
What it means to be a developer is changing - tim_sw
https://vicki.substack.com/p/taking-the-shine-off-the-apple-and
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wolco
A lot of sterotyping buzzword dropping. Looks like someone scrapped hn
comments and have summarized them into some analysis of where we are and
going.

It reminds me of reading magazines about music (like rolling stones). Abusing
adjectives limits in english peppered along with the surface level traveling
common timeline points that when a number of words are hit they reach a
premature conclusion and the reader is left wondering what they even read
feeling less informed.

"They all now have cool laptop stickers, go to conferences, and are all
legally required to wear nice glasses. (Guilty, guilty, and guilty, btw.)"

~~~
klyrs
I saw "cool" developers in nice glasses hacking on sticker-encrusted laptops
at conferences as a discrete subset back in 2007 or earlier. When was this
written?

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FlyingSnake
This is such an incoherent rant about a tiny fraction of history of software
industry. Being a developer was always being in a constant flux. The punch
card developers were a different breed from the mainframe programmers (mostly
women BTW). The age of minicomputers, DOS/Amiga revolution etc were uniquely
different from it’s preceding conventions. It goes on and will continue it’s
flux.

If the author had peered past the software industry prior to the advent of
HN/reddit, it would’ve been clear to them.

~~~
mastazi
I agree, as a non-SV-based dev, it seems to me that the author can’t see past
their own bubble

~~~
catsarebetter
I used to be an SF dev and honestly, the bubble is almost impossible to see
past. I can't even describe it, like a combination of hyper-competitiveness
and forced social norms in tech that make you blind to anything but the way
that we do it in SF. There's like an attitude of "we have it better than
anyone else" in a lot of people I meet.

Sometimes I like to mess around and tell them about programming consultants
that chill out in Utah and make 500k/yr working maybe half the year (we're
really insecure about salary up here) and see an existential crisis fly cross
my friend's faces, it's priceless.

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loopz
The mistake this article does, is presume developers care about the
consequences of what they co-create for huge international corporations.
Clearly, judging from HN posts, they do not. Those who do, won't stay in those
jobs (myself included).

Now, it was a boring read and more about disappointment in politics and
corporate promises, so kind of a catch-up of what has been warned about since
late 90's and introduction of Facebook. Maybe not many today relate to the
reference to "Brave New World", aside from HBO shows, ironically also provided
by huge international corporations (not worth the watch IMHO).

It's simply not what developers care about, and that's truly sad and
horrifying, but not surprising in the least. It's just not what professionals
are paid to care about, or even relevant to the hobby-side of programming.

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bryanrasmussen
>where it has become not only cool, but sexy and desirable to be a developer.

developers make a lot of money in comparison to society at large, and it is
one of the few occupations relatively open to people not already equipped with
all the advantages of a middle class lifestyle. This is the fundamental
underpinning of the rest.

~~~
croh
Right. Also you don't need fancy certificates or liscenes to become developer.

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vosper
A fair portion of this reads like someone recapitulating TechCrunch
hype/gossip articles from the early/mid 2010s. “Hyper-orgiastic” Silicon
Valley? Maybe for some people, but not for most.

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thrit474
I worked for company that created one of top 10 crypto currencies.

We were fully remote scaterred around the globe. On january 2018 (crypto peak)
we organized company meeting to get together. Most employees shared rooms to
reduce cost.

Dont believe everything you read in newspapers.

~~~
OJFord
> top 10 crypto currencies

I don't mean any offence to you or your former employer, and assume it's not
so dear to you you'll take it as such, but isn't that really scraping the
barrel? The whole sector is really still at the 'proving its relevance' stage,
and there are... One, maybe two currencies (BTC, maybe ETH) that people
outside it have heard of?

It's like saying you used to work at one of the top 10 flying car R&D centres,
isn't it?

~~~
shubb
On the other hand huge amounts of dumb vc money went into blockchain related
companies. I was seeing a lot of top dollar points job ads looking for block
chain experience.

Also its not fair to say this is a flying car. The crypto, even the less known
ones, are widely used in various illegal markets from drugs to tax evasion.
Shame about the lack of other applications.

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blickentwapft
All that Silicon Valley chick / bro culture was never what programming meant
to me.

~~~
catsarebetter
I feel you, it was just fun to do, where did all the extra stuff come from?

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finnthehuman
People writing about culture in and around software development are like
movies "based on a true story". That is to say: might as well be pure fiction.

It attaches reason and meaning to actions for the purpose of presenting a
compelling drama, not for accurate portrayal. It extrapolates from tiny sample
sizes and makes blanket statements. There were radically different development
subcultures across two buildings set 500 ft away from eachother within one
company I worked at. And this washes away the very obvious subcultures based
on geography, business domain, tools used by a team, and how much time you
spend on Twitter.

It elides parts of culture that aren't easy to write about. Of which there are
many flavors: social truths that we understand deeply but do not speak about
in polite company, or conflict with the authors thesis, or innocent facts that
also happen to carry weight for unfavorable political opinions.

But the end result masquerades as something more meaningful than a nice piece
of fiction and creates a feedback loop. Participants in the culture can
strongly disagree with the description, and still go on to adjust their
behavior expecting that they might encounter it at their next job, their next
client, or maybe even with their next hire. And it sets a frame of reference
for the next commentator, who will be starting farther from the truth.

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Joeri
Contrary to most people I found this an interesting opinion, if only because
it centers so much on SV culture. For those of us working in other countries
and in unglamorous companies it has always been a very different kind of
culture. Typically SV pioneers new ideas and new ways of working, and then
over the next 5 to 10 years this slowly permeates global programming culture,
but watered down.

Covid has changed this dynamic because for once everything is changing
everywhere all at once. I noticed two major changes already. The first thing
was freelance work drying up, because new projects were put on hold. With most
of the economic consequences (and bankruptcies) still to happen, this could go
either way. Either the tech sector has a lot less work, with wages falling and
everyone trying to get the security of a salaried position, or there is a boom
of software with businesses trying to retool and freelance work coming back
with a vengeance. The second thing is obviously the shift to WFH. This move
could conclude with everyone being ordered back to the office (once
vaccinated), or with structural WFH being a thing for always, and many if not
most developers rarely seeing the inside of an office. I don’t think anyone
knows where it is headed, but the global impact of covid makes it that for the
first time the changes to programming culture are likely to happen everywhere
at once, instead of happening first in SV and then slowly rippling out. That
levels the playing field, and it makes for interesting times.

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tmaly
This reminds me of Friedman’s book The World is Flat.

Best practices of remote work will spread. Eventually salaries will flatten as
someone in a lower cost of living will be able to do the same job as someone
in a higher cost of living.

