Jon Skeet: The 'Chuck Norris' of Programming (2016)(bbc.com)
bbc.com
Jon Skeet: The 'Chuck Norris' of Programming (2016)
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-34596634
40 comments
The article mentions Sara Chipps introducing Skeet to StackOverflow, an exceptional woman who eventually became the Director of Public Q&A at StackOverflow. She also founded Girl Develop It and made Jewelbots and is on the board of the .Net foundation.
I'm curious why this is down voted[0] as nobody who did actually replied. Is the information inaccurate? I don't know who she is, is she a controversial figure?
[0] At the time I'm replying...
[0] At the time I'm replying...
The comment was only a few minutes old, so the downvotes may not have been representative of the HN population yet. It looks fine as of this moment. Reacting too fast on something being downvoted is often unnecessary, and distracts from the original point, so I often downvote such reactions.
I didn’t downvote, because frankly I don’t care that much, but Affirmative Action is quite controversial and I believe she founded one of those initiatives. I think some people might be extra sensitive to anything even slightly associated with diversity. To be clear, I don’t take issue with her, I didn’t downvote, and she seems to be an incredibly accomplished developer. That can only be applauded, in my opinion.
Watch me get downvoted into oblivion for merely offering a theory :)
Watch me get downvoted into oblivion for merely offering a theory :)
At the risk of being downvoted to hell (I'm at peace with my non-entity status, honest), I admire Skeet but find the slavish adoration of him on Stackoverflow quite irritating at times. This reflects both in some of the more unctuous comments and immediate massive upvoting of his answers.
It's not him, it's the circus that has developed from admirable community support and respect for a formidable person to something that must be a little frustrating for some of the other rockstars of the site who live in his shadow (and maybe for him as well!) - though I expect this multiplier effect also positively benefits them as well in comparison to the people further down the ladder.
Or am I imagining it?
It's not him, it's the circus that has developed from admirable community support and respect for a formidable person to something that must be a little frustrating for some of the other rockstars of the site who live in his shadow (and maybe for him as well!) - though I expect this multiplier effect also positively benefits them as well in comparison to the people further down the ladder.
Or am I imagining it?
No, you're absolutely right. Only an anecdote, but I once posted an answer at the same time as him; his was somewhat wrong or at least misleading, but got an immediate upvote anyways. I commented, pointing out the problem, and he fixed it -- which is fine! -- and ended up with more upvotes and the green checkmark. Meanwhile my answer that had said the correct thing from the beginning sat at 0.
In the grand scheme of things it's a non-issue, but it was quite frustrating at the time. And it is clearly an example driven by him as a famous personality rather than technical chops.
In the grand scheme of things it's a non-issue, but it was quite frustrating at the time. And it is clearly an example driven by him as a famous personality rather than technical chops.
I’ve heard him say he will often post a brief reply to get to the head of the queue then come back later to round it out.
Ok, so I'm going to ask a controversial question. It's not for lack of respect for Mr Skeet, but is he really one of the greats? When I think of great programmers I think Ken Thompson, John Carmack, etc. Mr Skeet is, no doubt, a fount of knowledge, but does that make you a great programmer?
I think his importance as a "pillar of the community", in addition to his great expertise and breakout fame entitles him to being considered one of the greats, and inspirational to us little guys.
Perhaps a longer timeframe will change that, but at the moment it seems ok to me.
It helps that he seems like a good egg.
Perhaps a longer timeframe will change that, but at the moment it seems ok to me.
It helps that he seems like a good egg.
Being a fountain of knowledge, with practical application, is sufficient to make someone a great programmer.
Carmack, Thompson, et al weren't simply great programmers; they were researchers and inventors.
Carmack, Thompson, et al weren't simply great programmers; they were researchers and inventors.
Chuck Norris isn't really one of the greats either. But the mythology of him makes him out to be.
When StackOverflow was just getting started I was doing Java professionally. Jon Skeet contributed a ton of very helpful Java answers back then which helped me a lot. I only later learned hat he has written a book about C# and that he really was a C# expert - still he knew more about Java than most Java experts.
Add to that that he is really good at writing detailed and to the point answers and you know where his reputation comes from. I only met him once briefly at CodeKen in London but judging from that he is a nice guy too.
Add to that that he is really good at writing detailed and to the point answers and you know where his reputation comes from. I only met him once briefly at CodeKen in London but judging from that he is a nice guy too.
I'm supposing one of those is the Bruce Lee of programming.
Carmack is a genius engineer and businessman. This guy is a genius programmer. There is a difference.
I thought Jeff Dean was the Chuck Norris of programming?
https://www.quora.com/What-are-all-the-Jeff-Dean-facts
https://www.quora.com/What-are-all-the-Jeff-Dean-facts
Exactly. How's someone gonna be claimed the "Chuck Norris" of something without a continuous stream of references to impossible feats?
Are you aware of https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/9134/jon-skeet-fact... ?
* Jon Skeet can divide by zero.
* Jon Skeet's SO reputation is only as modest as it is because of integer overflow (SQL Server does not have a datatype large enough)
* Jon Skeet is the only top 100 SO user who is human. The others are bots that he coded to pass the time between questions.
* Jon Skeet coded his last project entirely in Microsoft Paint, just for the challenge.
* Jon Skeet can solve the travelling salesman in O(1).
* Jon Skeet does not use exceptions when programming. He has not been able to identify any of his code that is not exceptional.
* When you search for "guru" on Google it says "Did you mean Jon Skeet?"
* Jon Skeet can recite π. Backwards.
* Jon Skeet is the traveling salesman. Only he knows the shortest route.
* Jon Skeet can make the Kessel run in under twelve parsecs.
* If Jon Skeet posts a duplicate question on StackOverflow, the original question will be closed as a duplicate.
* When Jon gives a method an argument, the method loses
* When Jon pushes a value onto a stack, it stays pushed
* When invoking one of Jon's callbacks, the runtime adds "please"
* Google is Jon Skeet behind a proxy.
* The Jon Skeet badge is awarded for posting a better answer than Jon Skeet. Only Jon Skeet can earn this badge.
* God said: 'Let there be light,' only so he could see what Jon Skeet was up to.
* Jon Skeet doesn't use #include. He thinks of it as cheating.
* When Jon Skeet throws an exception, nothing can catch it.
* .NET uses Just-In-Time compilation because every instruction must first be approved by Jon Skeet.
* nVidia plans to triple the processing power of their newest videocards by bypassing their GPU pipelines entirely and offloading the vector operations to Jon Skeet over instant messenger. And those graphics benchmarks will improve further still during those intervals when Jon is actually awake.
* Any function written by Jon Skeet can only return 42. Co-workers have yet to report any errors caused by this.
* Jon Skeet programs in Binary, then compiles it into human-readable code.
* Jon Skeet has 2 keyboards so that he can type at full speed on one while the other is cooling down.
* Jon Skeet's desktop background is a picture of his desktop background. You wouldn't understand it even if you saw it.
* Jon Skeet's keyboard has only two buttons: 1 and 0
--Only one key surely, pressed (1) and released (0), and input is done at a fixed frequency (a la serial comms)
----last heard.. he got rid of that key too.. It's amazing what Jon Skeet can do with reflection and blinking.
* Jon Skeet's development workstation does not have a monitor. He never saw the point. In fact, the only reason he installed a video card is because the BIOS beep warning irritated his cat.
* Jon Skeet can appreciate music by opening an MP3 in a hex editor and reading it. He doesn't need a monitor for that either.
* When dragons write code they comment it with "Here be Jon Skeet".
* Alan Turing is Skeet-Complete.
* There are 10 types of people in this world. Those who think they understand binary, and Jon Skeet.
* I opened up a can of awesome the other day - it had Jon Skeet in it.
* The only reason we didn't all die of the Y2K bug was because Jon Skeet was bored on New Year's Eve and decided to fix it.
* Chuck Norris and Jon Skeet walked into a bar. The bar was instantly destroyed, as that level of awesome cannot be contained in one building.
-- ...Jon Skeet walked out unharmed.
* Jon Skeet can speak French in Russian.
* Jon Skeet can make IE obey his CSS rules.
* Jon Skeet can divide by zero.
* Jon Skeet's SO reputation is only as modest as it is because of integer overflow (SQL Server does not have a datatype large enough)
* Jon Skeet is the only top 100 SO user who is human. The others are bots that he coded to pass the time between questions.
* Jon Skeet coded his last project entirely in Microsoft Paint, just for the challenge.
* Jon Skeet can solve the travelling salesman in O(1).
* Jon Skeet does not use exceptions when programming. He has not been able to identify any of his code that is not exceptional.
* When you search for "guru" on Google it says "Did you mean Jon Skeet?"
* Jon Skeet can recite π. Backwards.
* Jon Skeet is the traveling salesman. Only he knows the shortest route.
* Jon Skeet can make the Kessel run in under twelve parsecs.
* If Jon Skeet posts a duplicate question on StackOverflow, the original question will be closed as a duplicate.
* When Jon gives a method an argument, the method loses
* When Jon pushes a value onto a stack, it stays pushed
* When invoking one of Jon's callbacks, the runtime adds "please"
* Google is Jon Skeet behind a proxy.
* The Jon Skeet badge is awarded for posting a better answer than Jon Skeet. Only Jon Skeet can earn this badge.
* God said: 'Let there be light,' only so he could see what Jon Skeet was up to.
* Jon Skeet doesn't use #include. He thinks of it as cheating.
* When Jon Skeet throws an exception, nothing can catch it.
* .NET uses Just-In-Time compilation because every instruction must first be approved by Jon Skeet.
* nVidia plans to triple the processing power of their newest videocards by bypassing their GPU pipelines entirely and offloading the vector operations to Jon Skeet over instant messenger. And those graphics benchmarks will improve further still during those intervals when Jon is actually awake.
* Any function written by Jon Skeet can only return 42. Co-workers have yet to report any errors caused by this.
* Jon Skeet programs in Binary, then compiles it into human-readable code.
* Jon Skeet has 2 keyboards so that he can type at full speed on one while the other is cooling down.
* Jon Skeet's desktop background is a picture of his desktop background. You wouldn't understand it even if you saw it.
* Jon Skeet's keyboard has only two buttons: 1 and 0
--Only one key surely, pressed (1) and released (0), and input is done at a fixed frequency (a la serial comms)
----last heard.. he got rid of that key too.. It's amazing what Jon Skeet can do with reflection and blinking.
* Jon Skeet's development workstation does not have a monitor. He never saw the point. In fact, the only reason he installed a video card is because the BIOS beep warning irritated his cat.
* Jon Skeet can appreciate music by opening an MP3 in a hex editor and reading it. He doesn't need a monitor for that either.
* When dragons write code they comment it with "Here be Jon Skeet".
* Alan Turing is Skeet-Complete.
* There are 10 types of people in this world. Those who think they understand binary, and Jon Skeet.
* I opened up a can of awesome the other day - it had Jon Skeet in it.
* The only reason we didn't all die of the Y2K bug was because Jon Skeet was bored on New Year's Eve and decided to fix it.
* Chuck Norris and Jon Skeet walked into a bar. The bar was instantly destroyed, as that level of awesome cannot be contained in one building.
-- ...Jon Skeet walked out unharmed.
* Jon Skeet can speak French in Russian.
* Jon Skeet can make IE obey his CSS rules.
Three nice bengal cats?... now we know who really programs in that house
My wife and I adopted a Bengal from a coworker who took it in, when original owners moved and could not keep it. It turned out he was allergic. Anyhow, we tried for several months, but the Bengal would stalk and attack all of our other cats, completely terrorizing them. It was a beautiful cat, and super friendly to humans, but we had to find her a home where she was the only cat.
yup, aggression is common two strange adult cats meet, not to mention when the new cat talks in a different dialect like bengals do.
With five cats, he will need six computers at least. I wonder if bengals are so warm lovers as the common african domestic cat.
With five cats, he will need six computers at least. I wonder if bengals are so warm lovers as the common african domestic cat.
Whenever I tell other people at Google that John Skeet works at Google and is the same level that they are, it triggers immediate impostor syndrome.
Chuck Norris of writing StackOverflow answers.
What notable code has he written?
What notable code has he written?
Assuming you're genuinely curious, some of Jon Skeet's achievements for which he has not received any SO karma include:
Noda Time - https://github.com/nodatime/nodatime/graphs/contributors The C# Protobuf port - https://github.com/jskeet/protobuf-csharp-port/graphs/contri...
Noda time is one of the top 100 downloaded packages on nuget.
That's quite a significant contribution to the .NET open source ecosystem - especially for someone whose day job is programming Java at Google, so these are pure side projects (.
He also wrote C# In Depth which is one of the standards by which programming language books should be judged (up with books like K&R, JavaScript: The Good Parts, and Essential Java).
Noda Time - https://github.com/nodatime/nodatime/graphs/contributors The C# Protobuf port - https://github.com/jskeet/protobuf-csharp-port/graphs/contri...
Noda time is one of the top 100 downloaded packages on nuget.
That's quite a significant contribution to the .NET open source ecosystem - especially for someone whose day job is programming Java at Google, so these are pure side projects (.
He also wrote C# In Depth which is one of the standards by which programming language books should be judged (up with books like K&R, JavaScript: The Good Parts, and Essential Java).
I'm not curious; I'm already aware.
NodaTime is a port. He didn't come up with those ideas. He translated Java code to C#. protobuf isn't much different, either.
NodaTime is a port. He didn't come up with those ideas. He translated Java code to C#. protobuf isn't much different, either.
He is the author of a quite popular (in .net world) date & time library called NodaTime[0].
[0] https://github.com/nodatime/nodatime
[0] https://github.com/nodatime/nodatime
Porting a Java project to C# doesn't make one a "Chuck Norris" developer. Popularity is irrelevant.
His SO profile: https://stackoverflow.com/users/22656/jon-skeet
What about Jeff Dean ?
https://www.mercurynews.com/2013/01/24/how-googles-jeff-dean...
https://www.mercurynews.com/2013/01/24/how-googles-jeff-dean...
Discussion from when it was posted here in 2016: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11415705
Meh
> Maybe we'd find out who the real greatest programmers are.
I don't think there is such a thing. Certainly there are well-known coders who are terrific. But there are also great coders quietly working away in mundane jobs, doing great work, without any fanfare. And we have a huge variety of work in the industry. A great programmer in one area won't be a great in another. And that isn't even getting into the philosophical discussion of academic coders vs. pragmatic.
At the end of the day, any list of the best coders is going to be built upon opinionated criteria. Maybe instead of discussing an artificial list, just go out and say "Thanks", to any great coders who you work with.
I don't think there is such a thing. Certainly there are well-known coders who are terrific. But there are also great coders quietly working away in mundane jobs, doing great work, without any fanfare. And we have a huge variety of work in the industry. A great programmer in one area won't be a great in another. And that isn't even getting into the philosophical discussion of academic coders vs. pragmatic.
At the end of the day, any list of the best coders is going to be built upon opinionated criteria. Maybe instead of discussing an artificial list, just go out and say "Thanks", to any great coders who you work with.
xurias(1)
Then submit the article to HN if you want it to be discussed?
It’s currently sealed up.
In three years, Anders Hejlsberg is going to open the book to see if the language design team got it right.” still cracks me up.