4 ms·

> Charlie Marsh is just a damn good developer curious how you assessed this. did you inspect the code or are you just commenting from the user POV?

by swyx 4y ago

BiteCode_dev 4y ago
Eating at a restaurant: - "This chef is a great cook!" - "How do you know, have you looked inside the kitchen?"
- ZephyrBlu 4y ago
  Code is not food. You can create a great product with shit code (Or just mediocre code!). Does that make someone a good dev, or a bad dev? How you come to the conclusion he's "just a damn good developer" is a very fair question.
  - ashtonbaker 4y ago
    I think it's actually basically the same. Being a clean, organized cook is probably positively correlated with making good food, but it's not strictly necessary. If someone is writing sloppy code but shipping a project of this overall quality without leaking the "low quality" of their implementation, then I wouldn't presume to call them a "bad dev" - I would probably conclude that they're more efficient than I am at prioritizing where to spend organizational energy.
  - BiteCode_dev 4y ago
    In this analogy, the food is the entire project, and a dev does much more than coding. You can do one thing right with luck, you can't do most things right by luck alone. The guy is fluent in 2 languages, one being known to be hard to master, create a tool that replace several others, get adopted in months by half the community, welcome 172 contributors on a project that is parsing stuff, a hard problem. Also the doc is good. As a professional dev, I never get all those right. Never. So yes, the food is good, and the chef is excellent to get all that stuff right.
  - cacois 4y ago
    Is the function of the developer to write outstanding code, or develop outstanding products? I think there's something to be said for praising the developer that is able to understand user needs so well that they create flawless experiences.
    - dev_tty01 4y ago
      >Is the function of the developer to write outstanding code, or develop outstanding products? Just my opinion of course, but to be considered a "damn good developer," you have to do both.
  - burkaman 4y ago
    > You can create a great product with shit code (Or just mediocre code!). Does that make someone a good dev Yes.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
- gardenhedge 4y ago
  Oddly defensive. Why not answer the question?
  - eviks 4y ago
    Because he disagreed with the implication of the question and thought it was more important to address that?
ajkjk 4y ago
The rest of the post you're replying to is a list of evidence, that claim was summarizing everything else.
dangoor 4y ago
FWIW, some of my time at Khan Academy overlapped with some of Charlie's and I agree with this assessment :)
- twunde 4y ago
  I think everyone that's worked with him, would agree :) For the brief time he was at Cedar, he contributed a lot of high quality code
emoprincejack 4y ago
[flagged]
- swyx 4y ago
  then you probably dont know that i'm actually more supportive of charlie than most and are reading negative intent from a perfectly neutral/innocent question that is perhaps badly phrased :)
  - ZephyrBlu 4y ago
    I thought more people would recognize your username, but I guess not. I suppose you're more prolific on Twitter than HN.
    - swyx 4y ago
      i mean i kinda like that HN de-emphasizes usernames, conversation should stand on its own if its to be judged by own merit. but i do have 14k karma haha
  - mardifoufs 4y ago
    I don't get it! What's the link here? Sorry if I'm being daft or missing something obvious
- Aeolun 4y ago
  Is it bad to be jealous of people that are much better than you are? I mean, for your own sake, ideally you are not, but I think it’s reasonable.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- riceart 4y ago
  > one look at the repository would tell you this person is obviously above average at writing software. If you can put your knee jerk emotions aside for a minute and reread that comment carefully - the competence of the dev was never in question.
shadowmatter 4y ago
When I worked at Khan Academy, Charlie was an intern, and for a few months we worked together on building the KA app for Android. I can vouch that he was a damn good developer then, and I'm sure he's a much better one now.

> Charlie Marsh is just a damn good developer curious how you assessed this. did you inspect the code or are you just commenting from the user POV?

by swyx 4y ago

> Charlie Marsh is just a damn good developer curious how you assessed this. did you inspect the code or are you just commenting from the user POV?

BiteCode_dev 4y ago

Eating at a restaurant: - "This chef is a great cook!" - "How do you know, have you looked inside the kitchen?"

ZephyrBlu 4y ago
Code is not food. You can create a great product with shit code (Or just mediocre code!). Does that make someone a good dev, or a bad dev? How you come to the conclusion he's "just a damn good developer" is a very fair question.
- ashtonbaker 4y ago
  I think it's actually basically the same. Being a clean, organized cook is probably positively correlated with making good food, but it's not strictly necessary. If someone is writing sloppy code but shipping a project of this overall quality without leaking the "low quality" of their implementation, then I wouldn't presume to call them a "bad dev" - I would probably conclude that they're more efficient than I am at prioritizing where to spend organizational energy.
- BiteCode_dev 4y ago
  In this analogy, the food is the entire project, and a dev does much more than coding. You can do one thing right with luck, you can't do most things right by luck alone. The guy is fluent in 2 languages, one being known to be hard to master, create a tool that replace several others, get adopted in months by half the community, welcome 172 contributors on a project that is parsing stuff, a hard problem. Also the doc is good. As a professional dev, I never get all those right. Never. So yes, the food is good, and the chef is excellent to get all that stuff right.
- cacois 4y ago
  Is the function of the developer to write outstanding code, or develop outstanding products? I think there's something to be said for praising the developer that is able to understand user needs so well that they create flawless experiences.
  - dev_tty01 4y ago
    >Is the function of the developer to write outstanding code, or develop outstanding products? Just my opinion of course, but to be considered a "damn good developer," you have to do both.
- burkaman 4y ago
  > You can create a great product with shit code (Or just mediocre code!). Does that make someone a good dev Yes.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
gardenhedge 4y ago
Oddly defensive. Why not answer the question?
- eviks 4y ago
  Because he disagreed with the implication of the question and thought it was more important to address that?

ajkjk 4y ago

The rest of the post you're replying to is a list of evidence, that claim was summarizing everything else.

dangoor 4y ago

FWIW, some of my time at Khan Academy overlapped with some of Charlie's and I agree with this assessment :)

twunde 4y ago
I think everyone that's worked with him, would agree :) For the brief time he was at Cedar, he contributed a lot of high quality code

emoprincejack 4y ago

[flagged]

swyx 4y ago
then you probably dont know that i'm actually more supportive of charlie than most and are reading negative intent from a perfectly neutral/innocent question that is perhaps badly phrased :)
- ZephyrBlu 4y ago
  I thought more people would recognize your username, but I guess not. I suppose you're more prolific on Twitter than HN.
  - swyx 4y ago
    i mean i kinda like that HN de-emphasizes usernames, conversation should stand on its own if its to be judged by own merit. but i do have 14k karma haha
- mardifoufs 4y ago
  I don't get it! What's the link here? Sorry if I'm being daft or missing something obvious
Aeolun 4y ago
Is it bad to be jealous of people that are much better than you are? I mean, for your own sake, ideally you are not, but I think it’s reasonable.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
riceart 4y ago
> one look at the repository would tell you this person is obviously above average at writing software. If you can put your knee jerk emotions aside for a minute and reread that comment carefully - the competence of the dev was never in question.

shadowmatter 4y ago

When I worked at Khan Academy, Charlie was an intern, and for a few months we worked together on building the KA app for Android. I can vouch that he was a damn good developer then, and I'm sure he's a much better one now.