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I'm the host. AMA. Hansen's research into developer cultures is super interesting. Here is a story of his time at Apple I can identify with: It’s like bei
by adamgordonbell 5y ago
I'm the host. AMA.
Hansen's research into developer cultures is super interesting.
Here is a story of his time at Apple I can identify with:
It’s like being a cast member at Disneyland, right? If you actually see the back lot of Disneyland, the magic is pulled away, right? It’s not the same, right? You don’t always want to know how the sausage is made. Being smack in the middle like OS 9 at a time when the winds were clearly shifting in OS X’s direction, it was like, the politics of the higher ups, it was definitely being felt.
I was looking on the file system team and three months in, they said, “Okay, well, we’re not doing any new features in the file system. We’re going to reassign you to help them work on the multiprocessing API’s with this other guy”
I was doing some unit testing for that for like a couple of months.
Then, it was announced, “Oh, we’re not doing any new features for that either.” Okay, so then now what I’m going to do?
Then, my boss assigned me to write this app showing these two bars for the dual processors. That didn’t go anywhere. He kept telling me, “No. Keep working on it. This is not busy work. This is not busy work.”
It turned out to be busy work.
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Edit: bedtime, but will check-in and answer questions in the morning if anyone has any. (Feedback and Guest suggestions welcome)
- jeofken 5y agoThe interviews are quality stuff, and your accent and demeanour is inviting to listen to. Looking forward to the next one!
- adamgordonbell 5y agoThanks for listening! > The interviews are quality stuff, and your accent and demeanour is inviting to listen to. It's funny to hear comments on my accent because I think it's relatively uninteresting, but I guess everyone innately thinks only others can have an accent. Anyhow, thank you!
- jebarker 5y agoI listened this morning. Great interview, thank-you. Refreshing to hear someone with both an honest appraisal of their skill set (although perhaps a little too hard on himself) and also a willingness to make drastic changes for a happier life rather than just playing it safe.
- adamgordonbell 5y agoThanks for listening! I found his take on his skillset tragic. It's a downside of working with the best of the best, that you feel your own inadequacies very directly. Perhaps if I had started out at a place like the OS team at Apple right out of school I would have left software engineering behind as well.
- ilrwbwrkhv 5y agoOr perhaps you would have found out that the best of the best are also winging it like the rest of us.
- mjhoy 5y agoJust want to say I've recently started listening, and I really love the podcast. The last few interviews have been fascinating and really well done!
- adamgordonbell 5y agoThanks! I've been learning as I go and putting more effort into it and I'm glad the effort is paying dividends.
- stillblue 5y agoAdam, I've learnt so much from your podcasts. Amaaazing work. Yours is the only podcast I listen to when I have time and I'm beyond impressed by the quality of it. Thank you from a long time Fan
- adamgordonbell 5y agoThanks for listening! Spread the word :)
- lordfoom 5y agoJust wanted to express my thanks to you for your podcast. Fascinating, educational, inspiring and sometimes a little tragic. Very cool!
- adamgordonbell 5y agoThanks for listening! It's a hobby project that is slowly taking over a lot of my free time but I really enjoy it.