out something in a week that teams struggle with for months. I've done it several times but it's not how I usually roll, plus teams can be super slow sometimes so single guy beating them isn't a huge achievement. I've gotten a lot of accolades because I've "left the garden better for the next guy", several times.
- rob74 5y agoConsider yourself lucky for working at a place where you get recognition for "leaving the garden better for the next guy"! Of course, that also depends on the next guy taking the effort to understand your code and documentation instead of just thinking "I wouldn't have written it this way, so it must be bad", as many developers are wont to do unfortunately...
- pdimitar 5y agoOh, it hasn't been the norm, sadly -- but those several times it happened it felt amazing. ^_^
- vborovikov 5y agoThe programmer's job is to produce code that works and is ready to change. So these real developers did only a half of the job.
- hunterb123 5y agoIt does work and is ready to change, the other people just aren't good enough to know how. They'll have to bring the base down to their level to understand and iterate on it. If you brought another "hermit" in, he'd obsess over it and either refactor it in his vision or understand it and know how to flex it to continue iterating. You bring a team of normal people in, they'll think it's too "adhoc", and rewrite it in a bloated and complex way.
- amusedcyclist 5y agoShipping untested , undocumented code is pretty easy. Those who don't do either are absolutely bad programmers. That doesn't mean that they're dumb or incapable, but testing and documenting is part of the definition of good programmer.
- dagw 5y agoShipping untested , undocumented code is pretty easy. Sure, but shipping untested, undocumented code in 3 days that is bug free, fast, rock solid and does everything it's supposed to do on the first try, takes a certain sort of talent. They might make very annoying colleagues, and the people who have to follow them might curse their names, but they're not "bad programmers".
- amusedcyclist 5y agoI think it depends on what kind of work you're talking about. If you're talking about building a basic UI or a service, most decent developers should be able to churn out working code in a couple of days. If you're referring to something low level or very algorithmically tricky then sure there are obviously some geniuses amongst us whose presence we must learn to tolerate