

Learning Is More Important Than Knowing - latch
http://openmymind.net/2012/4/18/Learning-Is-More-Important-Than-Knowing/

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chriszf
Not that this is the case here (indeed, I <3 Karl Seguin), but I find this
mantra being used by mediocre developers to cover their ignorance more and
more these days. Yes, learning is more important than knowing, but that
doesn't excuse you from knowing, especially the basics. Claim you're a senior
web developer, and I expect you to know how to do CSS/JS/HTML. I expect you to
have a reasonable idea of how to deploy your app to production. I expect you
to know how to write raw sql to get around the leaky abstraction that is your
ORM. The sad truth is that I've interviewed more than enough 'senior
developers' who couldn't do any of these things. "I don't know, but I can
learn," they say. You've been doing this for five years, shouldn't you have
learned these things by now?

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Gmo
Right, but you're making a completely false dichotomy ...

Actually, the problem you described as nothing to do with what the OP
mentions. You might even have a bigger chance to attract those profiles with
an ad that specifically targets a language than by being broader.

So, yes, of course, if you call yourself a senior programmer in something, you
should actually know the technology, but once again, it's not the point of the
OP

~~~
chriszf
Sorry, it was a sleepy comment in the early hours of the morning. I don't mean
to present it as contrary to Seguin's article. It's simply a side-conversation
about the (perceived) rising usage of the phrase by unskilled developers.

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SoftwareMaven
As a hirer at a startup, I am _far_ more interested in ability to learn than
in current skills. In a startup, nobody knows what tomorrow may bring. I
utilize ability to learn as insurance against unknown changes/pivots in the
future.

Every day brings new challenges. I don't want to be stuck in yesterday's world
because my engineers don't know what _today's_ world really looks like.

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h2s
I think that sometimes companies mention trivial things like their choice of
revision control software in their job listings as a kind of semi-deliberate
way of saying "This job is intended for inexperienced developers. If you're
thinking it's cute that we mentioned our VCS, you're too experienced (and
expensive) for us."

~~~
rollypolly
I always thought that was just filler.

HR to engineer: "Your requirement list is too short, our ad won't look
important enough."

Engineer to HR: "Fine, here's some more buzzwords to fill-in the blank space."

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f4stjack
Actually what you knew, except algorithm design, if else, loops and other
metaprogramming essentials, is worth nil in the coding business. Anything you
know specifically related to one language will quickly be outdated until you
graduate or finish that book.

"So you know z framework? Oh but this is version x.y and we practically wrote
it from the ground up! Which makes your sql incantations explode with glee and
errors. Mostly errors..."

Knowledge can be gathered, can be learned. But you cannot "learn" learning.

~~~
tensor
On the contrary, learning to learn is exactly what graduate school teaches.

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f4stjack
This, I believe, depends on where you get your education. Graduate school
teaches something in where I live but it is mostly memorizing the right
information at the right time (like finals or visas) then you can safely
forget it.

If your graduate school eschewed rote learning, perfect. But there are some
countries who still structure their educational system while thinking this
kind of teaching means something...

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trustfundbaby
Good post, though, I should point out that _some_ companies might not have the
time to let a developer get up to speed on a particular technology, they they
haven't used before.

~~~
hippee-lee
For a true start up I agree with you, they do not have the time. I am guessing
this is what you mean by some companies?

For established companies with legacy code bases older than two years, there
is always going to be a getting up to speed period. To pass smart people over
because they chose the wrong buzz word for the focus of their last job (or the
buzz words recently changed) is a great way to always have people that need to
get up to speed on your team.

~~~
primatology
Google builds in a solid six months to get all new hires up to speed.

Of course, that's the relaxed end of the spectrum. At a freshly-minted
startup, I wouldn't be surprised if spending a week familiarizing yourself
with the project's _codebase_ (let alone the language/framework) was pushing
it.

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jackmcdade
Not a great title.

Integration > Application > Understanding > Information when it comes to
learning.

We can get all the information we want, and trivial things are easier to
understand, but taking what we know and integrating it to our process is a
crucial process.

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swah
So this guy wouldn't want to work on Google, Twitter or Amazon because they
use Java?...

