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Almost every developer can fit a bit of discretionary work into their existing stories. You can polish up the performance when you first code it. Almost every

Almost every developer can fit a bit of discretionary work into their existing stories. You can polish up the performance when you first code it. Almost every employer also has a bunch of things they'd like you to do outside of your stories - mentoring junior developers, recruiting, planning, team building, professional development. Some employers have SOC2 compliance policies that all changes should be traceable to a documented requirement, so fixes after the change is complete can be a bit more bureaucratic. If the project is behind schedule, the bosses might want you to work on something else instead. Many developers are given pretty high-spec machines, so they can compile quickly and run weighty IDEs and so on - meaning an issue that's painful for users with 2GB of RAM and 2 CPU cores might be barely noticeable to users with 32GB of RAM and 8 cores. And of course, some workplace cultures would say if you've 'got your work done' you can do discretionary performance work or you can leave early - and who'd choose performance work over spending time with their loved ones?

galangalalgol 4y ago
A programmer? The gp talked about promotion as an incentive. 15 or maybe 20 years ago people didn't go into programming as a profession so much as they got paid to do what they would have done anyway. That was after the first dotcom bust, so maybe some people before that were in it for the money. But the number of times I have had to apologize to the wife because I got lost in a problem and was late getting home is large. Heck on /. they would have questioned that I actually had a wife, because programmers don't date. The motivation of the people doing the job has changed now that it pays well. But also, the culture of "if you aren't working your backlog item you aren't working" is new. The scrum kanban thing is somewhat to blame. Waterfall was terrible, but everyone on a good team knew that and just did what made sense, which is kind of what the agile manifesto was about.
- IggleSniggle 4y ago
  Omg I’m a younger gen it sounds like, but I’m constantly getting in trouble with my wife for getting too lost in a problem. She hates, too, that I can continue to be lost in it even as I’m eating dinner or walking with her in the park or whatever. As for where that energy goes…when an employer tells me that in order to do XYZ I need to open tickets and write stories and and and, even though I agree those are the right things to do, my brain is more likely to the attack the problems where all that distracting bullshit is unnecessary.

galangalalgol 4y ago

A programmer? The gp talked about promotion as an incentive. 15 or maybe 20 years ago people didn't go into programming as a profession so much as they got paid to do what they would have done anyway. That was after the first dotcom bust, so maybe some people before that were in it for the money. But the number of times I have had to apologize to the wife because I got lost in a problem and was late getting home is large. Heck on /. they would have questioned that I actually had a wife, because programmers don't date. The motivation of the people doing the job has changed now that it pays well. But also, the culture of "if you aren't working your backlog item you aren't working" is new. The scrum kanban thing is somewhat to blame. Waterfall was terrible, but everyone on a good team knew that and just did what made sense, which is kind of what the agile manifesto was about.

IggleSniggle 4y ago
Omg I’m a younger gen it sounds like, but I’m constantly getting in trouble with my wife for getting too lost in a problem. She hates, too, that I can continue to be lost in it even as I’m eating dinner or walking with her in the park or whatever. As for where that energy goes…when an employer tells me that in order to do XYZ I need to open tickets and write stories and and and, even though I agree those are the right things to do, my brain is more likely to the attack the problems where all that distracting bullshit is unnecessary.