tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15136575.post5904727760186819873..comments2023-10-17T12:00:16.772+01:00Comments on Code rant: Are Your Programmers Working Hard, Or Are They Lazy?Mike Hadlowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16441901713967254504noreply@blogger.comBlogger76125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15136575.post-2577318339684964302019-11-06T13:50:13.995+00:002019-11-06T13:50:13.995+00:00nice article thanksnice article thanksKarl-Ernst Kretschmerhttp://lets-crack-perl-interview.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15136575.post-48428156453096898142019-03-05T17:39:46.649+00:002019-03-05T17:39:46.649+00:00I've noticed that developers who code just wor...I've noticed that developers who code just works get forgotten.<br /><br />Those who code breaks at the worst possible time and fly in a fix it and are seen to be heroes are the ones who get remembered at bonus time!<br /><br />Sad very wrong but true....<br />Archiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09579221074209950475noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15136575.post-70596576277172895662018-08-10T22:53:55.013+01:002018-08-10T22:53:55.013+01:00I couldn't agree more. Best analogy I've r...I couldn't agree more. Best analogy I've read in some time.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15136575.post-67991366096350883292017-08-17T09:49:24.162+01:002017-08-17T09:49:24.162+01:00Good coders aren't lazy, they're just bett...Good coders aren't lazy, they're just better at choosing the path of least resistance. Whether that's working hours that aren't amenable to other people or reusing solutions for problems that need to be solved. I think this guy gets it https://blog.learnosity.com/2017/08/programmers-at-work-what-kind-of-lazy-are-you/Thomas Hausnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15136575.post-78228766564955762522016-07-14T17:56:42.904+01:002016-07-14T17:56:42.904+01:00I'm a open source programer in very big compan...I'm a open source programer in very big company. I've contributed on one of world largest project. Every people has different way to maximizee the productivity.<br />In my case, working for 14 hours a day maximizes my productive. It's not 2x time more than 8 hour working. It's 4~10 times more productive. My mind and body and code are merged together and my mind is on the flow and I think only problem solving even when eating, shitting and shower.<br />However, company doesn't compensate my sacrifice enough, so I may need to start up.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06882634719551456469noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15136575.post-35952722354919452202016-03-10T00:00:25.220+00:002016-03-10T00:00:25.220+00:00Fantastic article -- with 30 years in the industry...Fantastic article -- with 30 years in the industry, as an Engineer, company founder and public and private development manager I couldn't have said it better. The fact that you had two "teams" side-by-side to compare was unique and valuable. I'm often brought in to situations and asked if I can "improve productivity" and help teams meet schedules... Sure! If you let me... Most non-technical managers want to see teams "motivated" - a code word for "working late into the evening and weekends" ... and want to "feel a sense of urgency" - or more aptly "panic". <br />All ridiculous. It would be tough to get hired if you said, "let's reduce hours", "let's reduce interrupts and feature creep", "let's give developers time to think things out.. " --- but that is what works.Charles Palanzohttps://www.linkedin.com/in/cpalanzonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15136575.post-49411727370462467252016-03-09T16:44:29.349+00:002016-03-09T16:44:29.349+00:00Je, you are so, so, so right. Scrum (what I think...Je, you are so, so, so right. Scrum (what I think you're actually talking about) is Management's shared delusion that they can organize us in a way that will be more efficient. Also these:<br />- Scrum seems to discount domain knowledge, that programmers can just be swapped in and out from any place in the code<br />- Program/Project managers are easier to find, hire and pay. So Management tries to fix the issue of effective programmer scarcity and the true time it takes to write good software by hiring more P&P managers which spend large amounts of energy trying to show that their process is working.<br />- Management is more comfortable micromanaging. Scrum is codified micromanagement. See daily standups.<br /><br />the list goes on, but I have to move tickets around and adjust meaningless story points instead of coding.twaitsfanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17242968544552813892noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15136575.post-17780442402553649212016-03-07T07:49:43.098+00:002016-03-07T07:49:43.098+00:00I'm going to guess the reason why you only see...I'm going to guess the reason why you only see posts from the "good guys", is because the "good guys" are the only ones that care enough and are active enough to write about it. Typical "bad guys" are the ones who never read blogs like this, let alone write them. Be it because of the lack of insight or the lack of motivation, skill or other factors. It's about being engaged in your field versus not.Arve Systadhttp://asystad.netnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15136575.post-17356932091638864162016-03-06T20:34:19.639+00:002016-03-06T20:34:19.639+00:00The difference between you and the analogue TV tea...The difference between you and the analogue TV team was that you gave "Dave" a shot (by mentoring you and referring you to good books) at explaining his point of view and why he did what he did, whereas they didn't. They'd too many incentives in keeping the dinosaurs alive, because dinosaurs were big, imposing and threatening creatures that made a better short-term appearance than the tiny, single-celled amoeba that'd finally evolve into life as we know today.<br />Unfortunately, this is not a problem a developer can solve. This is where the management needs to choose between dinosaurs and amoebas, but most of them don't have the foresight and vision to understand that the dinosaurs' time is limited.Abhijit Sarkarhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/abhijit-sarkar-53161330noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15136575.post-30198763525442711702016-01-15T07:10:36.090+00:002016-01-15T07:10:36.090+00:00Great Article !!! Thanks for sharing :-)Great Article !!! Thanks for sharing :-)Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04438347701963645779noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15136575.post-24247821561601177152016-01-13T12:25:44.887+00:002016-01-13T12:25:44.887+00:00I completely agree. Career developer here, now a ...I completely agree. Career developer here, now a manager of a development team. I think a lot of this also stems from the perspective of the management team and the other employees. Operations mentality is always different than development mentality. I have battled this for years as every company I have worked in never knows exactly where app dev "fits" and often sticks them in weird groups like infrastructure, support, etc. In ops mentality, it's all about numbers (quantity): how many, how often, how soon... over quality.. I would often sit in staff meetings and listen to non-development staff talk about how many tickets they closed, how many servers they supported, how many users they helped, etc. Then I would say "well, I worked on one app this week". People would look at me like I was sitting around doing nothing. They did not understand that this one app was going to be used by 5000 people, provide substantial cost reduction over its lifetime and streamline the jobs of multiple departments. In like manner, I agree that if a developer is focused on how many hours they work, they have lost their focus. If one of my staff is continuously burning 60 hours a week, then I have a problem. This means they are thrashing and either have a skills deficit or are unclear in the requirements. I want my people to come in on time and leave as close to on time as possible. Development is creative work. You cannot produce logical art (as I like to call it) when you are fatigued and mentally drained.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15136575.post-62467835260520867742016-01-11T15:27:40.977+00:002016-01-11T15:27:40.977+00:00It's said that good Programmers are mostly laz...It's said that good Programmers are mostly lazy, do you agree?Javinhttp://java67.blogspot.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15136575.post-1902615474706807762016-01-10T22:09:34.417+00:002016-01-10T22:09:34.417+00:00My theory is THIS is the primary reason why Agile ...My theory is THIS is the primary reason why Agile was created or accepted. As a project goes forward you have to showcase a project moving forward and milestones. As a software developer from the classic waterfall model school of development, I know it sucks but the time you spend on system requirements and identifying functionality and objectives at the beginning of a project is very very important. What happens is that higher ups (VPs, Finance) need to be shown progress. I don't know how many times I've said "we've been working 3 weeks straight but identified 90% of all objects, functions, models, etc....". "Great can we see something?" Sure,here's the word documentation and flow charts etc... "No no can we see your hard work from the last 3 weeks". I don't know how many times our hardwork wasn't rewarded when most of the work was done at the beginning with documentation and identifying features. This is why it's important and helpful to have a manager or VP that once was a coder. I know I'm all over the street with this rant but for a programmer "hardwork" is relative especially when one day we'll code 24/7 for 3 days straight cause we are in a groove and then the next day we aren't feeling it. Been there done that. Very frustrating.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14484911084286157874noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15136575.post-51628439135316116302016-01-10T20:56:37.412+00:002016-01-10T20:56:37.412+00:00How do I meet "Dave"?How do I meet "Dave"?Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00670606192802650635noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15136575.post-1247410633172057162016-01-10T17:34:37.364+00:002016-01-10T17:34:37.364+00:00Great read that's applicable to many professio...Great read that's applicable to many professions and not just programming, but I did think this bit of the story is interesting:<br /><br />"When it was my turn to talk to the boss, he explained that it was only fair that the pay increases went to the people who worked really hard, and that our team just didn’t seem to care so much about the company, not compared to the heroes who gave up their evenings and weekends."<br /><br />The point of your story is that management was clueless and didn't know the work you were doing and not the net results. I have no arguments there - the end result is likely more important than how they got there. However, management can only make decisions based on the information they receive. From managements perspective, you showed no teamwork and did not work as many hours. Why would they give you the bigger bonus?<br /><br />If in fact, you were getting better results, then that should have been explained to management. Despite all the tools they have to measure employees, management these days does not always have the best understanding of the day-to-day ongoings of individual workers. If you do not promote your work, you shouldn't expect that management will know what you're up to.<br /><br />I know this because I believe it is a weakness of mine. I don't like self-promotion or at least it feels awkward, but there are good ways to promote yourself and your work to your team.<br /><br />Here's a few things you could have done differently:<br />- Had weekly checkins with your team lead or manager and explain that you were learning about object oriented coding during weekly check-ins. <br />- Told your manager about a breakthrough conversation you had with Dave or CC'd your manager on one of your conversations with Dave.<br />- During a team meeting (stand-up, sprint planning, round table) explain the work you're doing and the benefits of this design.<br /><br />At the end of the day, good management expects and appreciates communication from employees.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15136575.post-90157254520506839352016-01-10T16:05:10.629+00:002016-01-10T16:05:10.629+00:00"The code had been mostly written by a single...<i>"The code had been mostly written by a single guy, let’s call him Dave."</i><br /><br />That's a big problem right there. Indicates poor leadership when all development for a given system is bottlenecked through a single guy. <br /><br />What if Dave gets blown out a convenient airlock by HAL or is otherwise incapacitated? Sure, the source is there, but then you have to translate Dave's code into usable code. Plus, with Dave at the helm, he can be a white knight if he chooses and break and then fix the code to look like he deserves a hearty "Good job, Dave!" when in actuality he's a lazy slob making work not only for himself but others in the long run.Darth Continenthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17798271230209483671noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15136575.post-9043202007447733352016-01-10T13:47:34.728+00:002016-01-10T13:47:34.728+00:00I wish that were the truth. As far as mh experienc...I wish that were the truth. As far as mh experience goes, remote work is extremely rare. I don't know if it's not the case in the US , but in Europe good luck finding one<br />Stefano Borinihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04360872907775395809noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15136575.post-32650092810912160532016-01-10T13:37:26.467+00:002016-01-10T13:37:26.467+00:00I wish that were the truth. As far as mh experienc...I wish that were the truth. As far as mh experience goes, remote work is extremely rare. I don't know if it's not the case in the US , but in Europe good luck finding one<br />Stefano Borinihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04360872907775395809noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15136575.post-363076775679816702016-01-10T12:02:29.245+00:002016-01-10T12:02:29.245+00:00This book gives an excellent insight into how to d...This book gives an excellent insight into how to design solid, well tested software which is easy to change: http://www.growing-object-oriented-software.comdirtyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06202830424034782851noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15136575.post-5489085769667138382016-01-08T23:13:35.470+00:002016-01-08T23:13:35.470+00:00Speaking about perceptions, I was reported by a se...Speaking about perceptions, I was reported by a senior VP one time for reading in my cubicle. He thought I was screwing off when I was really studying an ABAP book so I could edit some SAP code. It bothered me that my manager never set the story straight.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17305889288273918928noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15136575.post-66034443445718860622014-02-15T10:23:05.186+00:002014-02-15T10:23:05.186+00:00To know if your programmers are lazy, maybe you ne...To know if your programmers are lazy, maybe you need to check this list: <a href="http://www.21stcenturynews.com.au/6-signs-laziness/" rel="nofollow">http://www.21stcenturynews.com.au/6-signs-laziness/</a>Brendonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06796112376397533803noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15136575.post-82444460590991039302014-02-10T14:09:33.595+00:002014-02-10T14:09:33.595+00:00As Larry Wall put it, the three virtues of the gre...As Larry Wall put it, the three virtues of the great programmer are impatience, laziness, and hubris.PhilHibbshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09353075846536678409noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15136575.post-32394155383317738202014-01-22T01:15:00.326+00:002014-01-22T01:15:00.326+00:00I have often said in job interviews that I conside...I have often said in job interviews that I consider frequently working long hours as a mark of failure, specifically a failure of management.<br />'Occasionally' working long hours happens. 'Frequently' means that either I'm not managing myself properly or someone higher up isn't.<br />If they don't want to hire me after that statement then I'm much better off for it.Lee Hhttp://www.md8n.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15136575.post-79721290204112123772014-01-07T10:30:51.884+00:002014-01-07T10:30:51.884+00:00If you believe manual work can be assessed by the ...If you believe manual work can be assessed by the sweating and the huffing and puffing, it goes to show you have not done much manual work.<br /><br /> The truth is that seating and huffing and puffing do not go well with any craft, and even less when power tools are involved. And bad OOP does not crush legs (at least not yours, not now).<br /><br />Efficient and productive manual labour look just like gymnastics: effortless and flowing.<br /><br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15136575.post-10708925153297297262013-12-31T06:38:21.404+00:002013-12-31T06:38:21.404+00:00Lazy Programmers are good, they create less bugs a...Lazy Programmers are good, they create less bugs and quality code. Did I say, I am lazy?Williamhttp://javarevisited.blogspot.comnoreply@blogger.com