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We are all a bit overwhelmed by the complexity of the field of software engineering. Arguably sometimes accidental. But I don't agree that rejecting all the ide

We are all a bit overwhelmed by the complexity of the field of software engineering. Arguably sometimes accidental. But I don't agree that rejecting all the ideas we have come up with over the decades is a solution. On the other hand, not all solutions should be taken to the letter or used "too much". "Overwhelming" is by definition what happens when something is used "too much". By all means, please, write tests, use the VCS, use abstractions, but *know why you use them*, and when the "why" doesn't hold - reassess.

akira2501 2y ago
The only reason I started to _actually_ use git was magit. I wish there were command line level "porcelains" for everything. A standard '--help=ui' output and 'dialog' style interface and it could be automatic. It's not so much being overwhelmed by the complexity, it's just that there's a limit to the amount of active muscle memory I can utilize, and I have to make the cut somewhere.
devjab 2y ago
I think a major source of the problem is academia. I’m an external examiner for CS students in Denmark, and they are basically still taught the OOP and onion architecture way of building abstractions up front. Which is basically one of the worst mantras in software development. What is even worse is that they are taught these things to a religious degree. What is weird to me is that there is has been a lot of good progression in how professionals write software over the years. As you state, abstractions aren’t inherently bad for everything. I can’t imagine not having some sort of base class containing “updated”, “updated_by” and so on for classic data which ends up in a SQL db. But in general I’ll almost never write an abstraction unless I’m absolutely forced to do so. Yet in academia they are still teaching the exact same curriculum that I was taught 25 years ago. It’s so weird to sit there and grade their ability to build these wild abstractions in their fancy UML and then implement them in code. Knowing that like 90% of them are never going to see a single UML diagram ever again. At least if they work in my little area of the world. It is what it is though.

akira2501 2y ago

The only reason I started to _actually_ use git was magit. I wish there were command line level "porcelains" for everything. A standard '--help=ui' output and 'dialog' style interface and it could be automatic. It's not so much being overwhelmed by the complexity, it's just that there's a limit to the amount of active muscle memory I can utilize, and I have to make the cut somewhere.

devjab 2y ago

I think a major source of the problem is academia. I’m an external examiner for CS students in Denmark, and they are basically still taught the OOP and onion architecture way of building abstractions up front. Which is basically one of the worst mantras in software development. What is even worse is that they are taught these things to a religious degree. What is weird to me is that there is has been a lot of good progression in how professionals write software over the years. As you state, abstractions aren’t inherently bad for everything. I can’t imagine not having some sort of base class containing “updated”, “updated_by” and so on for classic data which ends up in a SQL db. But in general I’ll almost never write an abstraction unless I’m absolutely forced to do so. Yet in academia they are still teaching the exact same curriculum that I was taught 25 years ago. It’s so weird to sit there and grade their ability to build these wild abstractions in their fancy UML and then implement them in code. Knowing that like 90% of them are never going to see a single UML diagram ever again. At least if they work in my little area of the world. It is what it is though.