I have made a discovery. You might think it’s obvious, but it was new to me. It was this: that programmers come in different shapes and sizes.
Category Archives: Management
Every programmer is an island.
When was the last time you read through someone else’s code, not because you were looking for a snippet to pinch or because you’ve been saddled with debugging it; but for the sheer joy of reading someone else’s elegant, witty, creative code?
Where are all the great programmers?
It’s a complaint that’s heard more and more often: why can’t I hire great programmers? Actually the answer is probably not what you think. Continue reading
Cowboy programmers, or “It’s all going to have to come out!”
Programmers, like builders, are famous for holding each others’ work in contempt. A new programmer arriving on an old job is likely to say, just like a builder: “What cowboy did this, then?” and “It’s all going to have to come out, you know!”, and most ominous of all, a non-verbal suck of the teeth and shake of the head. Continue reading
