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**Kris Brandow:** It's just like, "Yeah, we're just gonna get rid of most of this. Goodbye... Wipe it away.. Just delete all of your tests..." It's like, "Yeah... Do you really need them?" |
**Natalie Pistunovich:** Or random documentation lines. |
**Kris Brandow:** Or better yet, a tool that just goes around and randomly changes small things within your codebase, but keeps them compilable... Just like, really big annoyances... |
**Ian Lopshire:** That's mean. |
**Natalie Pistunovich:** The real fuzzing... |
**Kris Brandow:** It reminds me - I saw this TikTok once, and it was like a guy, and he was just like, "If you really wanna get back at someone, do these things", and one of them was "Go to some you don't like's house, as to like a party, and take all of their remotes except one", because then they'll be like "Where ar... |
**Ian Lopshire:** Put dead batteries in all the remotes. |
**Kris Brandow:** Or that. It's like, "Why are none of my remotes working?" Just like little inconveniences in people's lives... Don't do that. That's a way to unbalance other people's lives, and this episode was about balancing people's lives. |
**Natalie Pistunovich:** Exactly. Exactly. |
**Kris Brandow:** Although I guess you could balance your life by unbalancing someone else's life... No, that's not good. Don't do that. Don't do that. |
**Ian Lopshire:** \[laughs\] |
**Natalie Pistunovich:** Balance it to the positive, yes. |
**Kris Brandow:** Positive balance. But if you want to write a bot that people can write on their own codebases, that puts small annoyances into their code... |
**Ian Lopshire:** That's just like community contribution, right? Does that count for Hacktoberfest? |
**Kris Brandow:** Yeah... And that could be a tool, like a pull request... Like, make sure you're reviewing your codebase; there's like slight differences... Like, actual bit rot, right? That could be a good name for it, BitRot. Did you run the BitRot bot? |
**Natalie Pistunovich:** \[laughs\] |
**Kris Brandow:** Man, this episode is wild... |
• The analogy of "paint by numbers" vs "blank canvas" is used to describe different approaches to software development |
• Experienced developers prefer a blank canvas, where they can start from scratch and draw their picture |
• Frameworks and pre-existing structure are seen as analogous to paint by numbers, providing a scaffold for the project |
• The debate centers around whether frameworks are a necessary step towards becoming an experienced developer or if they hinder creativity |
• The discussion also touches on the role of productivity tools versus handholding and guidance in software development |
• The difference between building on others' work (paint by numbers) and creating something new from scratch (blank canvas) |
• The importance of distinguishing between skills (such as coding) and expertise (such as engineering software) |
• The example of Leslie Lamport, who came from a different background and applied his knowledge to create innovative solutions |
• The distinction between executing existing ideas and innovating on a blank canvas |
• The need for practical advice on how to approach building new projects or features when starting with a blank canvas |
• Approaches to starting a project |
• Understanding the problem or task at hand |
• Importance of understanding "why" vs just following best practices |
• Need for a balance between structure and creativity in development process |
• Cargo-culting vs. developing your own approach and understanding |
• Value of experience and context in applying best practices |
• The importance of recognizing different types of expertise and career paths in software engineering. |
• The need to distinguish between Leslie Lamport-type visionaries who design large systems and others who execute tasks handed to them. |
• The problem with resume-driven development and other incentive structures that prioritize seniority over effectiveness. |
• The idea that time is not a good measure of experience or expertise, but rather a proxy for it. |
• The need to focus on gaining new experiences and knowledge, rather than simply accumulating years of service. |
• Discussion of the role of time in gaining experience and expertise |
• Critique of using time as a sole metric for measuring experience |
• Proposal of alternative markers of experience, such as knowledge acquisition and curiosity |
• Recognition of diversity of experience and perspectives as valuable for innovation |
• Acknowledgment of the potential benefits of combining diverse perspectives with experience |
• Discussion of the role of hindsight and retrospect in gaining experience and making informed decisions |
• Comparing oneself to others in terms of experience and progress |
• Critique of incremental thinking approach to career advancement in tech |
• Argument against "paint by numbers" approaches to learning and growth |
• Discussion of Sandi Metz's rules for coding as a teaching technique |
• Importance of time and experience in understanding and breaking free from rules |
• Diversity of perspectives on learning and career goals |
• The importance of diversity in engineering roles and the need for organizations to accommodate different backgrounds and types of engineers |
• Discussion on the undervalued skill of spreadsheet programming, with Kris Brandow advocating for its recognition as a sophisticated form of coding |
• Debate about the distinction between "coders" and "programmers," with Jerod Santo arguing that these terms are often used interchangeably but can imply different levels of skill or responsibility |
• Critique of Leslie Lamport's assertion that programming is distinct from coding, with Jerod Santo suggesting that this distinction is more a matter of semantics than substance |
• Distinction between programmers who write code and those who solve problems |
• Importance of editors and their role in the writing industry, and how it's missing in tech |
• Need to separate roles such as coding and problem-solving, rather than expecting one person to do both |
• Value of unpaid or low-stakes take-home projects in interviews, but with caveats about relevance and pay |
• Criticism of whiteboarding exercises and other traditional interview methods |
• Passion is overrated and may be used to get people to work for less money |
• Spending too much time tweaking configurations and customizing tools can be inefficient |
• There is value in taking the time to optimize workflow, but there is also a threshold beyond which diminishing returns occur |
• Rust is being overly ambitious in its attempt to replace dominant programming languages like C |
• Esperanto: a constructed language created in the early 1900s |
• Consistent grammar and syntax of Esperanto |
• Log15: a Go logging package named after an XKCD comic |
• The myth of incremental progress vs. revolutionary change (referenced but not fully discussed) |
**Kris Brandow:** Welcome, welcome, welcome, gophers! We are here for another episode of Go Time, and this week we're gonna be talking about another interesting little topic in the continuance of our maintenance series... For those of you out there that are counting, this is our eighth episode in the maintenance series... |
The genesis for this episode was a little chat we had in the Gophers Slack, in the Go Time channel. Shout-out to the Go Time channel; if you're not in there, you should definitely join... But it came -- it started with one of our listeners who pointed out that in a lot of our recent episodes we've been talking about ho... |
So that is the very episode that you're listening to right now. We've titled it The Myth of Incremental Progress, and I think it's going to be a lot of fun. |
Joining me today I have my usual co-host, Johnny Boursiquot. How are you today, Johnny? |
**Johnny Boursiquot:** Doing alright. |
**Kris Brandow:** And we also have our wonderful producer, Jerod. How are you today, Jerod? |
**Jerod Santo:** Happy to be here. |
**Kris Brandow:** Awesome. And we have someone who you've all heard multiple times on the podcast, but instead of joining us as a guest, this time he is now a panelist, so congratulations on joining us in the co-hosting ranks, Ian... How are you doing today? |
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