7 ms·

I'd love to see some code snippets that he likes.. because i can't grasp what would make good screenshots in this context. If i were Elon i'd want to see "dumb

I'd love to see some code snippets that he likes.. because i can't grasp what would make good screenshots in this context. If i were Elon i'd want to see "dumb" looking code which brings together a larger, complex thing in a simple way. The larger picture is complex, but composed of simple primitives. Every piece looks unimpressive because experience taught the right abstractions to write things in a simple, testable and scalable manner. Yet Elon wants to fit that in a screenshot? I don't understand. I'm glad i don't work at Twitter.

chasd00 4y ago
yeah how much can you derive from a screenshot anyway? code formatting, variable naming? any references to classes/data structures/whatever not defined in the screenshot can't be attributed to the screenshot owner. maybe everyone is getting fired for putting '{' on a newline??? i have no idea.
- anotheracctfo 4y ago
  Probably exactly that. Looking for devs who used an if statement instead of a ternary operator. Not realizing that its sometimes really fucking useful to have readable code. Or the opposite lol, it's all subjective anyways.
- wellareyousure 4y ago
  In my experience, things like code formatting and style were really predictive of the person’s contributions to a team. I’m not saying he’s making a strategically wise move. But there are potentially another 100,000 developers in this industry who are in meaningful jeopardy over their jobs, because they are truly bad at it.
  - scarface74 4y ago
    > In my experience, things like code formatting and style were really predictive of the person’s contributions to a team. How would you “measure my contributions to my team” based on my code when I spent weeks dealing with larger strategy issues as a senior developer and working with other developers and being involved in the sales process?
    - wellareyousure 4y ago
      > ...dealing with larger strategy issues as a senior developer and working with other developers and being involved in the sales process? I don't have any way to talk about your specific situation. If you're asking, "how can you generalize broadly about" what sounds like big company problems. Maybe as this economic reshuffling / contraction continues, I expect those big company problems to go away via "reduction in force." Because if your folks - superior, subordinates, whatever - couldn't figure out a system to get you focused on programming, which is your valuable elite skill, for the last X years, they aren't going to to have the wisdom suddenly to do it now, in reaction to an equities crisis. And isn't that exactly what's happening?
      - scarface74 4y ago
        > If you're asking, "how can you generalize broadly about" what sounds like big company problems The scenario I was referring to was at a 60 person startup where I was responsible for initiatives to make us “cloud native” and micro service focus. We were pivoting to selling access to our micro services to large health care provider networks that are using them for their apps and websites. As an aside, being able to scale independently came in handy when a global pandemic happened in 2020. It was my third job at small companies where I was brought in to lead company wide technical initiatives. > Maybe as this economic reshuffling / contraction continues, I expect those big company problems to go away via "reduction in force. What I mentioned doing above, I now do in the consulting department of a little company I am sure you have heard of. I doubt even with a RIF it’s going to go down from being the second largest employer in the US to a small company anytime soon. > Because if your folks - superior, subordinates, whatever - couldn't figure out a system to get you focused on programming. I’ve been a “programmer” at six small companies and two F10 companies over the last 25+ years. Well the first one isn’t F10 anymore thanks to Jack Welch’s decisions. “Programming” is the least important thing. Twitter’s issues aren’t caused by “bad programming”. It’s the lack of strategy.
  - prirun 4y ago
    For original code, might work. But if I'm making a bug fix to someone else's code, which is going to be most of the time in this situation, I'd try to adhere to the style of code that is already there. If it's shitty or I disagree with it, I'm not going to reformat the code and rename all the variables to do a bug fix. A: there's too much risk of me making a mistake and breaking something that works; B: I wasn't asked to reformat/restyle the code; C: what I prefer probably doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things
- Tempest1981 4y ago
  > getting fired for putting '{' on a newline And you can't determine the most important factor: tabs vs spaces
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
jgb1984 4y ago
To be honest I doubt Elon could even write a fizzbuzz in a language of choice if his life depended on it. Nothing but hot air that guy. He's as much an engineer as I'm a neurosurgeon.

chasd00 4y ago

yeah how much can you derive from a screenshot anyway? code formatting, variable naming? any references to classes/data structures/whatever not defined in the screenshot can't be attributed to the screenshot owner. maybe everyone is getting fired for putting '{' on a newline??? i have no idea.

anotheracctfo 4y ago
Probably exactly that. Looking for devs who used an if statement instead of a ternary operator. Not realizing that its sometimes really fucking useful to have readable code. Or the opposite lol, it's all subjective anyways.
wellareyousure 4y ago
In my experience, things like code formatting and style were really predictive of the person’s contributions to a team. I’m not saying he’s making a strategically wise move. But there are potentially another 100,000 developers in this industry who are in meaningful jeopardy over their jobs, because they are truly bad at it.
- scarface74 4y ago
  > In my experience, things like code formatting and style were really predictive of the person’s contributions to a team. How would you “measure my contributions to my team” based on my code when I spent weeks dealing with larger strategy issues as a senior developer and working with other developers and being involved in the sales process?
  - wellareyousure 4y ago
    > ...dealing with larger strategy issues as a senior developer and working with other developers and being involved in the sales process? I don't have any way to talk about your specific situation. If you're asking, "how can you generalize broadly about" what sounds like big company problems. Maybe as this economic reshuffling / contraction continues, I expect those big company problems to go away via "reduction in force." Because if your folks - superior, subordinates, whatever - couldn't figure out a system to get you focused on programming, which is your valuable elite skill, for the last X years, they aren't going to to have the wisdom suddenly to do it now, in reaction to an equities crisis. And isn't that exactly what's happening?
    - scarface74 4y ago
      > If you're asking, "how can you generalize broadly about" what sounds like big company problems The scenario I was referring to was at a 60 person startup where I was responsible for initiatives to make us “cloud native” and micro service focus. We were pivoting to selling access to our micro services to large health care provider networks that are using them for their apps and websites. As an aside, being able to scale independently came in handy when a global pandemic happened in 2020. It was my third job at small companies where I was brought in to lead company wide technical initiatives. > Maybe as this economic reshuffling / contraction continues, I expect those big company problems to go away via "reduction in force. What I mentioned doing above, I now do in the consulting department of a little company I am sure you have heard of. I doubt even with a RIF it’s going to go down from being the second largest employer in the US to a small company anytime soon. > Because if your folks - superior, subordinates, whatever - couldn't figure out a system to get you focused on programming. I’ve been a “programmer” at six small companies and two F10 companies over the last 25+ years. Well the first one isn’t F10 anymore thanks to Jack Welch’s decisions. “Programming” is the least important thing. Twitter’s issues aren’t caused by “bad programming”. It’s the lack of strategy.
- prirun 4y ago
  For original code, might work. But if I'm making a bug fix to someone else's code, which is going to be most of the time in this situation, I'd try to adhere to the style of code that is already there. If it's shitty or I disagree with it, I'm not going to reformat the code and rename all the variables to do a bug fix. A: there's too much risk of me making a mistake and breaking something that works; B: I wasn't asked to reformat/restyle the code; C: what I prefer probably doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things
Tempest1981 4y ago
> getting fired for putting '{' on a newline And you can't determine the most important factor: tabs vs spaces
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

jgb1984 4y ago

To be honest I doubt Elon could even write a fizzbuzz in a language of choice if his life depended on it. Nothing but hot air that guy. He's as much an engineer as I'm a neurosurgeon.