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> The author hits the nail on the head with his claim that imaginary problems are more fun than real ones. Not necessarily. It's just that most developers have

> The author hits the nail on the head with his claim that imaginary problems are more fun than real ones. Not necessarily. It's just that most developers have never worked in a setting where they got to work on problems properly. Solving real problems for real people is very addictive. There is a reason some people like working for startups. It's because you live very close to your users and when you make them happy you know. The second interesting fact is that if you just plow ahead and solve many real problems fast you will eventually run into problems that are both real and interesting. After having tried that there has been no going back for me. I am allergic to imaginary problems. It feels as pointless as watching people who are famous for being famous argue on TV. I think we are all victims of our feedback loops. (University) Education sublely teaches us that the only important problems are those that are very difficult and preferably have never been solved before. Those same problems also make for better blogposts. In the real world the incentives are mostly opposite. Problems with no known solutions (or only really difficult solutions) are generally bad. They can be worth it, but you should stay away from them until you know that are worth it. Software engineers seem to almost pride themselves on not knowing what their users want. It takes a while to scrub all that bad learning out and replace it with something better. Unfortunately some people are stuck.

sliechty 3y ago
> Solving real problems for real people is very addictive. This was the feedback loop that worked best for me. imaginary problems and needless complexity go hand in hand, ruthless editing at the planning stage is necessary to combat it.
TehShrike 3y ago
Second this. The endorphins from making someone's job less sucky are a way better high than solving some code puzzle.
nr378 3y ago
> (University) Education sublely teaches us that the only important problems are those that are very difficult and preferably have never been solved before. Those same problems also make for better blogposts. In the real world the incentives are mostly opposite. Problems with no known solutions (or only really difficult solutions) are generally bad. This is a great insight. One can add value to other people's lives by applying known solutions in relatively novel contexts (e.g. building a CRUD form at XYZ employer), whereas it's very hard to add value to other people's lives by trying to develop entirely novel solutions (because the probability of success is so low). Most of our training however, focuses on the methodology used to develop these novel solutions, rather than on the application of the solutions themselves.

sliechty 3y ago

> Solving real problems for real people is very addictive. This was the feedback loop that worked best for me. imaginary problems and needless complexity go hand in hand, ruthless editing at the planning stage is necessary to combat it.

TehShrike 3y ago

Second this. The endorphins from making someone's job less sucky are a way better high than solving some code puzzle.

nr378 3y ago

> (University) Education sublely teaches us that the only important problems are those that are very difficult and preferably have never been solved before. Those same problems also make for better blogposts. In the real world the incentives are mostly opposite. Problems with no known solutions (or only really difficult solutions) are generally bad. This is a great insight. One can add value to other people's lives by applying known solutions in relatively novel contexts (e.g. building a CRUD form at XYZ employer), whereas it's very hard to add value to other people's lives by trying to develop entirely novel solutions (because the probability of success is so low). Most of our training however, focuses on the methodology used to develop these novel solutions, rather than on the application of the solutions themselves.