
Programmer’s dilemma - napolux
https://medium.com/geek-empire-1/231d7499a75
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mattmanser
This is a prejudice held by the author, not a problem with programmers.

What is it with embedded programmers and their inability to understand you
can't ask incredibly specific questions. I totally admit I'm not from the
domain, but a brief google on the terms he uses show it's not a common problem
to solve in programming.

Just because a programmer can't do 'insert favourite programming code' here
doesn't mean they can't program. In fact with most of them, show them some
other code that does it they'll be perfectly able to grasp it, use the example
and write a similar program.

This seems to be especially prevalent with embedded systems programmers, etc.
where articles like this with programmers complaining about the same 'other
programmers don't seem to know about this niche thing that even I only use
once in a blue moon' pop up constantly on HN.

The worst part of that article is the 'I gave him the API'.

Nooooooo. Programmers need examples, even as a 'oh, here's where I start' type
of hint. That's one of the many glorious reasons I love SO, I can find an
example of almost anything quickly just to see how it's supposed to be used.

Are you telling me you don't have 100s of examples littered throughout your
existing code that can give others hints. Or that you've not already wrapped
this functionality up in your own libraries? They're going to be coding
everything from scratch?

That's why you ask programmers to do fairly simple stuff in interviews,
because you can't guarantee what they've been using for the last 5 years.
Perhaps all the stuff you do daily is wrapped in a standard company library.
You are seeing if they can program, not if they can program an extremely
specific thing.

If you need a genuine expert in X programming domain, don't advertise for an X
programmer, advertise for an expert in X and expect to pay dearly for it.

Without knowing anything about the domain you're talking about, but from the
way you're talking about it, what it sounds like you're doing is hoping to
find the diamond in the rough of someone who's becoming an expert and doesn't
realise it yet so you can pay peanuts for a genuinely talented developer.

Ultimately it's not an expert trap, it's simply 'my job was doing this' over
and over. And doing it effectively.

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guard-of-terra
What happens in kernel when you do malloc? Generally nothing, but the
occassional brk(2) and page fault.

I tend to work on one project for several years and for some reason I'm not
losing it.

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greenyoda
Previous discussion with 104 comments:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6221117](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6221117)

