Ye' old general discussion board. Basically, for everything that isn't covered elsewhere. Come here to shoot the breeze, shoot your mouth off, or whatever suits your fancy. This forum is not for asking programming related questions.
Having just got my arse chewed for not being fast enough, I just have to ask!
In a nutshell, I've not worked for the past 10 years doing "yet another website" for Joe Blow or worked for some company that did so. I worked most of the time doing cool stuff that required out of the box thinking and knowledge in areas beyond just programming.
That said, making a switch of sorts to working free lance or working for some high production design house has just delivered a hell of a right hook to what I heretofore thought was an iron jaw.
That said, doing what any good warrior would do, I'm looking for answers and getting back up on my horse. Unfortunately, while I work on entrepreneurial things, I still have to bring home the bacon.
Well first off: fast != good. Just because you're not as fast as your boss would like, doesn't mean your bad. There's the old restaurant adage: Good food takes time. The same can (but not necessarily) be said about good code.
No matter how good a programmer you are, you'll never be perfect. A perfect programmer:
Always knows the best, fastest, and simplest solution to any problem (which, in reality, may be 3 separate solutions)
Writes syntactically perfect code
Comments clearly & concisely
Knows their language like the back of their hand
Goes by the nickname "pickle" on online boards
Notice I didn't list "is really fast" - because I think every one of what I did list is more important than speed. That said - I'm not in a high production environment, so I may not have a realistic idea of what level of output is expected in the real world.
Real programmers don't comment their code. If it was hard to write, it should be hard to understand.
Yeah, this guy was a bit of an arse. He has a worldview that is in incapable of realizing there are situations and circumstance that are different then his. Gave me 2 hours of training on an online project management system that wasn't the answer he thought it was, then immediately started to bitch after I took some time to fix a problem that had an effect across nearly every page in the site. No point telling him that though.
I could go on and on, but there is no point.
But out of curiosity I decided to see if there is such a thing as "different kinds of programmers". Some interesting stuff came up. A good one was at http://programmerjoe.com/2008/06/29/fiv ... ogrammers/. It pretty much summed up in my mind what I've long suspected about me. I am too much of a Research / Explorer / Craftsman (read the link) to fit in places where they need a workhorse.
BDKR wrote:Yeah, this guy was a bit of an arse. He has a worldview that is in incapable of realizing there are situations and circumstance that are different then his. Gave me 2 hours of training on an online project management system that wasn't the answer he thought it was, then immediately started to bitch after I took some time to fix a problem that had an effect across nearly every page in the site. No point telling him that though.
I could go on and on, but there is no point.
If you don't communicate the problem to him, and what you did to fix it, you can't really expect other people not to think you're wasting time. Talk to people, tell them what you're doing, and make sure you're doing the right thing (what you thought was a big issue might have been something he knew about but didn't prioritise).
If I'm completely honest, I think a good programmer is one who is capable of communicating with other people. I'd rather have one guy who can talk to me, ask me stuff, report back on things, and tell me when they're stumped than a whole roomful of geniuses who come up with amazing solutions to things but can't talk to each other.
I think you're on the money Onion, but what I've found over 43 years is that you can only communicate with people that are open to communication. This guy is not open to communication when considering an issue or view point that differs from his. When an employer is not patient enough to listen and consider what a subordinate is thinking, HE/SHE/IT SUCKS!
It's at this point that things really start to break down in a hurry for me. I have a hard time with people like this and don't really care to be associated with them.
Give me your ear and a smidgen of an attempt at understanding and I'll give you complete loyalty. Come to me with bluster and I'll tell you to **** 0ff!