A common response to The Ferengi Programmer:
This is a companion discussion topic for the original blog entry at: http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2009/02/real-ultimate-programming-power.html
This is a companion discussion topic for the original blog entry at: http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2009/02/real-ultimate-programming-power.html
NAMBLA! HA! Nice followup Jeff :). It’s a bit more complicated and mentoring sure does help people (such as the fine articles on this here blog).
Until now, I actually thought NAMBLA was something like KISS… 
Perhaps I should’ve researched it a little sooner 
Dummies have their place. They make me look better and raise my salary. Leave 'em alone.
And I can call them dummies, because they don’t know that I’m calling them dummies.
well said.
Maybe you should call them the four noble truths.
Wow, you should look at how this post is formatted on your feed, especially at the end. Looks wacky.
Yay for ignorance.
North American Man Boy Love Association? (this phone doesn’t get youtube)
I believe that’s National Association of Marlon Brando Look-alikes.
Yep, we’ve confirmed what’s wrong with the other developers out there. Now, what do we do about it? What do we do when they’re on our team?
Good post, Jeff. Not sure if marketing was the point of your post or not, but I think it’s an important fact. Developers tend not to be good at marketing what they’re doing, or they promoting good ideas is is being pushy. For evidence, you need look no further than web development frameworks. Then compare them to RoR (whose creators are excellent marketers). Look at the rate at which the product and community have grown.
It’s important if you’re the guy that knows, to share it with your co-workers. Like you do on this blog. If you’re working somewhere where that doesn’t fly, seriously, what are you doing there? You’re just a drone at that point.
Doctors don’t last long without continuous education, and programmers shouldn’t either.
No Politics, Please!
If I was to convert this into a fitness and exercise analogy …
- There are tons of people trying to learn how to be more fit
- There are tons of exercise regimens to help them go down that path
- These messages will not reach most of the people wanting to be fit
- Many people won’t actually get it even after the first 3-4 months
- Many of them do not even want to consult a physician (high consulting fees)
So to each of these folks make sure you DRY n KISS n think about fitness but YAGNI to all the other fitness regimens.
I can hear the message, understand the message, perhaps even grok it but cant quite buy it, cos I don’t feel like giving up on ways I believe improve fitness.
In my experience the best way to get these developers moving forward is through pair programming. Often times, they don’t know what’s possible and seeing a very proficient peer in action is the best way to spark their interest. Also, switching pairs will spread this knowledge throughout a team. Most of the time this environment will encourage growth but if they remain a deadbeat the team will eventually weed them out.
Sure pair programming works. one guy does 90% of the thinking and one does 90% of the typing. The guy that does the typing complains about doing all the work while the guy that does the thinking gets an ulcer.
If it can’t be explained on a single double-spaced sheet of paper, it’s a waste of your time.
I think this quote shows the problem with peoples attitudes about programming. Many problems are not easy to understand and not easy to solve. If you don’t regularly come across things that take many sheets of paper to explain you’re not trying hard enough.
Is this supposed to be a provocation or something? If not, please explain how the Open Closed Principle follows from NAMBLA.
Your religion might be comprised of marketing. But others aren’t always like yours.
Please remove the word religion if you didn’t want to talk about it or at least rephrase it so it’s less insulting.
If you don’t regularly come across things that take many sheets of paper to explain you’re not trying hard enough.
I’m not particularly sympathetic to Jeff on his points, but this is dangerous advice as well. Could encourage people to make unnecessary work for themselves just to make sure things are interesting.
Back in college I had some bright professor guy spend an entire semester teaching us how to mathematically prove the validity of our algorithms using First Order Predicate Calculus
Or further education, I presume? Probably not a mathematician, computer scientist, researcher, etc. then, eh? Just because it’s not job training doesn’t mean it’s not useful brain and though pattern preparation. Nor does it mean it’s not useful in someone else’s computer programming related job.