
A guide for how to talk to a developer - pencildiver
https://hatchapps.com/technical-dictionary
======
Hasz
This is painful.

If, as an employee you're so engrossed in technical jargon that you can't
explain it at an understandable and reasonable level to a competent adult,
there's a problem.

Likewise, as a manager, you memorized some flashcards and now "understand"
enough to throw around some buzzwords and jargon, that's going to have it's
own set of problems.

Talk like a human, ask questions, and don't be an idiot.

~~~
Rapzid
And if one of the two things you "know" about C is that it's "uncommon".. Best
not to remove all doubt.

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alxlaz
1\. Is this for real?

2\. Here are exactly two things that you need to memorize in order to make
this sort of talk productive:

a) I don't know what X is, sorry. Can you tell me what that is/Can you explain
to me what it does?

b) I'm not sure I follow. I thought X is [...]/does [...], what am I missing?

3\. Did anyone who _actually knows what these things mean_ review these
definitions? E.g:

Vanilla:

"Plain or basic, often used in reference to coding languages or other
computing-related systems that remain unmodified from their original form."

There's nothing plain or basic about the vanilla Linux kernel. What makes it
vanilla is the absence of distribution- and/or vendor-specific patches that
are not in mainline.

API:

"A set of rules that developers follow to create software that can interact
with an external system or application."

This sort of matches what an API is in web land, if you squint a little. If
someone were to ask me what that definition describes, "API" is about the last
thing I'd say.

Django:

"A style sheet language that extends from CSS."

Last time I wrote web-related code, my girlfriend dragged me to see The
Aviator twice because it was all the rage, and I haven't really kept up, but I
could swear Django is not a language and that it doesn't extend from CSS,
whatever that means.

~~~
iaml
>This sort of matches what an API is in web land, if you squint a little. If
someone were to ask me what that definition describes, "API" is about the last
thing I'd say.

I struggle with defining simple things like this, and I think what author
offers is a good generic way to define API. This definition includes any
actual way I can imagine one can get (programmatic) access to generic service
that does not belong to them. I would really like to know how you would define
it though.

~~~
nitrogen
A user interface is how a person talks to software. An API is how software
talks to software.

An API is like a restaurant menu, but for software. A menu tells a person what
they can request from a restaurant. An API tells a programmer what their
software can request from other software.

~~~
BrandoElFollito
Excellent definition.

The second part is true when there is a documentation.

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throwaway2016a
Rather than memorize a bunch of flash cards it seems much easier to just talk
to them like humans and if they say something you don't understand don't be
embarrassed to ask them what it means.

~~~
mfoy_
I know non-technical people who, when they think they are hearing anything
remotely technical, seem to shut down and go into "I don't know technical
stuff!" mode...

Not that flashcards are going to cure _that_.

~~~
thorell
I think you're right. I also know technical people who obscure gaps in their
own knowledge with jargon. So clarifying questions that might expose the gap
are responded to with increasingly technical rambling. Bad habits all around,
feeding off each other.

~~~
watwut
Increasingly technical rambling is good. What I hate is when techies start to
imply that whoever they talk with is an idiot after they reach limit of their
knowledge. That tactic is used surprisingly often.

It makes people scared to ask and passive.

~~~
IshKebab
No he means increasingly technical rambling that is also meant to obscure the
fact that they don't know the answer. Definitely not good.

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yetihehe
It looks like it's just several flash cards to help managers talk like Pointy
Haired Boss from Dilbert.

~~~
piefayth
It is. And it should be titled as such. The current title calls it a "guide",
which is misleading.

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positr0n
Some of these are just wrong. "Django" is not "A style sheet language that
extends from CSS."

~~~
gone35
And an API is not quite " _A set of rules that developers follow_ to create
software that can interact with an external system or application" [emphasis
added]... (Gives the impression of a design pattern or something, IMO)

This is awful.

------
acconrad
The UI is pretty, but that's about it.

How about you just talk to a developer like a regular person? Don't understand
what an API is? Just ask them. Great folks love explaining things to others,
and if you're not a developer yourself, it's not too stupid of a question to
ask (or simply Google it).

------
Animats
The "computer science" terms are funny. That's not computer science, that's
web project development.

 _" Agile - A adapted method of project management in which tasks are divided
into short phases, and plans are regularly revisited and modified in response
to new information."_

What does "adapted" mean in this context, anyway?

~~~
ben509
I think they mean "adaptive" in that it adapts to changing circumstances.

~~~
Animats
That's worse. "Adaptive" in web-level tech speak is related to features for
disabled people.

Just leaving the word out would improve that sentence.

------
booleandilemma
If you’re a manager of developers and you need these cards to tell you what
some of these things are (database, stack...) you probably shouldn’t be
managing developers.

------
ElliotH
Surely as developers we should be able to reduce or explain our use of jargon
for the person we're speaking to, rather than the rest of the world having to
learn our industry-specific language?

~~~
zaccus
I try not to use any jargon at all when communicating to non-dev stakeholders,
and they still complain about jargon.

Words like "server" or "database" are not jargon. There are literally no other
words to use for those things. And if you don't want to hear any technical-
sounding words at all, then don't ask technical questions. Or better yet,
don't work at a tech company.

------
tbirrell
This is as condescending as it is wrong.

~~~
psetq
IMO, being wrong makes for the most amusing condescension. This website is
excellent in that regard, but otherwise remarkably wrong!

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joslin01
Shoot, well if this is the way the world works, I better get some flash cards
to talk as a doctor/mechanic/craftsmen/anything-else before I even think of
talking to them. The horror of asking what something means is too much!

------
holografix
Django - “a style sheet language that extends from CSS” what blasphemy!

~~~
Jeremy1026
"Django is a free and open-source web framework, written in Python, which
follows the model-view-template architectural pattern. It is maintained by the
Django Software Foundation, an independent organization established as a 501
non-profit. Django's primary goal is to ease the creation of complex,
database-driven websites."

The flashcard is uhh, close?

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glax
Just No. It doesnt't even feel human. It's like throwing bunch of things at
the developers and will give out output. It's upper management version of
random button smashing.

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LyndsySimon
I sent them a message offering to review their definitions. There's a lot that
are incorrect, but complaining about it doesn't solve anything :)

------
jspash
This is quite funny. Not the website itself, but the comments on here. And it
proves the point so well! The website in question is a seemingly obviously
quick project that someone whipped up quickly on the hatchapps website. But
almost all of the responses here seem to think it's a serious project, taking
it at face value.

And therein lies (one of) the problem(s) in talking with developers. We
(developers) assume what you (the customer) said is what you meant, but it
rarely is.

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kyberias
First there was mansplaining, now there's devsplaining.

~~~
mosselman
‘Mansplaining’ “You Keep Using That Word, I Do Not Think It Means What You
Think It Means”

More clearly. I don’t think you know what mansplaining means.

~~~
kyberias
> More clearly. I don’t think you know what mansplaining means.

That is unnecessarily hostile comment.

I don't care what you think. I know what it means and you have exactly zero
reason to publicly doubt that.

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rhapsodic
If you look past the poorly-thought-out title, this page is actually a good
information resource for non-technical people.

~~~
sulam
Except for the part where a bunch of the definitions are wrong, misleading, or
woefully incomplete.

~~~
rhapsodic
_> Except for the part where a bunch of the definitions are wrong, misleading,
or woefully incomplete._

Examples?

~~~
sulam
Have you read this thread? I personally stumbled hard on the definition for
Firebase ("essentially equivalent to AWS" \-- I might be paraphrasing slightly
since it's been a day).

