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Meta-comment: it’s profoundly amusing to read the surprised reactions to Carmack’s productivity. This is what a great programmer who is a domain expert looks l

Meta-comment: it’s profoundly amusing to read the surprised reactions to Carmack’s productivity. This is what a great programmer who is a domain expert looks like when operating in an org structure that lets them focus on what they’re good at. You’re lucky if you get one of those three things, honestly. I worry that most orgs are not set up to even allow this level of productivity nowadays, because they’re too insistent on ironing out the peaks of productivity to try to fix the valleys. Also, tech culture is still so bizarrely focused on the idol of tooling fixing the programming problem that we see people like Carmack and remember, if only vaguely, that programmer skill is still a very real thing.

bboygravity 3y ago
A game is art. The most efficient tool I know to kill art and the artist's soul is probably Jira.
- holoduke 3y ago
  Non technical product managers coming up with ideas to make more productive. Happy to work in a pure dev environment now. No sprints, no deadlines. Just goals.
sho_hn 3y ago
You don't have to be a great programmer to be that productive. I am not, but I've also been fortunate to have periods in my life where I just got to pour 70-90 hours a week into a programming project, sometimes doing multiple 16-20 hour sessions over night in cafés, then taking a few days off to recover, with no distractions. Including commercial work, at a place with 20 or so other good engineers that allowed for a one-meeting-a-week culture because we just got each other and the tech stack was narrow enough to keep us compatible. The sheer amount of stuff you can get done and the level of satisfaction are amazing. I will always love those times. Everything you say about environment and org structure I fully agree with. But you don't have to be exceptional or gifted to benefit from an environment that trusts a creative worker to solve problems.
deleted 3y ago
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hnthrowaway0315 3y ago
You would need to find some small gig which allow you the freedom to do whatever you are good at. It's difficult indeed. I'd also say that most smaller gigs are struggling with financials so cannot hire really good people.

bboygravity 3y ago

A game is art. The most efficient tool I know to kill art and the artist's soul is probably Jira.

holoduke 3y ago
Non technical product managers coming up with ideas to make more productive. Happy to work in a pure dev environment now. No sprints, no deadlines. Just goals.

sho_hn 3y ago

You don't have to be a great programmer to be that productive. I am not, but I've also been fortunate to have periods in my life where I just got to pour 70-90 hours a week into a programming project, sometimes doing multiple 16-20 hour sessions over night in cafés, then taking a few days off to recover, with no distractions. Including commercial work, at a place with 20 or so other good engineers that allowed for a one-meeting-a-week culture because we just got each other and the tech stack was narrow enough to keep us compatible. The sheer amount of stuff you can get done and the level of satisfaction are amazing. I will always love those times. Everything you say about environment and org structure I fully agree with. But you don't have to be exceptional or gifted to benefit from an environment that trusts a creative worker to solve problems.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

hnthrowaway0315 3y ago

You would need to find some small gig which allow you the freedom to do whatever you are good at. It's difficult indeed. I'd also say that most smaller gigs are struggling with financials so cannot hire really good people.