|
Dear Heath Stewart:
I respect your thoughts and your frustration against the wannabes. I think its not wrong putting blame where it is deserved yet I strongly believe that a little effort can change at least a minority if not all the genuine code monkeys (a really amusing term you have coined, hehe).
And you are right on point when you say that requiring external help is OK but only in conditions that the developer him self has toiled to tackle the problem. I guess developers are becoming more and more like this and that’s a sure sign of progression.
Another point as you raised was education. I find lots of people getting education and even fastidious GPA's but with negligible or no practical experience what so ever (which as you mentioned if they could have had with the right attitude). These people only believe in the power of the book and ignore all else and the result is that they might score well on paper but are worthless developers in my eyes.
I guess development is an art as well as science and requires tons of practice, being a computer science student problem solving is my first priority but to implement solutions to those problems is important too.
I just wanted to add a tip that I have been giving to my fellow developers and students for years.
Get your hands dirty with code, practice, develop something,apply the concepts...
Well docs are good to get the concepts but I guess the 'compiler is the biggest teacher' and I strongly believe that this is the reason that I am confident of my skills and tend not to forget what I have learnt with time. The analogy I present here is quite true ‘If docs are a life saver then practical work (planning, coding) is life’.
I guess a balanced approach towards learning through the docs and the compiler is the best solution forward.
I would like to read what you have to say on this. As I understand you are a experienced software architect and for an aspiring developer like me; a precious source of advice.
, Happy Coding.
Rai Umair
What is now proved, was once only imagened...
|
|
|
|
|
Having recently asked to help a student debug and analyze a final project for college, I can really see your point. The thing is, most people don't really take the time to look up for answers before asking for help and that really exasperates me. I think one of the main reason for this is that in college, they are not really taught how to look for answers.
In the same example above, I reached a particular error in the app, highlighted the error, and pressed F1, and hey, presto, the documentation of the problem, along with the solution came up. The students answer? I didn't know you could do that ?!?! How did she frikkin' survive to her final year ??!!
I'm sorry if this sounds so much like a rant, , but people who don't look for answers themselves before asking for help really pisses me off.
Sig Under Construction. Visit back later.
Support Bone
|
|
|
|
|
We've had two graphic designers work with the company despite my prior work I've showed them, mostly because they want me working on architecting the app and its features, and actually writing them. Both graphic designers returned such crap that I ended up doing it anyway. The problem? They didn't know Photoshop very well. One guy did a horrible job removing a background because he didn't know about the extractor. One guy didn't even know how to do a drop shadow (either the hard way or the easy way)!
I whole-heartily agree with schools not teaching students to research, and I also see another problem: lack of exploration! I may not be a graphic designer, but I know Photoshop well because I explored its features. I learned practically every application that way (sans MS Money: since that manages my $$$, I wanted to be sure! ). I may not know for what a pivot table is useful, but I sure know how to make them!
People around the office are the same way. It took me over a year to get them to check the docs first, mostly by coming off as a bit of an a$$. I spend a great deal of time writing good comments for our code and generating help and no one reads it and always asks questions instead.
Ugh. What an industry!
-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
Version: 3.21
GCS/G/MU d- s: a- C++++ UL@ P++(+++) L+(--) E--- W+++ N++ o+ K? w++++ O- M(+) V? PS-- PE Y++ PGP++ t++@ 5 X+++ R+@ tv+ b(-)>b++ DI++++ D+ G e++>+++ h---* r+++ y+++
-----END GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
|
|
|
|