4 ms·
There is nothing intrinsically negative about anything said here, just neutral things viewed in an extremely negative lens. Here's the exact same set of steps
by peeters 14y ago
There is nothing intrinsically negative about anything said here, just neutral things viewed in an extremely negative lens. Here's the exact same set of steps making up the "normal workflow", but framed as a positive feedback loop:
1. write some code
2. run the code
3. get further than you did before (perhaps with a new error message)
4. decide what's next and go back to step 1
I don't think negativity is intrinsic to the profession. I get to build things every day. I get to fix problems. That's an incredibly satisfying and positive thing.
- greenyoda 14y agoThat reminds me of an old story about how different people can look at the same job in different ways: A man came across three masons who were working at chipping chunks of granite from large blocks. The first seemed unhappy at his job, chipping away and frequently looking at his watch. When the man asked what it was that he was doing, the first mason responded, rather curtly, "I’m hammering this stupid rock, and I can't wait 'til 5 when I can go home." A second mason, seemingly more interested in his work, was hammering diligently and when asked what it was that he was doing, answered, "Well, I'm molding this block of rock so that it can be used with others to construct a wall. It's not bad work, but I'll sure be glad when it's done." A third mason was hammering at his block fervently, taking time to stand back and admire his work. He chipped off small pieces until he was satisfied that it was the best he could do. When he was questioned about his work he stopped, gazed skyward and proudly proclaimed, "I'm building a cathedral!"
- sneak 14y agoI rather like this and would love to appropriate it. Is there a correct attribution to use?
- greenyoda 14y agoIt's an old story that probably pre-dates programming and I've seen it several times in different places. I have no idea what the actual origin is. I just searched the web for "I'm building a cathedral" and used the wording I found here: http://bestpracticesforbusiness.com/2010/05/07/purpose-in-motivation http://bestpracticesforbusiness.com/2010/05/07/purpose-in-mo...
- think-large 14y agoBest comment I've read in a long time. Thank you very much Yoda.
- wam 14y agoBut this isn't what the piece describes. The author is talking about the _feedback_ one receives while doing work. Take the 3rd mason and start giving him a list of what's wrong with the work he's doing every day until the cathedral is built, and see what happens. This stonemason example, while touching and certainly applicable to some situations, is just too far removed from the reality of what many programmers experience to be relevant here.
- greenyoda 14y agoI was addressing what the parent comment (from peeters) insightfully observed about the original article's four-step workflow description: getting to the next bug and fixing it could either be thought of negatively ("damn, I have another bug in my code") or positively ("I've solved this problem and made some forward progress"). Whether you find this negative or positive is a function of your mental state. This is analogous to the mason's iterative workflow: noticing that his stone doesn't yet fit quite right and chipping a bit more off the side until it fits perfectly. During development, most of our daily feedback comes from the code itself, not from people yelling at us about how broken it is (although that does happen sometimes).
- wam 14y agoThe author explicitly says that fixing bugs feels good. But the point (as I see it) is that the workflow often obscures the larger positive goals of the endeavor and tends to burn people out, and that's a net negative. You can argue that it shouldn't, but I don't think you can argue that it doesn't. Everyone wants to be that 3rd happy mason. But that story doesn't tell you how to do that, it just suggests that it's a better way. Saying that it's just a function of your mental state is tautological.
- Evbn 14y agoThe story tells you explicitly. Don't stare at your watch, think about the product vision. Every day I go to work to fend off spies who want to steal your data. Protecting the powerless, defending your freedom! I will never meet you, and I will never even look at the treasure I am defending, and most of time is spent fixing broken configs, but I am doing it for a good cause, and at the end of the month I enjoy my paycheck too.
- killnine 14y agoI agree. And to add to that let me say something about a boss I once had. I would pair-program with this guy, and be astonished by his habits. I have had to have a goal of monitoring my anger for as long as I can remember. And I had no idea how much of a disadvantage this was in programming until I programmed with this boss. After every recompile, the resulting errors/warnings would fuel my anger until I was true frustrated to continue. As you can guess it is hard to get anything done like this. Where I would get angry and frustrated, my boss would get happy and pumped. He was excited at an issue/problem, because he liked the challenge, but mostly he loved to learn. With each error he'd announce how we were about to learn something new. It changed my world
- lmfao 14y agoYeah, and nothing is better than the feeling of fixing a bug after 2 days of research/hacking/stackoverflowing :-) Motivates you like crazy to go on.