The Delight of Development(markan.me)
markan.me
The Delight of Development
https://markan.me/the-delight-of-development/
20 comments
After reading a few sentences, it felt the same for me. I always feel alienated by blog posts that try to hide the fact they're an ad by pulling off a "hey, we're just like you" stunt.
Reminds me of the South Park bit:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=z696bTiP8Ro
As soon as read "hacking" being used as a synonym for coding/development, I started to get angry. I still read it just in case I was wrong, just to end up being right, and angry.
Hacking traditionally refers to prototyping like, "quickly hacking something up" and was pretty common in the Perl/dot com bubble days where everything was some clever hack, just to get it out the door as quickly as possible.
Depends on whom you ask. For many if not most computer people, "hacking" is synonymous to coding, and indeed something very positive.
In the public however, "hacking" is often more used synonymous to "cracking", which I find very unsettling and sad. At least there is nowadays some awareness that there is a different meaning to it. I guess that the word "hackathon" helped to change the public perception.
In the public however, "hacking" is often more used synonymous to "cracking", which I find very unsettling and sad. At least there is nowadays some awareness that there is a different meaning to it. I guess that the word "hackathon" helped to change the public perception.
For a certain cohort that likely has a lot of exposure here on HN, "hacker" used to mean "good programmer" sounds perfectly normal.
I love software development as a creative task. It means, I love it when I do create, that is, when I make something that is the fruit of my imagination.
Development is a nightmare for me when I have to develop someone else's (i.e. my company) idea. At that point, it's not creation anymore, it's execution.
Development is a nightmare for me when I have to develop someone else's (i.e. my company) idea. At that point, it's not creation anymore, it's execution.
Me too. This is why I went into data science years ago. It's more difficult, but when correlated with difficulty you can get a good feel how creative the project is going to be.
Don't you have to make analyses and reports "production quality?" I found that fun at first, but now it's annoying when 25% of my code is formatting and capitalizing.
No, I'm not a machine learning software engineer, so no productionization on my end. I do find paths forward for the companies I've worked at but a report usually consists of a 1-to-1 with a c-suite pitching the project. If I've written a model, the notebook speaks for itself and naturally looks glorious with plots and what not. I have been known to create power point slides or do larger presentations. It is part of the job but I've never associated the terminology "production quality" with a presentation.
>25% of my code is formatting and capitalizing.
I haven't personally used it because by default I tend to write reasonably clean code but https://github.com/ryantam626/jupyterlab_code_formatter or similar might help.
>25% of my code is formatting and capitalizing.
I haven't personally used it because by default I tend to write reasonably clean code but https://github.com/ryantam626/jupyterlab_code_formatter or similar might help.
Ah yes; a fluff piece with nothing in it.
Article is named "Delight of Development" but of course the author is "not a developer anymore".
>My focus now is less on building software myself, and more about enabling others build better software.
Translation: I don't produce anything but lord it over people who do. What the hell is "Developer Relations"? Has the industry gone mad?
Most of us got into programming because we enjoyed it; until the "Industry" with its useless "managemeent" layers destroyed our motivation/enjoyment of it and turned us into unhappy drones.
Article is named "Delight of Development" but of course the author is "not a developer anymore".
>My focus now is less on building software myself, and more about enabling others build better software.
Translation: I don't produce anything but lord it over people who do. What the hell is "Developer Relations"? Has the industry gone mad?
Most of us got into programming because we enjoyed it; until the "Industry" with its useless "managemeent" layers destroyed our motivation/enjoyment of it and turned us into unhappy drones.
I really like to hear more from people who don't care about coding or software development in general.
I'd assume the majority of developers is not doing coding at home, as long as they don't have to learn a new skill for their next job. They neither hate nor love coding, they tolerate it as a means to an end.
I also assume that those developers rise as much through the ranks as the love coding kind. At least that's my observation so far. Or to be more precise, I belive they more of the not loving kind rise through the ranks.
But it's rare hearing from them. They don't care too much about what they do at work, at least not as a trade, hence no blogging. And we all feel that it's unwise to be open about not being pashioned about your work.
I'd assume the majority of developers is not doing coding at home, as long as they don't have to learn a new skill for their next job. They neither hate nor love coding, they tolerate it as a means to an end.
I also assume that those developers rise as much through the ranks as the love coding kind. At least that's my observation so far. Or to be more precise, I belive they more of the not loving kind rise through the ranks.
But it's rare hearing from them. They don't care too much about what they do at work, at least not as a trade, hence no blogging. And we all feel that it's unwise to be open about not being pashioned about your work.
> I'd assume the majority of developers is not doing coding at home, as long as they don't have to learn a new skill for their next job. They neither hate nor love coding, they tolerate it as a means to an end.
Coding's fine. Sometimes fun. Our tools mostly suck though. I'm done fucking around with broken technology in my spare time, since I get more than enough of that at work (at this point I'd prefer zero time doing that), which means I'm mostly done with tech shit. These days I'd even get rid of home Internet if no-one in the house needed it for work or (increasingly) homework. Can buy more media than I need for the cost of broadband + media services, libraries exist, and books are better besides (one of the most truly valuable parts of the Internet is Library Genesis, which is illegal anyway, and is all about... books and journals).
I was all about this stuff as a teenager. Now I wish I could find something that pays even close to as well that never, ever involved looking at a glowing screen. I'd absolutely love to go weeks without touching a computer.
Coding's fine. Sometimes fun. Our tools mostly suck though. I'm done fucking around with broken technology in my spare time, since I get more than enough of that at work (at this point I'd prefer zero time doing that), which means I'm mostly done with tech shit. These days I'd even get rid of home Internet if no-one in the house needed it for work or (increasingly) homework. Can buy more media than I need for the cost of broadband + media services, libraries exist, and books are better besides (one of the most truly valuable parts of the Internet is Library Genesis, which is illegal anyway, and is all about... books and journals).
I was all about this stuff as a teenager. Now I wish I could find something that pays even close to as well that never, ever involved looking at a glowing screen. I'd absolutely love to go weeks without touching a computer.
Write me if you find something we'll paid outside of tech. I'd love to get out, but nothing (I could do without years of training beforehand) would pay the same.
SCUM and frAgile have sucked all the "fun" out of coding.
Want to try something new? Want to do some exploratory, something that may save us a lot of time in the future? Good luck getting that into the sprint.
It's just a feature factory now. Coding is ble collar. Slam out the next api + angular component. Do it fast enough and you don't have to work nights and weekends.
Want to try something new? Want to do some exploratory, something that may save us a lot of time in the future? Good luck getting that into the sprint.
It's just a feature factory now. Coding is ble collar. Slam out the next api + angular component. Do it fast enough and you don't have to work nights and weekends.
I agree it does seem like there's a silent majority that is underrepresented sort of by definition :).
I also share your sentiment in that I am kind of tired of reading evangelism from Developer Advocates/DevRel. There's inherently no skin in the game - they don't suffer if the snake oil they are promoting collapses in a mess of security violations, compliance concerns or productivity implosions two years later.
Fundamentally it seems like you can't know if something really works unless you really try to build something with it and that takes 18+ months during which time you can't be out there shilling at conferences all day.
I also share your sentiment in that I am kind of tired of reading evangelism from Developer Advocates/DevRel. There's inherently no skin in the game - they don't suffer if the snake oil they are promoting collapses in a mess of security violations, compliance concerns or productivity implosions two years later.
Fundamentally it seems like you can't know if something really works unless you really try to build something with it and that takes 18+ months during which time you can't be out there shilling at conferences all day.
TL;DR probably unrelated, I realized development is so much more than writing code. I don't like coding anymore because i have wasted so much time writing useless code and fighting meaningless battles. Now I am trying myself at working with understanding the "real" problem to be solved before doing anything at all.
I used to really love coding. I read my first programming book when i was 13, studied computer science for 5 years and all that time it truly felt like I could do anything.
During my first two years of working i developed several apps for iOS, and then transitioned to backend work because I noticed the backend was the limiting factor. My logic: I spent most of my time in the frontend wrangling badly formatted data and proving why reported errors originated form bugs in the backend, so I just started fixing the backend.
I started writing backend because it was a force multiplier. I then realised that people working on backend tasks saw the systems they themselves were writing as complete mysteries, and many people simply copy pasted existing code that was sort of similar. I never saw it as a mystery. You get data from one place, transform it and combine it and return it. Just write test and the problem of writing code is solved. In my years writing backend I can count on one hand errors I had in production (all related to environment).
It is not hard to write tests but most people never write them properly. I started nagging the other developers and told them to write tests, I see it as extremely selfish and borderline evil not to do it due to all the pain terrible software causes people every day.
Anyway, I worked hard to continuously improve my coding, meaning how to write less code that was more readable with less mistakes in a shorter amount of time. Less code is not code golf by the way, it is using a proven library instead of reinventing the wheel for the 100th time.
So, as my knowledge improved I eventually hit the wall where there were no objectively better path to take. Everything that was left had strengths and weaknesses. And this is where i started to really hate coding. Because there are so many opinions, and there is literally no objectivity because it is all just a huge pissing contest egged on by the evangelists in the major software houses wanting you to use their newest framework providing them with valuable lockin.
So I started looking to the next force multiplier. What is missing if you write flawless logic? Why is the software still terrible? Because of poor requirements. So i started working with architecture. Now I am doing the same job as developing but I have so much more time to talk to people. If backend work was a 10x multiplier this is more like a 1000x multiplier for me at least.
I have always known but now I understand that all problems and solutions in software are related to human beings. Code is just an implementation of an understanding and if that understanding is not shared by many people the code is worthless. I also feel more useless than ever and I may go back to coding later, but for now I am just learning too much. I guess this did not relate to your question at all, sorry.
I used to really love coding. I read my first programming book when i was 13, studied computer science for 5 years and all that time it truly felt like I could do anything.
During my first two years of working i developed several apps for iOS, and then transitioned to backend work because I noticed the backend was the limiting factor. My logic: I spent most of my time in the frontend wrangling badly formatted data and proving why reported errors originated form bugs in the backend, so I just started fixing the backend.
I started writing backend because it was a force multiplier. I then realised that people working on backend tasks saw the systems they themselves were writing as complete mysteries, and many people simply copy pasted existing code that was sort of similar. I never saw it as a mystery. You get data from one place, transform it and combine it and return it. Just write test and the problem of writing code is solved. In my years writing backend I can count on one hand errors I had in production (all related to environment).
It is not hard to write tests but most people never write them properly. I started nagging the other developers and told them to write tests, I see it as extremely selfish and borderline evil not to do it due to all the pain terrible software causes people every day.
Anyway, I worked hard to continuously improve my coding, meaning how to write less code that was more readable with less mistakes in a shorter amount of time. Less code is not code golf by the way, it is using a proven library instead of reinventing the wheel for the 100th time.
So, as my knowledge improved I eventually hit the wall where there were no objectively better path to take. Everything that was left had strengths and weaknesses. And this is where i started to really hate coding. Because there are so many opinions, and there is literally no objectivity because it is all just a huge pissing contest egged on by the evangelists in the major software houses wanting you to use their newest framework providing them with valuable lockin.
So I started looking to the next force multiplier. What is missing if you write flawless logic? Why is the software still terrible? Because of poor requirements. So i started working with architecture. Now I am doing the same job as developing but I have so much more time to talk to people. If backend work was a 10x multiplier this is more like a 1000x multiplier for me at least.
I have always known but now I understand that all problems and solutions in software are related to human beings. Code is just an implementation of an understanding and if that understanding is not shared by many people the code is worthless. I also feel more useless than ever and I may go back to coding later, but for now I am just learning too much. I guess this did not relate to your question at all, sorry.
Didn't relate, but thanks for sharing anyway! :)
I think these types of reflections are generally important — “the unexamined life is not worth living” and all that. Thanks for sharing!
I was surprised by this sentence:
> My measure for a well tested system? One that lets you deploy at 5pm on a Friday before confidently heading to the pub for a few pints with the team that just shipped.
It feels... optimistic.
I was surprised by this sentence:
> My measure for a well tested system? One that lets you deploy at 5pm on a Friday before confidently heading to the pub for a few pints with the team that just shipped.
It feels... optimistic.
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