Time for #DevDiscuss!
Tonight's topic is: Common fallacies.
A few questions to get us started:
- What false truths exist in the software industry?
- What conventional wisdom was once true but no longer is?
- How and why do fallacies arise and pervade?
I think quite a few fallacies have fallen in recent years or run the risk of falling in the coming years. That feels like the nature of tech, we build based on a set of assumptions. Then those assumptions become tested and then proven or broken. Rinse and repeat. #DevDiscuss
Time for #DevDiscuss!
Tonight's topic is: Common fallacies.
A few questions to get us started:
- What false truths exist in the software industry?
- What conventional wisdom was once true but no longer is?
- How and why do fallacies arise and pervade?
You have to be a specialist. It’s true, in certain roles. But it’s not true across the board and relying on one tech stack to get you through your career isn’t necessarily a smart move. The industry is ever changing and being adaptable and a generalist has merit. #DevDiscuss
Time for #DevDiscuss!
Tonight's topic is: Common fallacies.
A few questions to get us started:
- What false truths exist in the software industry?
- What conventional wisdom was once true but no longer is?
- How and why do fallacies arise and pervade?
"Most people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in ten years."
I think this applies very well to how people see the longterm outlook of their software project. Too much flawed short term hurrying as a result. #DevDiscuss
Time for #DevDiscuss!
Tonight's topic is: Common fallacies.
A few questions to get us started:
- What false truths exist in the software industry?
- What conventional wisdom was once true but no longer is?
- How and why do fallacies arise and pervade?
Common developer fallacy:
This type of programming is much harder/better than that other kind.
My language is better than their language.
I'm smarter than that dev because I use X tool.
#DevDiscuss
Time for #DevDiscuss!
Tonight's topic is: Common fallacies.
A few questions to get us started:
- What false truths exist in the software industry?
- What conventional wisdom was once true but no longer is?
- How and why do fallacies arise and pervade?
#DevDiscuss Common Fallacy: You're aren't "smart enough" if you use a GUI. Cut it out with this elitist nonsense. GUIs have a very important purpose and make our industry more welcoming.
I will always remember @eryno's tweet that said something like "If someone told you that you wouldn't have to talk to people as a programmer, I'm sorry. Someone lied to you."
#DevDiscuss
A common fallacy is needing to spend all your free time developing to be great. Keep the balance between other interests and coding. You don’t have to eat and breathe code to be a superb engineer. Arguably, other interests compliment your software expertise. #DevDiscuss
A few common fallacies off the top of my head:
Tech X is here to stay and will rule the world
Language Y is far superior than all others and everyone will switch to it
A bug free system is a perfect system
#DevDiscuss
Time for #DevDiscuss!
Tonight's topic is: Common fallacies.
A few questions to get us started:
- What false truths exist in the software industry?
- What conventional wisdom was once true but no longer is?
- How and why do fallacies arise and pervade?
Time for #DevDiscuss!
Tonight's topic is: Common fallacies.
A few questions to get us started:
- What false truths exist in the software industry?
- What conventional wisdom was once true but no longer is?
- How and why do fallacies arise and pervade?
Any claim that people working smarter and simpler are doing it because they can’t do the “real stuff” is total gatekeeping. Efficiency IS smarter. #DevDiscuss
When I started I had a lot of people telling me DRY (Don't Repeat Yourself) was important and to make abstractions for any and all repetition. This is actually terrible advice.
I think @sandimetz said it best "Duplication is far cheaper than the wrong abstraction." #DevDiscuss
Time for #DevDiscuss!
Tonight's topic is: Common fallacies.
A few questions to get us started:
- What false truths exist in the software industry?
- What conventional wisdom was once true but no longer is?
- How and why do fallacies arise and pervade?
Time for #DevDiscuss!
Tonight's topic is: Common fallacies.
A few questions to get us started:
- What false truths exist in the software industry?
- What conventional wisdom was once true but no longer is?
- How and why do fallacies arise and pervade?
Common fallacy: you have to code all the time to be any good.
Wrong. Take breaks, refresh, and you'll get better with time. There's no time frame on becoming a successful programmer.
#DevDiscuss
Time for #DevDiscuss!
Tonight's topic is: Common fallacies.
A few questions to get us started:
- What false truths exist in the software industry?
- What conventional wisdom was once true but no longer is?
- How and why do fallacies arise and pervade?
A couple fun fallacies I’ve found are “computers are fast enough now that we don’t have to worry about performance,” and “we don’t have to think about memory if there is a garbage collector” #DevDiscuss
Time for #DevDiscuss!
Tonight's topic is: Common fallacies.
A few questions to get us started:
- What false truths exist in the software industry?
- What conventional wisdom was once true but no longer is?
- How and why do fallacies arise and pervade?
Absolutely. A well rounded person is often a stronger engineer than someone who can write the worlds most efficient algorithm. True engineers understand th big picture and the people involved, not just the machines. #DevDiscuss
Common Fallacy:
We judge others by their actions, ourselves by our intentions.
Meaning: we make often drastic decisions based on skewed perception.
(True for problematic relationships with co-workers, competitors and pretty much any other interaction)
#DevDiscuss
Developer fallacies:
your code has to be pretty.
there's only one right way to do a thing.
front end is harder than back end.
back end is harder than front end.
#devdiscuss
Been a while since I made a comment on #DevDiscuss!
One fallacy that thankfully seems to be slowly going away is the idea of futureproofing. Rather than trying to consider what all is likely to change in the future when coding, instead make your code flexible and easy to update.
Time for #DevDiscuss!
Tonight's topic is: Common fallacies.
A few questions to get us started:
- What false truths exist in the software industry?
- What conventional wisdom was once true but no longer is?
- How and why do fallacies arise and pervade?
Time for #DevDiscuss!
Tonight's topic is: Common fallacies.
A few questions to get us started:
- What false truths exist in the software industry?
- What conventional wisdom was once true but no longer is?
- How and why do fallacies arise and pervade?
False truths? A big one is "X can be added later, just get the product to market" whether X is accessibility, security, usability, tests, or whatever.
Sure, it *can* be done, but you're racking up technical debt on the same scale as the US national debt.
#DevDiscuss
"Bad code means a bad developer wrote it"
This has a 2% chance of being correct. Often times the developer had good intentions, but you are missing all of the context in which it was written.
#DevDiscuss
Time for #DevDiscuss!
Tonight's topic is: Common fallacies.
A few questions to get us started:
- What false truths exist in the software industry?
- What conventional wisdom was once true but no longer is?
- How and why do fallacies arise and pervade?
Vue's new GUI is delightful. Command line has its place, but I'd much rather interact with something that's been designed to present information in a thoughtful way. #devdiscuss
This is a good one that I mostly agree with. However, I believe there is a fallacy in that a piece of software should live forever as well. Code/software should live as long as it is serving the purpose of its end users. Can those purposes be finite? #DevDiscuss
Any statement that learning X thing is absolutely essential to being valuable in tech this year, or the next, etc. no one can read the future, learning anything is valuable because it’s making you better at the act of learning. #devdiscuss
On the fallacy of "Don't Repeat Yourself"
https://t.co/mxA4CA9Ggz#devdiscuss
As mentioned by others in tonight's discussion, DRY has long been held up as a standard that can create as many problems as it solves.
Common fallacy: "soft"/interpersonal skills are not as important as technical skills
and a recent one I heard: frontend development is not development
🙄
#DevDiscusshttps://t.co/8hHE46GbuT
Time for #DevDiscuss!
Tonight's topic is: Common fallacies.
A few questions to get us started:
- What false truths exist in the software industry?
- What conventional wisdom was once true but no longer is?
- How and why do fallacies arise and pervade?
I'm always surprised just how little of my 20+ year career as a developer has involved putting code in a file. Lots of thinking. Lots of communication with customers, coworkers, and compilers. Lots of whiteboarding. But surprisingly little code-writing.
#DevDiscuss
I think about code more that I write it. But I think about it often as I'm always looking fut ways to improve my trade craft. Even while doing other things. #DevDiscuss
Time for #DevDiscuss!
Tonight's topic is: Common fallacies.
A few questions to get us started:
- What false truths exist in the software industry?
- What conventional wisdom was once true but no longer is?
- How and why do fallacies arise and pervade?
Nothing makes me more angry then when people criticize old code and the people who wrote it! You have no idea what it was like when it was written. I tend to lean towards giving people the benefit of the doubt. #DevDiscuss
"Coding a solution is difficult"
Coding it isn't the hard part in my mind. Deciding which one to code and reasoning about why that one is the best one, that's the hard part.
#DevDiscuss
Someday someone will look at all the code that I'm writing right now as a dev team of one, learning as I go, and be appalled. I hope they give me that much grace! #devdiscuss
Common fallacy, probably: A bug is unique to you.
It's probably not, and it's worth raising or reporting.
Personally guilty of this. I'm hoping it's not unique for me. 🙃
#DevDiscuss
Time for #DevDiscuss!
Tonight's topic is: Common fallacies.
A few questions to get us started:
- What false truths exist in the software industry?
- What conventional wisdom was once true but no longer is?
- How and why do fallacies arise and pervade?
Time for #DevDiscuss!
Tonight's topic is: Common fallacies.
A few questions to get us started:
- What false truths exist in the software industry?
- What conventional wisdom was once true but no longer is?
- How and why do fallacies arise and pervade?
Common fallacy: The most important part of software development is the code.
What's more important is how your code helps people. Is your app solving problems? Does it bring value to others?
#DevDiscuss
Time for #DevDiscuss!
Tonight's topic is: Common fallacies.
A few questions to get us started:
- What false truths exist in the software industry?
- What conventional wisdom was once true but no longer is?
- How and why do fallacies arise and pervade?
Here’s a diagram from the comments.
I like to learn many things about .NET and Azure, which I guess makes me a generalist across many topics.
But I also like to go deep in one thing at a time (currently ASP .NET Core) so I guess I’m a specialist in that right now.
#DevDiscuss
Not sure if this is a fallacy but I hear the assumption that bugs shouldn’t take long to fix. They may be simple to solve but man does it take forever to find them. #devdiscuss
Agile isn't about racking up technical debt but about delivering the most value. Could be what some think of as technical debt wasn't of high value to the customer. #DevDiscuss
Yes! Software development is a team effort and whether it's the customer service team, design, devs, product... no one part is any more important than the others in the end. All those other people help bring value to the code you're writing. #devdiscuss
I like to push it to the extreme and reply with "Yeah, nobody's a real {web/application/…} developer until they've doped their own silicon and made their own CPU". 😉
Nobody does it all in this industry, so find what you enjoy and chase that.
#DevDiscuss
Testing should not be relegated to the end of the process and passed off to a separate team!!!! The fallacy that hiring good QA will fix your code isn’t true. They can help, but engineers are responsible for testing too. #devdiscuss
A lot times it is me which is probably why I have learned to lean towards giving people the benefit of the doubt! Usually that means giving "Past Molly" the benefit of the doubt 😂 #DevDiscuss
Fallacy: you need to follow every trend in this industry to keep up.
Spoiler: most trends are hot and hyped for a couple of years and then go away because they were not well-considered in the first place. #devdiscuss
Time for #DevDiscuss!
Tonight's topic is: Common fallacies.
A few questions to get us started:
- What false truths exist in the software industry?
- What conventional wisdom was once true but no longer is?
- How and why do fallacies arise and pervade?
The development fallacy i most commonly encounter is the idea that the right design, implementation will reveal itself through refactor.
You're not gonna refactor a pig into a cow, y'all. Don't waste your time.
#DevDiscuss
Time for #DevDiscuss!
Tonight's topic is: Common fallacies.
A few questions to get us started:
- What false truths exist in the software industry?
- What conventional wisdom was once true but no longer is?
- How and why do fallacies arise and pervade?
Common developer fallacy:
"Real developers" are interested in certain things and know different things.
Or even that there is such a thing as a "real developer."
#DevDiscuss
"DevOps is a separate team"
O yes, I believe this is a fallacy. You know who should own the ops and deployment of applications/services? The team that wrote them. Yes you can have a team that handles common things, but those who wrote it --> own it.
#DevDiscuss
I’d love to run an experiment with people who ridicule others code. Let’s show you code your wrote 4 years ago and see if you remember it and tear it down. #DevDiscuss
In reply to
@molly_struve, @kylegalbraith, @MarkJohnson303
I helped my dad design one off printed circuit boards for machine control when I was young. Crazy amount of forethought and work went into that. #devdiscuss
Or bugging devs to track tickets and keep up with their status! Part of being a good engineer is being a part of a team and that includes communication! #DevDiscuss
I find this mindset of what developers should be interested is really alienating toward people of underrepresented groups.
I like makeup and don't play video games but that doesn't make me any less of a nerd.
#DevDiscuss
Common developer fallacy:
"Real developers" are interested in certain things and know different things.
Or even that there is such a thing as a "real developer."
#DevDiscuss
A category of common fallacies: Thinking of things as a Zero Sum Game when they don't need to be.
Rarely should we have to choose between two combatting principles. More often there should be ways to make the two work together for mutually positive outcomes. #DevDiscuss
- That Senior Engineers “know more” and not that they’ve experienced and had to juggle more
- Loud == authoritative
- That any language or tech is easy. If that were true we wouldn’t call ourselves “engineers “
#DevDiscuss
Time for #DevDiscuss!
Tonight's topic is: Common fallacies.
A few questions to get us started:
- What false truths exist in the software industry?
- What conventional wisdom was once true but no longer is?
- How and why do fallacies arise and pervade?
Which is more likely:
People willfully wrote bad code
OR
People wrote the best code they could with the information, objectives, and resources available at the time
?
I am working on my consistency with that, but I try to over communicate always. Working on making sure that's all in my ticket statuses too!
#DevDiscuss
Agree! Don't fall into the technical debt trap.
I wrote a lot about this in my recent newsletter, hope it provides some extra insight. https://t.co/0ppaBgK2qK#devdiscuss
I hate writing tickets personally because I keep getting my hand slapped for not writing tickets “the right way” or not writing a user story “properly” #DevDiscuss
False truth: that you have to be using the latest tech or new language. I’d prefer a developer that can adapt to new things easily, when it makes sense. I think devs focus too much on their own ability more than helping others or doing what’s right for their employer #DevDiscuss
Maybe. But how often are we looking for bugs in our own recently written code? We’re looking for touch points with other code, or legacy code, or a million other things. And even still sometimes our own code ☺️ #DevDiscuss
Programming fallacy: "this concept is too difficult for me to learn"
No matter who you are, you are almost certainly qualified to learn any programming technique if you put enough time in and find the right resources.
#devdiscuss
The senior engineer title is given so easily sometimes. People forget that it's not just knowing code but also knowing maintainable architecture and having all the soft skills for communicating ideas.
#devdiscuss
Fallacy: All devs like to stay up late at night and never get up early in the morning ❌
No thank you! I treasure my early mornings, it is when I am most productive!
#DevDiscuss
Common fallacy: You need to write unit tests for every function you write.
Nope. Start with functional tests to give you confidence that the application works. #DevDiscuss
Focusing so much on the technologies surrounding a project rather than the project itself. Don’t just use something because it’s cool, use it because it solves a problem you have. Don’t fix what isn’t broken. #DevDiscuss
There are things that take me a long time to understand. I think it took me about 6 months to learn .reduce() in JavaScript. Literally today was the first time I understood it. I've been pretty celebratory on Twitter, lol!
#DevDiscuss
Programming fallacy: "this concept is too difficult for me to learn"
No matter who you are, you are almost certainly qualified to learn any programming technique if you put enough time in and find the right resources.
#devdiscuss
Another one: you're not a real developer if you don't code all day even after work.
Coding outside of work is great.. but having other hobbies and activities as well actually improves one's mental and physical health and helps increasing productivity at work.
#DevDiscuss
That "find the right resources" bit can be a heck of a battle sometimes. Knowing where to start on concepts that feel way over your head is often the hardest part! #devdiscuss
We recently just changed out definition of a senior and lead engineer to include a lot more soft skills! It was really refreshing to see we want people to really lead rather than just dig their head into a computer #DevDiscuss
It's usually a fallacy that anyone is "right" and someone else "wrong"
Typically indicated there is not a sufficiently-aligned understanding of the issue, and that both people (and perhaps managers involved) are missing things #DevDiscuss
Love this! I was writing up some role definitions the other day and I saw myself writing far more non-code skills than anything. Engineers at that level don’t sit at their computers all day and focus beyond the content on their screens. #DevDiscuss
In reply to
@molly_struve, @sunnysinghio, @_echeatham
“Our performance concerns are caused by this f*#%ing sh*t framework/language/platform not out design. So an exact requirement lift and shift will solve our issues.” #DevDiscuss
"DevOps is a separate team"
O yes, I believe this is a fallacy. You know who should own the ops and deployment of applications/services? The team that wrote them. Yes you can have a team that handles common things, but those who wrote it --> own it.
#DevDiscuss
Common developer fallacy: you need a degree to be a competent programmer. I think there's a lot of benefits to take away from a CS degree, but there's so many resources available now that anyone with initiative can become an incredible developer.
#DevDiscuss
I feel like it depends on your audience. I know people going and old who are this way. Only one person that I have met I would say it has been in a healthy way. #devdiscuss
One piece of conventional wisdom that's antiquated today is needing to know how to build niche data structures like linked lists and binary search trees. It's trivial to import as a library, and the performance benefits around architecture are more critical.
#DevDiscuss
Time for #DevDiscuss!
Tonight's topic is: Common fallacies.
A few questions to get us started:
- What false truths exist in the software industry?
- What conventional wisdom was once true but no longer is?
- How and why do fallacies arise and pervade?
Our team has a pretty good balance of night owls/early risers and it works out really well! For the vast majority of the day if someone needs something one of us is usually available #DevDiscuss
1) years of experience means better Dev.
2) matching developer's past skillsets with current job.IMO, this just means someone didn't get a chance to work in his previous job/project but could probably pick up quickly and excel.Typecasting developers based on tech.
#DevDiscuss
I'm a morning person too! Although, I use the morning time to work on my projects because I never have energy for that shit at the end of the day. #DevDiscuss
Could not agree more! As someone who has a very time consuming passion completed unrelated to software(I ride horses 🐴) I know how valuable time away from a computer can be. It helps me recharge and honestly its usually when problems actually get solved. #DevDiscuss
We are a Ruby shop and we have hired multiple Python people bc they had the skills needed to quickly learn Ruby and they ended up being GREAT! #DevDiscuss
Time for #DevDiscuss!
Tonight's topic is: Common fallacies.
A few questions to get us started:
- What false truths exist in the software industry?
- What conventional wisdom was once true but no longer is?
- How and why do fallacies arise and pervade?
Time for #DevDiscuss!
Tonight's topic is: Common fallacies.
A few questions to get us started:
- What false truths exist in the software industry?
- What conventional wisdom was once true but no longer is?
- How and why do fallacies arise and pervade?
The attitude of "I don't want to deal with users" is ridiculously common. Whether you can (and I don't think it's as prevalent as people fantasize), you shouldn't want to! You're building software for people to use; how you gonna do that without talking to them?
#DevDiscuss
Time for #DevDiscuss!
Tonight's topic is: Common fallacies.
A few questions to get us started:
- What false truths exist in the software industry?
- What conventional wisdom was once true but no longer is?
- How and why do fallacies arise and pervade?
Truth. Sometimes is logical, not syntactic as well, and if I'm the one who wrote the flawed logic in the first place, I go over it and over it until I realize whatever it was I miseed. #devdiscuss
Not sure if this is a fallacy but I hear the assumption that bugs shouldn’t take long to fix. They may be simple to solve but man does it take forever to find them. #devdiscuss
I pushed up a new update to my Learn AWS By Using It course this past weekend. Grab a package if you haven't already, DM any questions you have about AWS, or feel free to grab the sample chapter. https://t.co/10z3dHi2Hp#DevDiscuss
Maybe a stretch, but at least warrants thought...
Is it a fallacy that having Imposter Syndrome is bad?
Honest assessment of weak areas is needed to fuel growth, and open/honest discussion about weaknesses should be made to be normal. #DevDiscuss
Fallacy: XYZ editor means you are proficient, while ABC editor means you are a beginner.
I have seen brilliant engineers code on so many different editors now that I have finally dismissed this one for myself
#DevDiscuss
I started a newsletter this year and sent out one every week so far.
Most of them ended up being full articles that I intend on posting to my blog and https://t.co/2RPZbKBc5P of course.
My most recent one 👇
https://t.co/4wqdyOVAfN#DevDiscuss
