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Q&A With Nine Great Programmers

81 points by damian2000 14y ago

stmpjmpr 14y ago
I'm not sure why Guido Van Rossum bothered to answer at all.
- RivieraKid 14y ago
  I really liked his answers.
  - yen223 14y ago
    Considering the language he works on is named after Monty Python, his answers do seem rather appropriate.
- TazeTSchnitzel 14y ago
  His answers reflect on him a lot, he comes off as a different kind of person to the rest.
  - statictype 14y ago
    Actually, he comes off as a person not interested in taking this test. Which is fine. I remember when this got posted on reddit years ago, pg chimed in and said he had also probably received the interview but didn't do it (and now wishes he did so he could see how his answers compared to others).
andreipop 14y ago
Big fan of this post, for the format more than anything. I find these types of posts often hard to contextualize without solid reference points, and it helps having differing opinions side by side.
biafra 14y ago
Interesting how Mobile Computing was not in their radar in 2006. I wonder if it would be today.
- damian2000 14y ago
  On Q5 (if you had 3 months to learn a technology what would you choose) ... DHH replied "Cocoa programming on a Mac"... which in hindsight would have been great preparation for the iPhone release the following year...
- yen223 14y ago
  Steve Yegge's statement about how programming in the "future" will shift away from desktop apps and towards web-based applications strikes me as being the most prescient.
  - damian2000 14y ago
    Yeah Steve Yegge came across to me as someone who's been in the trenches in the real world of software development for a significant part of his career, while still keeping up with the latest technologies. Not to detract from any of the others' achievements, but some of them have remained primarily focused on their particular field of expertise. The first paragraph of his wikipedia article bears this out: "Yegge has two decades of industry experience, developing across domains including embedded operating systems, scalable e-commerce systems, applications for mobile devices, and software productivity tools. In his career he has worked for Amazon.com and Google among others."
naturalethic 14y ago
DHH is completely out of his league, yet probably makes more money than all of them. Edit: Don't get me wrong, DHH is an amazing businessman and a very smart guy.
- patio11 14y ago
  Without specific reference to the income of any particular individuals, particularly individuals with HN accounts, there is an important lesson here for folks who think that being world-class in programming is the primary rewarding career path for "programmers."
  - statictype 14y ago
    I think you mean the lesson is for people who thing being a world-class programmer is the primary rewarding career path for 'making money' (or being successful where 'success' is defined as 'money').
    - loumf 14y ago
      How about freedom to pick employers and projects?
      - statictype 14y ago
        If you're already working on what you like, then why chase after money to... have the luxury of working on what you like? Note that I'm not saying this is how everyone should be (I'm not, myself) but its a perfectly reasonable lifestyle.
- swansong 14y ago
  I think he's entitled to be in that company. Rails was a big leap forward. I think the original blogger showed great taste with his choice of interview subjects.
- damian2000 14y ago
  I thought his reponse for Q2 (most important skill?) was spot on and something rooted in his getting things done mentality ... "A strong sense of value. The ability to ask yourself the question: Is it worth doing what I’m doing right now? So many programmers seem to waste oceans of time on stuff that just doesn’t matter. And not enough on the stuff that does."
spenczar5 14y ago
Bjarne Stroustrup's favorite band is the Dixie Chicks. For some reason, this just makes me giggle uncontrollably.
nodesocket 14y ago
Somehow I figured that Linus still uses Pine to read e-mail.
yoduh 14y ago
It's funny what Torvalds said about "good taste" because I have had the same sort of idea for years. But I'd never heard any programmer articulate it as such. I also call it "sensibilities". I have no clue if his idea of what is "good taste" is even remotely similar to mine, but it's interesting that he also thinks about this notion of "good taste". I can eliminate programmers and programs very quickly using this sort of qualitative assessment. It might not even be necessary to see any code. Just knowing how they would approach a problem, how they would design a solution (Rube Goldberg machine), and of course what language they would use says something about their "tastes". It's not so much a matter of what they do or don't know how to do, it's their selections from among different choices. Imagine hypothetically a programmer knows every language and can implement any design. The language he chooses and the design he chooses tells us about his "taste".
- btbuilder 14y ago
  I don't believe he said he liked VB, he actually said as a language it isn't great. What he did say is that the way it simplified database access gave us something extremely powerful and influential even though it was not (and isn't) seen as particularly disruptive or new. This seems inline with other statements from Linus w.r.t. the value of C++ and OOP in general. A very pragmatic man. I believe it also aligns with many of the answers to what will be the "next big thing.".

81 points by damian2000 14y ago

stmpjmpr 14y ago

I'm not sure why Guido Van Rossum bothered to answer at all.

RivieraKid 14y ago
I really liked his answers.
- yen223 14y ago
  Considering the language he works on is named after Monty Python, his answers do seem rather appropriate.
TazeTSchnitzel 14y ago
His answers reflect on him a lot, he comes off as a different kind of person to the rest.
- statictype 14y ago
  Actually, he comes off as a person not interested in taking this test. Which is fine. I remember when this got posted on reddit years ago, pg chimed in and said he had also probably received the interview but didn't do it (and now wishes he did so he could see how his answers compared to others).

andreipop 14y ago

Big fan of this post, for the format more than anything. I find these types of posts often hard to contextualize without solid reference points, and it helps having differing opinions side by side.

biafra 14y ago

Interesting how Mobile Computing was not in their radar in 2006. I wonder if it would be today.

damian2000 14y ago
On Q5 (if you had 3 months to learn a technology what would you choose) ... DHH replied "Cocoa programming on a Mac"... which in hindsight would have been great preparation for the iPhone release the following year...
yen223 14y ago
Steve Yegge's statement about how programming in the "future" will shift away from desktop apps and towards web-based applications strikes me as being the most prescient.
- damian2000 14y ago
  Yeah Steve Yegge came across to me as someone who's been in the trenches in the real world of software development for a significant part of his career, while still keeping up with the latest technologies. Not to detract from any of the others' achievements, but some of them have remained primarily focused on their particular field of expertise. The first paragraph of his wikipedia article bears this out: "Yegge has two decades of industry experience, developing across domains including embedded operating systems, scalable e-commerce systems, applications for mobile devices, and software productivity tools. In his career he has worked for Amazon.com and Google among others."

naturalethic 14y ago

DHH is completely out of his league, yet probably makes more money than all of them. Edit: Don't get me wrong, DHH is an amazing businessman and a very smart guy.

patio11 14y ago
Without specific reference to the income of any particular individuals, particularly individuals with HN accounts, there is an important lesson here for folks who think that being world-class in programming is the primary rewarding career path for "programmers."
- statictype 14y ago
  I think you mean the lesson is for people who thing being a world-class programmer is the primary rewarding career path for 'making money' (or being successful where 'success' is defined as 'money').
  - loumf 14y ago
    How about freedom to pick employers and projects?
    - statictype 14y ago
      If you're already working on what you like, then why chase after money to... have the luxury of working on what you like? Note that I'm not saying this is how everyone should be (I'm not, myself) but its a perfectly reasonable lifestyle.
swansong 14y ago
I think he's entitled to be in that company. Rails was a big leap forward. I think the original blogger showed great taste with his choice of interview subjects.
damian2000 14y ago
I thought his reponse for Q2 (most important skill?) was spot on and something rooted in his getting things done mentality ... "A strong sense of value. The ability to ask yourself the question: Is it worth doing what I’m doing right now? So many programmers seem to waste oceans of time on stuff that just doesn’t matter. And not enough on the stuff that does."

spenczar5 14y ago

Bjarne Stroustrup's favorite band is the Dixie Chicks. For some reason, this just makes me giggle uncontrollably.

nodesocket 14y ago

Somehow I figured that Linus still uses Pine to read e-mail.

yoduh 14y ago

It's funny what Torvalds said about "good taste" because I have had the same sort of idea for years. But I'd never heard any programmer articulate it as such. I also call it "sensibilities". I have no clue if his idea of what is "good taste" is even remotely similar to mine, but it's interesting that he also thinks about this notion of "good taste". I can eliminate programmers and programs very quickly using this sort of qualitative assessment. It might not even be necessary to see any code. Just knowing how they would approach a problem, how they would design a solution (Rube Goldberg machine), and of course what language they would use says something about their "tastes". It's not so much a matter of what they do or don't know how to do, it's their selections from among different choices. Imagine hypothetically a programmer knows every language and can implement any design. The language he chooses and the design he chooses tells us about his "taste".

btbuilder 14y ago
I don't believe he said he liked VB, he actually said as a language it isn't great. What he did say is that the way it simplified database access gave us something extremely powerful and influential even though it was not (and isn't) seen as particularly disruptive or new. This seems inline with other statements from Linus w.r.t. the value of C++ and OOP in general. A very pragmatic man. I believe it also aligns with many of the answers to what will be the "next big thing.".