4 ms·

What if I wanted to reinvent the wheel to increase my knowledge?

by whiddershins 5y ago

lbotos 5y ago
Make a readme that says "This project is me exploring how to do Y so I can learn the ins and outs". Solved.
- reificator 5y ago
  And what if I’m not tracking that in such detail or even thinking about viewing it like that because it’s a side project? My repos are hidden specifically because I do them for fun. I’d make them public if tinkering were an understood thing but its not. > If you give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest of men, I will find something in them which will hang him. Better to have a clear separation between work and play.
  - lbotos 5y ago
    > And what if I’m not tracking that in such detail or even thinking about viewing it like that because it’s a side project? Make it private like you are doing? If you don't want someone to perceive something about you, then don't make it public. If you do make it public and add it to a resume then don't be surprised if the person who manages programmers is interested in possibly looking at the programming that person has done. I proposed that you can tinker in public if you make sure your tinkering won't be confused for your magnum opus. You dismissed that because a one sentence readme isn't needed on a public side project.
    - nicbou 5y ago
      You're not the target demographic. It was shared with other programmers, not submitted for your judgement.
    - reificator 5y ago
      > If you do make it public and add it to a resume I didn’t say anything about adding a link to a resume. This thread has hints of people thinking “I’ll just look up their GitHub if they don’t include it” and other threads make that explicit. > You dismissed that because a one sentence readme isn't needed on a public side project. I don’t think that’s what I said. I was saying that tracking all the things one might be judged for is unreasonable, not that having a readme is unreasonable. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html > Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize. Assume good faith.
- BeetleB 5y ago
  > Make a readme that says "This project is me exploring how to do Y so I can learn the ins and outs". Solved. Your comment is a great reason for me not to share my Github profile. I'm not going to treat my Github project defensively. The notion that most people need to worry about what they put in their README because some interviewer is going to look at it - it's just so much better not to let them see your Github profile. The irony with this article is that it's proposing a solution to a problem - yet that solution is as problematic. A resume is a poor indicator of one's skills, as is their Github profile.
  - lbotos 5y ago
    Sure, if you don't want people to look at your code, don't make it public? I'd argue with you that a GitHub profile could be a useful signal, but it's not a given. As a hiring manager: - If they don't have a GH profile, I won't ding them. - If they add it to the resume, and it's a scrap yard, I won't ding them. - If they add it to the resume, and it's well maintained, I will ask questions about it. - If they add it to the resume, and it's clearly deception, I will have a negative perception. I feel like most hiring managers take this approach.
    - nicbou 5y ago
      Sharing is caring. It's not an invitation for unsolicited judgement. The message is "I code in ny spare time" not "this is representative of my professional work"
- nicbou 5y ago
  Why should I have to defend the imperfections of what I do for fun? I wasn't getting paid to make it good. It's a personal project. I do it for fun. I didn't write tests because it wasn't fun. I cut corners to get to the fun part faster. I made breaking changes because the one single user accepted them.

What if I wanted to reinvent the wheel to increase my knowledge?

lbotos 5y ago

Make a readme that says "This project is me exploring how to do Y so I can learn the ins and outs". Solved.

reificator 5y ago
And what if I’m not tracking that in such detail or even thinking about viewing it like that because it’s a side project? My repos are hidden specifically because I do them for fun. I’d make them public if tinkering were an understood thing but its not. > If you give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest of men, I will find something in them which will hang him. Better to have a clear separation between work and play.
- lbotos 5y ago
  > And what if I’m not tracking that in such detail or even thinking about viewing it like that because it’s a side project? Make it private like you are doing? If you don't want someone to perceive something about you, then don't make it public. If you do make it public and add it to a resume then don't be surprised if the person who manages programmers is interested in possibly looking at the programming that person has done. I proposed that you can tinker in public if you make sure your tinkering won't be confused for your magnum opus. You dismissed that because a one sentence readme isn't needed on a public side project.
  - nicbou 5y ago
    You're not the target demographic. It was shared with other programmers, not submitted for your judgement.
  - reificator 5y ago
    > If you do make it public and add it to a resume I didn’t say anything about adding a link to a resume. This thread has hints of people thinking “I’ll just look up their GitHub if they don’t include it” and other threads make that explicit. > You dismissed that because a one sentence readme isn't needed on a public side project. I don’t think that’s what I said. I was saying that tracking all the things one might be judged for is unreasonable, not that having a readme is unreasonable. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html > Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize. Assume good faith.
BeetleB 5y ago
> Make a readme that says "This project is me exploring how to do Y so I can learn the ins and outs". Solved. Your comment is a great reason for me not to share my Github profile. I'm not going to treat my Github project defensively. The notion that most people need to worry about what they put in their README because some interviewer is going to look at it - it's just so much better not to let them see your Github profile. The irony with this article is that it's proposing a solution to a problem - yet that solution is as problematic. A resume is a poor indicator of one's skills, as is their Github profile.
- lbotos 5y ago
  Sure, if you don't want people to look at your code, don't make it public? I'd argue with you that a GitHub profile could be a useful signal, but it's not a given. As a hiring manager: - If they don't have a GH profile, I won't ding them. - If they add it to the resume, and it's a scrap yard, I won't ding them. - If they add it to the resume, and it's well maintained, I will ask questions about it. - If they add it to the resume, and it's clearly deception, I will have a negative perception. I feel like most hiring managers take this approach.
  - nicbou 5y ago
    Sharing is caring. It's not an invitation for unsolicited judgement. The message is "I code in ny spare time" not "this is representative of my professional work"
nicbou 5y ago
Why should I have to defend the imperfections of what I do for fun? I wasn't getting paid to make it good. It's a personal project. I do it for fun. I didn't write tests because it wasn't fun. I cut corners to get to the fun part faster. I made breaking changes because the one single user accepted them.