Technical debt is the number one cause of developer frustration. Working with imperfect systems demoralizes programmers, making it difficult to do quality work.
I'd wager not being given time to tackle technical debt is indeed frustating...
I don't care what your fancy RAMrod doohickeys say Johnson! We need that system up tomorrow so we can reach our quarterly earning projections for the shareholder's meeting!
It’s hilarious when the identified problems come back around to bite the organization, when the priorities have been to work on poorly specc’d features instead.
Yeah, that's probably more the issue. We've seen too many times throwaway code become production code because "it works already, we need to move forward".
There's a lot of like management being like "we gotta hit this deadline (that we made up)" combined with "if I hit all my targets and put in some overtime, the boss can buy another sports car this year"
I don't want to work extra to make someone else richer. Maybe if I had a shit load of shares. Maybe. But I don't. So I do my job with professional standards, but I'm not doing 12 hour days
I would say 80% of employees are unhappy, but I don't have any data to back this up.
Or maybe 80% of people are unhappy. No data here either
Will AI steal their jobs? 70% of professional programmers don’t see artificial intelligence as a threat to their work.
If your job can be replaced with GPT, you had a bullshit job to begin with.
What so many people don't understand is that writing code is only a small part of the job. Figuring out what code to write is where most of the effort goes. That, and massaging the egos of management/the C-suite if you're a senior.
So, roughly 20% of developers have found the right mix of self-medication?
The thing that frustrates me about developers who feel powerless over technical debt is...who is actually stopping them from dealing with it? They way I see it, as a software engineer, your customer is sales/marketing/product/etc. They don't care about the details or maintenance, they just want the thing. And that's okay. But you have to include the cost of managing technical debt into the line items the customer wants. That is, estimate based on doing the right things, not taking shortcuts. Your customer isn't reading your commits. If they were, they wouldn't need you.
It would be bizarre if your quote for getting your house siding redone included line items for changing the oil on the work truck, organizing the shop, or training new crew members. But those costs of business are already factored into what you pay at the end of the day.
Yes, this. Refactor first to make the upcoming change easier and cleaner, not after. Don’t ask for permission, don’t even call it refactoring or cleanup. Just call it working on the feature, because that’s what it is. Don’t let non-engineers tell you how to engineer.
Yes, this! I rarely ask for permission on that sort of thing. I’ll just do it as part of my work and see if anyone calls me out on it.
I’ve been programming for years, I’ve only happy when working on my own stuff. It’s like the difference between renting and owning
I'd wager not being given time to tackle technical debt is indeed frustating...
I don't care what your fancy RAMrod doohickeys say Johnson! We need that system up tomorrow so we can reach our quarterly earning projections for the shareholder's meeting!
It’s hilarious when the identified problems come back around to bite the organization, when the priorities have been to work on poorly specc’d features instead.
Yeah, that's probably more the issue. We've seen too many times throwaway code become production code because "it works already, we need to move forward".
There's a lot of like management being like "we gotta hit this deadline (that we made up)" combined with "if I hit all my targets and put in some overtime, the boss can buy another sports car this year"
I don't want to work extra to make someone else richer. Maybe if I had a shit load of shares. Maybe. But I don't. So I do my job with professional standards, but I'm not doing 12 hour days
I would say 80% of employees are unhappy, but I don't have any data to back this up.
Or maybe 80% of people are unhappy. No data here either
If your job can be replaced with GPT, you had a bullshit job to begin with.
What so many people don't understand is that writing code is only a small part of the job. Figuring out what code to write is where most of the effort goes. That, and massaging the egos of management/the C-suite if you're a senior.
So, roughly 20% of developers have found the right mix of self-medication?
The thing that frustrates me about developers who feel powerless over technical debt is...who is actually stopping them from dealing with it? They way I see it, as a software engineer, your customer is sales/marketing/product/etc. They don't care about the details or maintenance, they just want the thing. And that's okay. But you have to include the cost of managing technical debt into the line items the customer wants. That is, estimate based on doing the right things, not taking shortcuts. Your customer isn't reading your commits. If they were, they wouldn't need you.
It would be bizarre if your quote for getting your house siding redone included line items for changing the oil on the work truck, organizing the shop, or training new crew members. But those costs of business are already factored into what you pay at the end of the day.
Yes, this. Refactor first to make the upcoming change easier and cleaner, not after. Don’t ask for permission, don’t even call it refactoring or cleanup. Just call it working on the feature, because that’s what it is. Don’t let non-engineers tell you how to engineer.
Yes, this! I rarely ask for permission on that sort of thing. I’ll just do it as part of my work and see if anyone calls me out on it.
I’ve been programming for years, I’ve only happy when working on my own stuff. It’s like the difference between renting and owning