6 ms·

> Not to take away from an obviously intelligent individual. It's interesting to observe how programmers and other similar intellectual workers prostrate thems

by Dewie 12y ago

> Not to take away from an obviously intelligent individual. It's interesting to observe how programmers and other similar intellectual workers prostrate themselves in their own specific way when referring to someone of high status in their field.

deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
- astrocyte 12y ago
  lots of editing on your post .. I reckon it takes more effort to be politically correct and toe the popular line than to just state the obvious truth : All across the globe, software engineers of value do amazing stuff everyday. They're too busy doing the amazing stuff to be praising someone for doing what they do on a daily basis. The ones that aren't doing amazing stuff can be found prostrating themselves to every tweet some high profile person makes because they don't grasp the normalcy of coding at that level on a regular basis. Sadly this idolization is what is probably the biggest impediment to them progressing to the level of the person they praise. For every Carmack, there's 1000s of unspoken/unheard of people doing the same thing. I try to think of them, myself, and not get too excited... Steve Jobs was Steve jobs because he thought different. You're not going to turn into him or Carmack by trying to emulate them or by following tweets and prostrating yourself. P.S - the only reason why I commented is because I have friends who constantly give me updates about what Carmack is doing as if they've just had an encounter with God. I can't help but think they are this way because they themselves have never coded at that level. Sadly, you don't get to that level by going Gaga over another programmer. You get to that level by understanding that there is nothing amazing about what Carmack/etc does, digging into something you care about, and pushing your own personal limits... People don't want to hear these kinds of things though as it necessarily compels them to action. They'd much rather rally around the superstar and put him/her on a chariot. Vicarious living? P.S.S - Constructive discussions can occur on a topic easily as long as individuals aren't over hyping it and are actually capable of conversing at a similar level. Fanfare is just as harmful as it makes people believe there is some mystical magic to achieving things. There isn't.. Just dedication and passion.
  - to3m 12y ago
    I've deleted my post as I think it was incorrect. Having worked with Carmack's code, two things I liked about it: it always came across as being the first obvious thing that popped into his mind, and yet it was always somehow the right thing. Sadly, I myself can only manage one out of two.
  - O____________O 12y ago
    For every Carmack, there's 1000s of unspoken/unheard of people doing the same thing. Well, okay, then, there must be millions and millions of programmers writing CRUD apps and for loops, because that covers probably 95% of the general value created in programming worldwide. I don't see anything wrong with being impressed by the accomplishments and interests of others. I'm not Carmack. I'll never achieve anything like his level of productivity. I don't care, but I'm still vaguely interesting in reading about the guy. I don't plan to climb Mt. Everest either, but I wouldn't mind hearing a story about it. And yeah, there are thousands of people planning Mt. Everest climbs, but that has zero bearing on my feelings about it.
astrocyte 12y ago
I tend to observe that seasoned/good software engineers are too busy tackling problems of similar difficulty to be caught up praising, following, and prostrating themselves to others. It's not a habit of mine and I don't hold anyone who does it in high esteem. I tend to think someone praises another to a large extent because they don't hold themselves in high regards. If they did and were of similar skill level, it wouldn't seem a big deal to them right? i.e : Tweet (high profile software engineer) : Today I cut 500ms out of a 4 second operation on a consumer device Me : OK .. last week I cut a 10 second switch-over operation on a enterprise switch (grosses 8 billion dollars in revenue a year) down to 300ms. I thought that was just a part of my job as a software engineer.
- ryandvm 12y ago
  I think that may be the most annoying post I've read on Hacker News this year.
- camgunz 12y ago
  Be nice to people, be a human being. Good lord.
Dewie 12y ago
The upvotes and downvotes on this post has been a true roller coaster. EDIT: someone is fast on the vote-trigger; hello, friend. ;)

by Dewie 12y ago

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

astrocyte 12y ago
lots of editing on your post .. I reckon it takes more effort to be politically correct and toe the popular line than to just state the obvious truth : All across the globe, software engineers of value do amazing stuff everyday. They're too busy doing the amazing stuff to be praising someone for doing what they do on a daily basis. The ones that aren't doing amazing stuff can be found prostrating themselves to every tweet some high profile person makes because they don't grasp the normalcy of coding at that level on a regular basis. Sadly this idolization is what is probably the biggest impediment to them progressing to the level of the person they praise. For every Carmack, there's 1000s of unspoken/unheard of people doing the same thing. I try to think of them, myself, and not get too excited... Steve Jobs was Steve jobs because he thought different. You're not going to turn into him or Carmack by trying to emulate them or by following tweets and prostrating yourself. P.S - the only reason why I commented is because I have friends who constantly give me updates about what Carmack is doing as if they've just had an encounter with God. I can't help but think they are this way because they themselves have never coded at that level. Sadly, you don't get to that level by going Gaga over another programmer. You get to that level by understanding that there is nothing amazing about what Carmack/etc does, digging into something you care about, and pushing your own personal limits... People don't want to hear these kinds of things though as it necessarily compels them to action. They'd much rather rally around the superstar and put him/her on a chariot. Vicarious living? P.S.S - Constructive discussions can occur on a topic easily as long as individuals aren't over hyping it and are actually capable of conversing at a similar level. Fanfare is just as harmful as it makes people believe there is some mystical magic to achieving things. There isn't.. Just dedication and passion.
- to3m 12y ago
  I've deleted my post as I think it was incorrect. Having worked with Carmack's code, two things I liked about it: it always came across as being the first obvious thing that popped into his mind, and yet it was always somehow the right thing. Sadly, I myself can only manage one out of two.
- O____________O 12y ago
  For every Carmack, there's 1000s of unspoken/unheard of people doing the same thing. Well, okay, then, there must be millions and millions of programmers writing CRUD apps and for loops, because that covers probably 95% of the general value created in programming worldwide. I don't see anything wrong with being impressed by the accomplishments and interests of others. I'm not Carmack. I'll never achieve anything like his level of productivity. I don't care, but I'm still vaguely interesting in reading about the guy. I don't plan to climb Mt. Everest either, but I wouldn't mind hearing a story about it. And yeah, there are thousands of people planning Mt. Everest climbs, but that has zero bearing on my feelings about it.

astrocyte 12y ago

I tend to observe that seasoned/good software engineers are too busy tackling problems of similar difficulty to be caught up praising, following, and prostrating themselves to others. It's not a habit of mine and I don't hold anyone who does it in high esteem. I tend to think someone praises another to a large extent because they don't hold themselves in high regards. If they did and were of similar skill level, it wouldn't seem a big deal to them right? i.e : Tweet (high profile software engineer) : Today I cut 500ms out of a 4 second operation on a consumer device Me : OK .. last week I cut a 10 second switch-over operation on a enterprise switch (grosses 8 billion dollars in revenue a year) down to 300ms. I thought that was just a part of my job as a software engineer.

ryandvm 12y ago
I think that may be the most annoying post I've read on Hacker News this year.
camgunz 12y ago
Be nice to people, be a human being. Good lord.

Dewie 12y ago

The upvotes and downvotes on this post has been a true roller coaster. EDIT: someone is fast on the vote-trigger; hello, friend. ;)