
Linus Torvalds: 'I'm not a programmer anymore' - CrankyBear
https://www.zdnet.com/article/linus-torvalds-im-not-a-programmer-anymore/
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dekhn
As a hacker who eventually somehow landed a SWE job and did it for ~10 years,
I found that management expected something entirely different at that point:
they didn't want me to code or design systems, they wanted me to spend time
ensuring that younger programmers wrote better code/design better systems, or
explain how the system was working to management, or thinking about how to
prepare for future changes in technology.

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jakear
Makes a lot of sense from a business perspective. If a senior person can train
10 more junior people, who then produce higher quality work and stick around
at the company to become senior, everybody wins.

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n4r9
Not everyone, if the senior person is spending a lot less time doing something
they truly enjoy.

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unlinked_dll
idk about y'all but I do spend a lot of my time trying to write less code, not
more. And not in a, "I want to minimize my effort" way, but in that I write
more code related to code generation and task automation than I do on
implementing any product in particular.

I like thinking about and solving problems - writing code is the tedious part
of implementing a solution to me. The less I have to do of that, the more time
I can spend on new problems and new solutions.

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dekhn
my goal now is to spend more time writing good tests and less time writing
feature code. I get a lot more enjoyment out of a good test- it means people
can add new features with confidence, and I often find bugs in the course of
writing tests (typically not even related to the test I'm writing).

In fact, my number one advice to junior programmers I advise is: write better
tests. Write tests that prevent production bugs. Write tests that allow people
to add a new feature with confidence they aren't breaking an old one. Write
tests that give 99% of the signal required in 30 seconds, etc, etc.

That said, I often do love writing code- when it's something I'm interested
in, that nobody else has done before, and I know once the code is done I'll
learn a fact nobody else in the world knows (I work in scientific ML). That's
a dopamine hit that is hard to match. But, after a while of advisor really
top-notch juniors, I've learned to enjoy the pleasure of... not having to do
everything myself, and seeing smart people do things I couldn't have done, in
shorter time.

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rramadass
Click-baity title. Linus is being modest :-) He absolutely IS a "Programmer"
just not a "Code Monkey". A Programmer doesn't only write code, he needs to be
a bit of an Architect understanding as much of the whole system as possible,
how the end users use it, where the dragons are, how to mentor juniors and
delegate effectively etc etc. In short there are multiple facets to
"Programming".

Linus is one of a kind. I wish somebody would get him to write a book on his
Thinking, Design Methodology and Programming Techniques aimed squarely at the
Technical Folks. His record is unparalleled and his no-nonsense style highly
effective. All worthy of being studied and emulated by other
Managers/Programmers.

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angeal1131
This is when programmer start to call them self Engineers, tho Torvalds is way
more qualified for such a title than all those mobile web devs out there doing
dog work.

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noobermin
I am a postdoc, and I am doing everything in my power to make sure I keep
doing actual things, not filling paper work and advising people only. I don't
mind it once in a while, but I want to do things for a living. Not quite
programming but similar sort of deal I guess.

I know it reduces my pedigree, and I think more importantly, stability. That
said, I would do with the more stability, but as long as I'm on papers that
the big wigs are co-authors on, I'm okay.

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commandersaki
> I don't know coding at all anymore. Most of the code I write is in my
> e-mails. So somebody sends me a patch ... I [reply with] pseudo code.

It's true - I saw his pseudocode to make getrandom() insecure.

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Yuval_Halevi
what I found really interesting is he didn't feel he was "really" successful
until after he came out with Git. Even Linus can have imposter syndrome!

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rakotomandimby
He is reviewing code. But with emails as underlying tool. Is there no better
code review tools?

