4 ms·
After 10 years in the industry I relate to that second paragraph far too well. What makes programming hard is that people who aren't programmers don't understan
by sitharus 13y ago
After 10 years in the industry I relate to that second paragraph far too well. What makes programming hard is that people who aren't programmers don't understand what we do.
- bovermyer 13y agoPart of the job is helping others understand what you do, in a way that's convivial and not condescending.
- atwebb 13y agoI think this really cannot be understated. It will help you get ahead and in many, many different ways while also strengthening your base knowledge and understanding of the subject matter.
- sitharus 13y agoI guess I should have put more than 10 seconds in to my first reply, but I totally agree. That's the hard part. Now I'm in a senior role I spend most of my time explaining what has to be done. All the hows and whys take a long time to explain thoughtfully. If all you can do is "I'm smarter than you and I say so" that's not a good explanation. I know we like to complain how meetings and presentations take up valuable programming time, but without them there's no way to explain to a CEO what unit tests are for, or why we're now adopting JQuery and removing Prototype from our 5 year old application. It's always possible, but you have to be aware of what everyone else who supports your organisation values.
- sanderjd 13y agoIt seems to me that the more common problem is programmers willfully refusing to understand what people who aren't programmers do.