4 ms·

"Geez, what idiot wrote this code? Oh yeah, me." I hate that feeling.

by beat 12y ago

redler 12y ago
I try to engineer that specific feeling. Working on a very small team, or even alone, I'll intentionally rotate among projects on a timescale of days. When I eventually swing my attention back to a recent project, the additional set of eyes that makes bugs shallower is my own. I'm slightly different in the Ship-of-Theseus sense. If I don't have a sufficiently large team in the space dimension, my best option is to increase its size in the time dimension.
- beat 12y ago
  Bold approach. That's really good thinking!
Dewie 12y ago
I've had the same experience, only with prose (an old forum post of mine).
kazagistar 12y ago
This is the oppositie: "What wonderful sexy developer wrote this documentation that was so helpful? Oh, hey, it was me!"
JOnAgain 12y ago
I think I hate that feeling because it usually comes up in the context of a bug. Something that's lived in the system for years. It's existed through a half dozen code reviews when related code is refactored. Then some college grad comes in and starts asking all these stupid questions like, "why does this function loop n^2 times and not just return the number 42 every time?" You answer, "Well you see this part here, Billy, this is the important part it ... it calculates ... give me 2 seconds ... ... ... ... fuck."
- adamtj 12y ago
  I love when that happens! That's because I hate being wrong. I really really really hate it. I hate being wrong so much that I'm extremely grateful when people point out my mistakes. Then I get to stop being wrong and start being right! The satisfaction I get from that more than makes up for any amount of embarrassment stemming from the revealing of my mistake. It's not that I hate _appearing_ to be wrong. A little embarrassment never killed anybody. Rather, _being_ wrong is awful, even if nobody knows it, even if I don't know it. I hate being wrong.
sanderjd 12y ago
I love that feeling! It always gives me insight into my own thought process to see it as someone else would, and I always learn something from it.

"Geez, what idiot wrote this code? Oh yeah, me." I hate that feeling.

by beat 12y ago

"Geez, what idiot wrote this code? Oh yeah, me." I hate that feeling.

I try to engineer that specific feeling. Working on a very small team, or even alone, I'll intentionally rotate among projects on a timescale of days. When I eventually swing my attention back to a recent project, the additional set of eyes that makes bugs shallower is my own. I'm slightly different in the Ship-of-Theseus sense. If I don't have a sufficiently large team in the space dimension, my best option is to increase its size in the time dimension.

beat 12y ago
Bold approach. That's really good thinking!

Dewie 12y ago

I've had the same experience, only with prose (an old forum post of mine).

kazagistar 12y ago

This is the oppositie: "What wonderful sexy developer wrote this documentation that was so helpful? Oh, hey, it was me!"

JOnAgain 12y ago

I think I hate that feeling because it usually comes up in the context of a bug. Something that's lived in the system for years. It's existed through a half dozen code reviews when related code is refactored. Then some college grad comes in and starts asking all these stupid questions like, "why does this function loop n^2 times and not just return the number 42 every time?" You answer, "Well you see this part here, Billy, this is the important part it ... it calculates ... give me 2 seconds ... ... ... ... fuck."

adamtj 12y ago
I love when that happens! That's because I hate being wrong. I really really really hate it. I hate being wrong so much that I'm extremely grateful when people point out my mistakes. Then I get to stop being wrong and start being right! The satisfaction I get from that more than makes up for any amount of embarrassment stemming from the revealing of my mistake. It's not that I hate _appearing_ to be wrong. A little embarrassment never killed anybody. Rather, _being_ wrong is awful, even if nobody knows it, even if I don't know it. I hate being wrong.

sanderjd 12y ago

I love that feeling! It always gives me insight into my own thought process to see it as someone else would, and I always learn something from it.