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Classifying Software Developers

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25 points by tkaemming 15 years ago · 4 comments

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lyudmil 15 years ago

I find the following sentences from the post contradictory:

"[Outwardly focused developers] copy and paste code they find in blog posts even if they don’t actually know how it works."

"Both [the vocation/avocation and inwardly/outwardly focused] scales are value neutral."

I think the first is clearly describing a bad developer. I suspect it is also meant to. There are other such instances in the post, which I fear drains it of content. Sticking with the second scale, it seems to me that when faced with a problem, the appropriate Ruby code ought to be:

  def solve problem
    my_solution = hypothesize_solution_to(problem)
    
    existing_solutions = find_existing_solutions_to(problem)

    #The sort other is by quality
    existing_solutions.sort!

    existing_solutions.reject do |solution|
      solution.sucks? or my_solution.better_than?(solution)
    end

    return existing_solutions.first unless existing_solutions.empty?
    my_solution
  end
There's some refactoring needed, but the algorithm is correct. I think doing anything different without a very solid reason is irresponsible.
  • georgieporgie 15 years ago

    The scales strike me as value-neutral until you get to the extremes. You don't want someone who's constantly reinventing a newer, hotter wheel because they're too inwardly focused. Neither do you want someone who's so dependent upon existing solutions that they're incapable of writing their own code.

jared314 15 years ago

I think both this article and the the original article miss the aspect of business awareness. Understanding how the code is used and how it will help someone is a key skill to develop.

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