4 ms·

The content of the article about how do you measure software talent hit home with me. I am not saying I am some x10 developer, but all the metrics used at the c

The content of the article about how do you measure software talent hit home with me. I am not saying I am some x10 developer, but all the metrics used at the companies I worked at just do not capture what makes a good software developer employee. Today's hiring process feels like you have to go memorize algorithms instead of valuing things an employee actually has done in the past. And if the thing that was done in the past is something older, like Ruby on Rails, or an old PHP project it actually has a negative connotations in respect to hire-ability.

bartread 1y ago
A nit, but Ruby on Rails isn’t “old”. It’s mature. It still receives regular updates and release, even major version releases. What it isn’t any more is new or trendy. Still pretty widely used though, and with good reason.
- fragmede 1y ago
  Not pick on Ruby, but is it a good reason? You've got 1 million lines of code and they’re written in Ruby and rewriting it would be, ah, untenable. But would ruby be the best choice today if you were starting from scratch? Maybe! But sheer inertia isn't a good reason in and of itself.
  - dasil003 1y ago
    He didn't say inertia, he said mature. It take a while for a language/platform to develop a solid ecosystem and stabilize. That absolutely has value, and is something you can't get out of a new system no matter what novel problems it solves. As far as new apps go, yeah I think it's still pretty optimal for a huge swath of web apps, especially for early incubation when you have <20 engineers and you need to move quick. Not if you need web sockets, or other concurrency / performance critical applications though.
    - fgonzag 1y ago
      Yes, I'd also think it's a great idea to build new apps in a language currently undergoing a distribution & supply chain war between the interested parties.
- fgonzag 1y ago
  Isn't the ruby gems community currently imploding and in the middle of a hostile takeover? Also I've read about quite a few recent politically aligned actions in the community. I don't know if I'd call that "mature".
  - tdeck 1y ago
    The same could be said about WordPress but it's hard to argue that isn't mature in the sense that your parent comment was referring to.
NoMoreNicksLeft 1y ago
It's not just the metrics. Over the years I've come to realize that in many cases these companies just sabotage the talent they do have. My own performance when I have my own office vs. when I didn't is night and day. The possession of an uninterruptible space for a few hours a day, of perceived privacy (a cubicle is little better than a dog crate)... And in many of the places where I did not have an office, it wasn't because none were available. In most of the jobs I've worked, there have been multiple vacant offices going unused or becoming junk rooms where they stash old equipment to keep it out of the hallways. Autonomy to solve problems... I don't know how many places I've been where it was tacitly supported for people to goof off for 20-30 hours a week, but god forbid you put effort into work that hadn't been directed from above. And on and on and on.
rglover 1y ago
This is what happens when you let people other than the ones doing the work do the hiring. Everybody leans on leet code and chasing the bleeding edge (buzzwords) because that's as far as the HR department's understanding of the technology that pays their salary goes.

bartread 1y ago

A nit, but Ruby on Rails isn’t “old”. It’s mature. It still receives regular updates and release, even major version releases. What it isn’t any more is new or trendy. Still pretty widely used though, and with good reason.

fragmede 1y ago
Not pick on Ruby, but is it a good reason? You've got 1 million lines of code and they’re written in Ruby and rewriting it would be, ah, untenable. But would ruby be the best choice today if you were starting from scratch? Maybe! But sheer inertia isn't a good reason in and of itself.
- dasil003 1y ago
  He didn't say inertia, he said mature. It take a while for a language/platform to develop a solid ecosystem and stabilize. That absolutely has value, and is something you can't get out of a new system no matter what novel problems it solves. As far as new apps go, yeah I think it's still pretty optimal for a huge swath of web apps, especially for early incubation when you have <20 engineers and you need to move quick. Not if you need web sockets, or other concurrency / performance critical applications though.
  - fgonzag 1y ago
    Yes, I'd also think it's a great idea to build new apps in a language currently undergoing a distribution & supply chain war between the interested parties.
fgonzag 1y ago
Isn't the ruby gems community currently imploding and in the middle of a hostile takeover? Also I've read about quite a few recent politically aligned actions in the community. I don't know if I'd call that "mature".
- tdeck 1y ago
  The same could be said about WordPress but it's hard to argue that isn't mature in the sense that your parent comment was referring to.

NoMoreNicksLeft 1y ago

It's not just the metrics. Over the years I've come to realize that in many cases these companies just sabotage the talent they do have. My own performance when I have my own office vs. when I didn't is night and day. The possession of an uninterruptible space for a few hours a day, of perceived privacy (a cubicle is little better than a dog crate)... And in many of the places where I did not have an office, it wasn't because none were available. In most of the jobs I've worked, there have been multiple vacant offices going unused or becoming junk rooms where they stash old equipment to keep it out of the hallways. Autonomy to solve problems... I don't know how many places I've been where it was tacitly supported for people to goof off for 20-30 hours a week, but god forbid you put effort into work that hadn't been directed from above. And on and on and on.

rglover 1y ago

This is what happens when you let people other than the ones doing the work do the hiring. Everybody leans on leet code and chasing the bleeding edge (buzzwords) because that's as far as the HR department's understanding of the technology that pays their salary goes.