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I don't understand how people can defend this developer in the first place. I could understand if they were about 16 years old and actually abused by their emp

I don't understand how people can defend this developer in the first place. I could understand if they were about 16 years old and actually abused by their employer, but generating random numbers to test the locking of phones? Basic maths should tell you that the probability of matching some real phone number is actually quite high. Moreover, what exactly were they testing? i.e. if they were testing nonexistent numbers, then how would they even know the phones were blocked in the end?

shaan7 5y ago
> Basic maths should tell you that the probability of matching some real phone number is actually quite high. Yeah well, the thing about pressure (of the sort the author has describing) is that you make mistakes - the kind where some times 3+3 = 9. Source: I queued jobs to nuke the whole production database (relax, we had automated backups+verification so we recovered fast enough; and then added some gating so make this more difficult in the future)
throwdecro 5y ago
Being somewhat generous, I don't think it's because they didn't understand the probabilities, it's because they didn't think about the impact of what they were doing at all, beyond the problem they needed to solve. I.e., the only thing they were considering was whether the number entered at the start of the test would show up in the right places at the other end of their system. They simply didn't consider that an actual phone would be shut off along the way.
jihadjihad 5y ago
I pass no judgment, but merely take the developer at his word: https://new.pythonforengineers.com/blog/confessions-of-a-1x-programmer/ https://new.pythonforengineers.com/blog/confessions-of-a-1x-...
- polartx 5y ago
  Why would he write and _publish_ this?!? Is this some kind of humiliation fetish? These are things that should maybe be admitted in a confessional, or therapy.
- svrourke 5y ago
  This link is the cure to imposter syndrome, this is an actual imposter. I don't think they're even actually interested in programming and I cannot comprehend why they do it as a job or why they got hired.

shaan7 5y ago

> Basic maths should tell you that the probability of matching some real phone number is actually quite high. Yeah well, the thing about pressure (of the sort the author has describing) is that you make mistakes - the kind where some times 3+3 = 9. Source: I queued jobs to nuke the whole production database (relax, we had automated backups+verification so we recovered fast enough; and then added some gating so make this more difficult in the future)

throwdecro 5y ago

Being somewhat generous, I don't think it's because they didn't understand the probabilities, it's because they didn't think about the impact of what they were doing at all, beyond the problem they needed to solve. I.e., the only thing they were considering was whether the number entered at the start of the test would show up in the right places at the other end of their system. They simply didn't consider that an actual phone would be shut off along the way.

jihadjihad 5y ago

I pass no judgment, but merely take the developer at his word: https://new.pythonforengineers.com/blog/confessions-of-a-1x-programmer/ https://new.pythonforengineers.com/blog/confessions-of-a-1x-...

polartx 5y ago
Why would he write and _publish_ this?!? Is this some kind of humiliation fetish? These are things that should maybe be admitted in a confessional, or therapy.
svrourke 5y ago
This link is the cure to imposter syndrome, this is an actual imposter. I don't think they're even actually interested in programming and I cannot comprehend why they do it as a job or why they got hired.