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One thing I sometimes point out to software engineers Im tasked with mentoring at work is the importance of showing other engineers that you care about the code
by pkdpic_y9k 5y ago
One thing I sometimes point out to software engineers Im tasked with mentoring at work is the importance of showing other engineers that you care about the code and the questions you're asking via slack etc by proof reading what you write and reviewing your own code before reaching out to others for help. The frustration of reading ia garbled slack message or pulling over to look at a code snippet and realizing the person didn't even look over it themselves is real and has real negative consequences in terms of professional perception.
Like when someone misspells radical candor in the second sentence of a blog post about mentoring.
Seriously though, everybody makes mistakes but when I do slip up like this I don't expect people to engage with what I'm writing. And I do think proof reading is an incredibly important skill for new and experienced software engineers.
[edit] I just noticed the author is a staff engineer at MongoDB. He can misspell whatever he wants. I recant my sassiness.
- selljamhere 5y agoI usually have a knee-jerk reaction when I see grammar and spelling errors in blogs, but I try to remind myself that these posts aren't published works that made it through an editorial staff. Mistakes happen, especially when the author isn't a professional writer.
- pkdpic_y9k 5y agoI agree, the guys clearly legit. I was just indulging some recreational morning pedantry before actually getting some work done.
- organsnyder 5y agoI wouldn't normally point this out, but you're missing an apostrophe (should be "guy's"). Good example of Muphry's Law.
- d3ckard 5y agoYou mean Murphy’s Law, perhaps?
- organsnyder 5y agoNope, I mean Muphry's Law: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muphry%27s_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muphry%27s_law
- pc86 5y agoThis is all true of course, but is it really so much to expect someone to proof-read something they're publishing? All things being equal, more of these types of simple-to-catch errors will make people think less of your [skill, dedication, attention to detail, etc.], whether right or wrong.
- bonestamp2 5y agoI ran a very popular site for a decade and won multiple writing awards. There are many elements that make a well written piece, and of course, spelling and grammar are two important ones. Unfortunately, over 12 years, I had two spelling mistakes slip through my hours of editing and proofreading. Some people absolutely eviscerated me for it. I mean, how could I not know how to spell X word? I must be a moron! In my opinion, these "simple-to-catch" errors are not always simple-to-catch when the writer knows what it is supposed to say and they are trying to proofread their own work. That said, it proves you're right -- people do think less of you when you make such a mistake. I think we should all strive to cut people a little more slack, at least on Slack.
- flakiness 5y agoI don't think adding a jerk-ish edit helps you sounding a engaging and/or caring mentor although I admit that I was almost bursting out. Being consistent is hard, but let's try within the same <textarea>.
- pkdpic_y9k 5y agoI mean it, he's a more accomplished engineer and mentor than I'll ever be. That's why I added the edit.
- flakiness 5y agoAll right, So I'm more cynical than I was aware of :-)
- xdg 5y agoThanks! Fixed. We're all human. :-) And now I've discovered that vim spell check skips words with leading markdown symbols like `*randical`. I'll have to dig into that more. Update: pasting the web page to Google Docs found a few more typos. I fixed those, too. Usually I print and read to find typos, maybe I skipped that this time. Good reminder to do that and the Gdocs review. Really: thanks for the reminder, regardless of the sassiness. :-)
- CodeIsTheEnd 5y agoAnything longer than a few sentences I'll write in vim and am always horrified when I copy to Gmail or Google docs and find spelling mistakes, duplicated words, and incomplete sentences everywhere.
- pkdpic 5y ago[posting from my primary account] I really am sorry for being a troll and writing the kind of comment that bums me out on a regular basis. This seems like a good post and a good discussion. It can just be frustrating for those of us that have a hard time getting traction when we post projects etc on sites like HN. It can manifest into petty toxic behavior especially in comment sections. In the words of Paul Doherty... "I'll do better next time."
- ecnahc515 5y agoYou may have just finally explained why I frequently find spelling mistakes and using vim's spell check. Thanks for the tip!
- tiddles 5y agoAspell is a good interactive spell checker for just before publishing. ‘aspell -c text.md’
- xdg 5y agoThank you! I just checked and it does not ignore markdown prefixed words. Also, I found that `:syn off` gets vim to spell check within markdown formatting.
- xupybd 5y agoSome rush and are sloppy. Some are burnt out and unable to focus. Some have dyslexia and are trying harder than you'll ever know to proof read.
- xyzzy_plugh 5y agoI agree, but you can generally differentiate these cases and handle them appropriately. If someone is burnt out, the attitude is typically the tell regardless of care. It's deliberately sloppy. One of the best engineers I ever worked with had dyslexia and by God if his class names weren't the funniest things I've ever seen, but they were consistent and the structure and documentation was thoughtful.
- creativenolo 5y ago#3 so much. Still always garbled.
- royaltjames 5y agoIronic that you pointed out an error in blog post's 2nd sentence when you also have one in your 2nd sentence. Either that or a nag trap. Or an unconscious parallel humility.
- Stratoscope 5y agoOr an example of Muphry's Law. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muphry's_Law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muphry's_Law
- dd444fgdfg 5y agoI'm*