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I am forever reminded of a colleague providing his assessment of an interview candidate "Nice guy, but shouldn't be doing software development." Scarily more ap

I am forever reminded of a colleague providing his assessment of an interview candidate "Nice guy, but shouldn't be doing software development." Scarily more applicable today than when he said it. It's tempting to suggest things are getting worse though (and I am bad for this) but I have encountered so many very senior people, in some cases famous ones, who don't actually understand what they're doing. It is scary how far confidence and an effort to rewrite history to hide all trace of your previous mistakes will get you. What has changed is the salary and expected workload are known in the wider community and so a lot of people that treat programming as a production line grind as opposed to a creative process have showed up, and totally skewed management expectations for how things could and should operate in the process, completely oblivious to the fact much of their work, if appropriately structured, should be done by the machines they spend their lives swearing at.

throwawaysleep 3y ago
I don’t see the point of understanding what I am doing. If management knows even less than I do or doesn’t care enough to check and my code runs, my solution is sufficient.
- seba_dos1 3y ago
  The management is there to manage people and their work, not to understand what developers are doing (otherwise they would be developers too). Though granted, they should at least be capable of recognizing subpar work like yours, either by themselves or by proxy of other developers.
  - throwawaysleep 3y ago
    How can they manage my work without understanding it? And if they don't understand it, subpar work is paid the same as reliable work. If there is no premium paid for software that is more reliable as they cannot identify it, why should it be more reliable?
    - seba_dos1 3y ago
      > How can they manage my work without understanding it? By assuming you're a responsible adult, perhaps. Sounds like you may be proving someone wrong.
confidantlake 3y ago
Does anyone "understand what they are doing"? The field is so vast that I am sure you can take anyone and find an area of computer science where they don't understand what they are doing.
- fidotron 3y ago
  Confidently making bold assertions which are provably incorrect counts as not knowing what you are doing.
taneq 3y ago
> [...] lot of people that treat programming as a production line grind as opposed to a creative process have showed up, and totally skewed management expectations for how things could and should operate in the process, completely oblivious to the fact much of their work, if appropriately structured, should be done by the machines they spend their lives swearing at. This is so beautifully put.

throwawaysleep 3y ago

I don’t see the point of understanding what I am doing. If management knows even less than I do or doesn’t care enough to check and my code runs, my solution is sufficient.

seba_dos1 3y ago
The management is there to manage people and their work, not to understand what developers are doing (otherwise they would be developers too). Though granted, they should at least be capable of recognizing subpar work like yours, either by themselves or by proxy of other developers.
- throwawaysleep 3y ago
  How can they manage my work without understanding it? And if they don't understand it, subpar work is paid the same as reliable work. If there is no premium paid for software that is more reliable as they cannot identify it, why should it be more reliable?
  - seba_dos1 3y ago
    > How can they manage my work without understanding it? By assuming you're a responsible adult, perhaps. Sounds like you may be proving someone wrong.

confidantlake 3y ago

Does anyone "understand what they are doing"? The field is so vast that I am sure you can take anyone and find an area of computer science where they don't understand what they are doing.

fidotron 3y ago
Confidently making bold assertions which are provably incorrect counts as not knowing what you are doing.

taneq 3y ago

> [...] lot of people that treat programming as a production line grind as opposed to a creative process have showed up, and totally skewed management expectations for how things could and should operate in the process, completely oblivious to the fact much of their work, if appropriately structured, should be done by the machines they spend their lives swearing at. This is so beautifully put.