

The trajectory of a software engineer… and where it all goes wrong. - xvirk
http://michaelochurch.wordpress.com/2012/01/26/the-trajectory-of-a-software-engineer-and-where-it-all-goes-wrong/

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ArkyBeagle
Trying to make ... geographic/domain scope a thing here is a huge problem. At
some point, you either spend your precious seconds on your brand ( which makes
your scope larger ) or you spend it on solving problems. Serious problems are
proprietary, secret or ( even worse ) security-clearance secret.

It smacks of "social media thinking". I do not think the mores and practices
of social media apply to much beyond social media. Social media looks like
narcissism to me.

I am pretty much a full-fledged multiplier but I rather doubt that makes me
the top 2%. It just means that I stayed focused on technology ( over a span of
30 years ) while my contemporaries didn't. They chose the "up and out" path.
At least one is trying to get back in.

I can turn "lower performers" into higher performers by talking to them. I've
done it. That's just me being a human who likes people and needs their stuff
to work too. And I've certainly had other engineers help _me_ out in that way.
You get stuck; talking helps your brain to find solutions.

Why do we need this method anyway? Peoples is what they is. Why do we stack
people into boxes like this?

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tsotha
>Why are so many programming jobs (and libraries) in brain-dead languages
(such as Java) rather than functional-programming languages (e.g. Scala,
Ocaml, Clojure, Haskell)? Because while the Java+IDE environment makes it
extremely difficult for an individual engineer to have a 1.5+ impact –there
are two cases in recorded history of programmers breaking 2.0 in Java; one is
Martin Odersky, who wrote Scala, and the other is Rich Hickey, who wrote
Clojure– the state of the tooling makes it possible for the 0.7′s and 0.9′s to
get a 0.1- to 0.3-point bump, so long as they stay within their IDEs and don’t
have to work with a computer (gasp!) at the (God, no!) command line.

I don't see how anyone with practical experience developing commercial
software could write something like this. The tool set simply isn't that
important. Plus, the idea Java programmers are afraid of the command line
is... well, interesting at best.

~~~
mmorett
>I don't see how anyone with practical experience developing commercial
software could write something like this.

Exactly. Using IntelliJ "holds me back", but if I bust out vim, somehow my
_code_ will miraculously get better. Sigh.

What I type, or not type, holds me back. Not the editor. That's just a means
to an end.

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alttab
The scale seems ok... and the team mate classification. but otherwise the
author is full of it.

