6 ms·
> They’re not hackers, but they understand that programming is a craft; that programmers are artisans, not serfs. Gold. Pure gold. I've long wandered in the w
by cletus 15y ago
> They’re not hackers, but they understand that programming is a craft; that programmers are artisans, not serfs.
Gold. Pure gold.
I've long wandered in the wilderness. I've had years of writing bullshit business applications. I've even dabbled in investment banking (where programmers, excluding quants, are the second lowest paid professionals at the bank, only higher than support/IT people). I've worked on bullshit semi-startups.
Now I work for Google where ironically... I write internal applications. This may seem like a cruel joke but it's really not. There is so much respect for engineering as a craft here that it occurred to me that it's not the writing bullshit business applications that was sapping my will to live, it was the business-types who so consistently treated engineering as an interchangeable cost center.
I've done the freelancing thing too. Never again. The world is full of delusional people who think they're the next Steve Jobs and that their idea, by itself, is worth something (it's worth precisely nothing).
- protomyth 15y agoI think my own thoughts on Biz's view of IT crystalized when I witnessed a conversation between a tech and a manager about dress code. The tech had been paged at 11:30pm about an hour after he went to bed. He couldn't fix the problem from home (hardware failure), so he thru on jeans and a polo shirt and drove into work. He fixed the problem and got everything ready for the incoming medical test kits by 4am. It was an amazing piece of work and let's just say certain types of samples really cannot be delayed. He hung around and watched everything from his desk. His desk is in a restricted zone behind security where no customers are ever allowed (I do believe it would be a federal law violation). It was around 9am and all the kits were processed and he was going to go home. A manger asked why he was not in proper work attire (sports coats / slacks or suit). He told the whole story adding he didn't want to wake his wife so he grabbed what he could. His boss said "well, it your career".
- dolphenstein 15y agoThat just made my blood go slightly nearer to 100 degrees celcius.
- protomyth 15y agoI left for a consulting gig about 2 months later. I call my time there my 3 seasons in heck. At the time, it really felt like watching a slow motion car wreck on ice. You know the kind where all the cars are doing 5mph, but no one can stop it. Dilbert wasn't funny to me before that job, I honestly didn't get the humor. After that job, I understood.
- potatolicious 15y agoIt never ceases to amaze me how large organizations (in all industries) seem to hyperfocus on minutiae over getting things done. People will throw a fit about whether or not the meeting minutes were filed in the right place, in the right format, or whether or not someone is in the precise sanctioned work attire... but huge problems will just slide. The modern corporation is a horrifyingly inefficient waste of time in so many places.
- andywood 15y agoI don't excuse the individuals who embody such behavior. Nobody held a gun to their head and forced them to internalize this type of culture.
- protomyth 15y agoI have a pet theory on the whole thing. Humans are pretty much pattern matching machines. I get the feeling that a certain percentage of individuals in abscense of a known crisis will value the pattern over basic feelings. It gets worse after someone else has had to perform actions and now the person who did nothing must do something. So resolving out of pattern things is a priority. I know it sounds weird and I am probably doing a bad job explaining, but it just seems like some people cannot stretch beyond the pattern that the rules say should be there. You are absolutely right, it doesn't excuse anything, but it just seems like you can make some amazing predictions of post-crisis behavior based on what you think they think the "pattern" should be.
- tomjen3 15y agoIf you are right about the pattern matching, why doesn't he focus on the guy being there in the middle of the night and encourage him instead? A pattern-matcher (and I think you are right about that) would focus on the most out of the ordinary thing, would he not? I mean a Tiger in coming towards you. Do you notice (or care about) the bustling leaves on the bush?
- 15y ago
- danssig 15y agoI hope that guy quit on the spot. As long as managers get away with this kind of stupidity they're going to keep doing it.
- protomyth 15y agoNope, he had a family and was the sole income source. It was a long time ago (90's) and I do believe he transferred departments not long after. Responsibility trumps rage in the short term sometimes.
- pavel_lishin 15y agoI'd rather him bring it up to HR. If he quits, do you really think the manager would realize it's because of him? And do you think that his manager would even realize what happened?
- rmc 15y agoThat company is screwed once their employees realise that they have a highly valuable skill and that there is an employee shortage out there.
- bmelton 15y agoOne of the greatest hallmarks of the enterprise is ensuring that nobody within their organization is replaceable. They standardize on languages like Java because of its prevalence in the marketplace, they document the dickens out of every task, no matter how small or inconsequential, they ensure that everybody and everything within their company is a commodity. This enables them to worry about things like dress code with impunity, as they're relatively free to hire and fire without having to worry about who is going to manage that system that only they knew about. Then they wonder why they aren't able to deliver exceptional or world-class service.
- djackson 15y ago*irreplaceable
- bmelton 15y agoYes, thank you. It's too late to edit it now, but I appreciate the head's up.
- rmc 15y agoHowever, all you'll do is reduce the average employee skill to can-just-about-do-FizzBuzz levels. That is not good at all. And since you can raise the 'average skill of the programmer' by just allowing jeans & tshirt (which costs nothing), it seems like a sensible investment to make.
- protomyth 15y agoA lot of huge corps won't care. As long as they can muddle along (with the help of consultants of course). The phrase that I see a lot of for this is "not our core business".
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- juliendsv-mbm 15y agoAgreed! I recommend reading this article from 37signals : http://37signals.com/svn/posts/2188-theres-no-room-for-the-idea-guy http://37signals.com/svn/posts/2188-theres-no-room-for-the-i... , pure gold too, having THE idea is not enough