[HN Gopher] The curse of being good in IT
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The curse of being good in IT
Author : BiteCode_dev
Score : 16 points
Date : 2023-04-14 20:54 UTC (2 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (bitecode.substack.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (bitecode.substack.com)
| hot_gril wrote:
| What taught me the most about this was managing my parents' home
| internet from a distance. If it went out, they could hardly even
| communicate with me to fix it. I quickly learned just how many
| things can go wrong with Ubiquiti wifi APs or other more advanced
| tools sitting there.
|
| The final working setup: Basic ISP-provided modem/router/wifi
| combo, cheap near-zero-config wifi APs to reach distant rooms,
| entire setup on a lamp timer to cut power for 30min a day at 4AM.
| The thing is, that solution is decent even if you understand the
| more advanced stuff.
|
| Now at work I see how many SWEs are, in a way, too smart for
| their own good. I keep telling them, make your solutions less
| galaxy-brained. No you are not making another custom DBMS-type
| thing just to serve a few kinds of requests from adjacent
| systems. If random other people can't understand it, it'll get
| rewritten in 2 years tops.
| rektide wrote:
| The topic of information disparity is highly interesting to me.
|
| I think there's a lot good points for consideration here.
| Reciprocally, I hate to say it, but I also feel like there's a
| YAGNI behavior (you ain't gonna need it) where people wi tool
| away doing things poorly, slowly, repetitively. Developers are
| drawn like hawks to the idea of overcomplexity & will convince
| themselves that doing all kinds of absurd highly compromised
| labor that they know is a better route than investigating some
| known unknowns.
|
| Becoming a good developer is hanging in the balance, between
| letting yourself spiral & lose
| traction/underdtanding/focus/being-overwhelmed, and between being
| relentlessly curious & hungry to learn all the options, how each
| option works &
|
| There's plenty of other ways to be a developer too. Not everyone
| has to sign up to contort themselves to a predisposition of being
| always slightly uncomfortable. But those that can start to lean
| in & appreciate the endless possible quest-opportunities about
| us, & who can latch on & dive deep on an option, courageously go
| find out and see: those folks tend to do very very well. (If
| placed in an environment where this let's say "ideal" behavior
| isnt resisted by the org.) It's an amazing life.
| aschearer wrote:
| > It's important to keep in mind that most of us sit not far from
| the middle of the bell curve. Most people are, by mathematical
| definition, close to average, as skill distribution is not from
| Taleb's Extremistan.
|
| Is this true? Why should I believe it? Certainly unclear to my
| sub-average brain why it's a "mathematical definition." I'd call
| it an empirical fact, but has anyone bothered to measure?
| Logically speaking, the curve's hump could be biased one
| direction or the other, or bi-modal, or whatever else...
|
| Also unclear to me why it follows that "top of the curve" people
| can't explain things to their lessors. Sure some may not possess
| that skill, but you're telling me there aren't good
| teachers/tutorials out there? My brain's too soft, so pack it up?
| Seems presumptious.
|
| Anyway the message of "know yourself and your limitations" is
| fine and well.
|
| PS. Thanks for noticing I'm a tad above average, statistically
| speaking!
| batmansmom1 wrote:
| Great point, I could totally see the "skill of an IT person"
| being skewed towards the majority being "bad" and a few being
| "good". If nothing else, simply due to the fact that there are
| fewer people with more years of experience
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(page generated 2023-04-14 23:01 UTC)