4 ms·

Having been at this long enough to have put Easter eggs of my own into works I've done, I can say that the biggest issue is the lack of stomach for introducing

Having been at this long enough to have put Easter eggs of my own into works I've done, I can say that the biggest issue is the lack of stomach for introducing a possible failure point to the software for little more than shits and giggles, especially when software has gotten so complex and big. That and who has the time to build silly stuff at work anymore. I feel like we're constantly at 120%.

indrora 1y ago
There are still places for good easter eggs. In a past life I did technical writing and slipped all sorts of fun things into my documentation: Multiple 4/20 references, my birthday, in-jokes from the team that I was working with, even the occasional proper meme. When I needed a link? Something funny from the official corporate channel on YouTube that I could get away with. Needed a company name? I checked every trademark we had on file to find Something. Never be afraid to hide something wonderful in your code. The header for UFS2 contains the author's birthday [0] and OpenVMS has several interesting exit code states [1] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_Kirk_McKusick https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_Kirk_McKusick [1] https://www.parsec.com/os/openvms/undocumented.php?page=13 https://www.parsec.com/os/openvms/undocumented.php?page=13
- FirmwareBurner 1y ago
  >Never be afraid to hide something wonderful in your code. In your own code or in your employer's code? Because having some engineer years down the line spend hours figuring out some mystery WTF code, jut to realize it was some undocumented easter egg of another engineer who left years ago, would piss everyone off. Easter eggs had their place when engineering teams would basically stay the same and work on the same product for years, so it would be like an inside joke the whole team was in on, but when teams are constantly changing with people job-hopping all the time, easter eggs are liabilities.
  - saagarjha 1y ago
    If people can figure out easter eggs decades later without the code in front of them, I think you can do just fine with a commit from last year.
out-of-ideas 1y ago
> I feel like we're constantly at 120% sounds like a great way to burn out. if you do not take care of yourself properly, how are you expected to take care of anything else? edit: oops late reply, but oh well
- dclowd9901 1y ago
  Tell me about it. From my conversations with many other engineers right now, this seems to be the standard. For some reason companies really have us by the balls at this moment.

indrora 1y ago

There are still places for good easter eggs. In a past life I did technical writing and slipped all sorts of fun things into my documentation: Multiple 4/20 references, my birthday, in-jokes from the team that I was working with, even the occasional proper meme. When I needed a link? Something funny from the official corporate channel on YouTube that I could get away with. Needed a company name? I checked every trademark we had on file to find Something. Never be afraid to hide something wonderful in your code. The header for UFS2 contains the author's birthday [0] and OpenVMS has several interesting exit code states [1] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_Kirk_McKusick https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_Kirk_McKusick [1] https://www.parsec.com/os/openvms/undocumented.php?page=13 https://www.parsec.com/os/openvms/undocumented.php?page=13

FirmwareBurner 1y ago
>Never be afraid to hide something wonderful in your code. In your own code or in your employer's code? Because having some engineer years down the line spend hours figuring out some mystery WTF code, jut to realize it was some undocumented easter egg of another engineer who left years ago, would piss everyone off. Easter eggs had their place when engineering teams would basically stay the same and work on the same product for years, so it would be like an inside joke the whole team was in on, but when teams are constantly changing with people job-hopping all the time, easter eggs are liabilities.
- saagarjha 1y ago
  If people can figure out easter eggs decades later without the code in front of them, I think you can do just fine with a commit from last year.

out-of-ideas 1y ago

> I feel like we're constantly at 120% sounds like a great way to burn out. if you do not take care of yourself properly, how are you expected to take care of anything else? edit: oops late reply, but oh well

dclowd9901 1y ago
Tell me about it. From my conversations with many other engineers right now, this seems to be the standard. For some reason companies really have us by the balls at this moment.