Subject
5 entries
Craft
Bookmarks
You Are NOT a Software Engineer
Chris Aitchison's essay arguing that 'software engineer' is the wrong metaphor — programmers are more like gardeners than engineers. The gardening metaphor has implications for how we think about code maintenance, refactoring, and organic system growth.
Artisanal Pencil Sharpening
David Rees's artisanal pencil sharpening service — genuinely real, not a joke — charged $15 to $35 to sharpen a single pencil by hand using specialized tools, with a certificate of authenticity. A perfect cultural artifact of the 2012 artisanal/craft backlash against mass production.
You Have to Get Good Before You Get Better
Dan Shipper argues that the painful early phase of learning any skill — when you can see quality but can't produce it yet — is unavoidable and shouldn't be shortcut. Getting good requires accumulating bad reps, not waiting for a breakthrough.
Three Tips to Succeed as a Programmer
Facebook Engineering's post on three principles for succeeding as a programmer — written at a moment when Facebook was the most visible example of what high-performing engineering culture could produce. Likely covers ownership, breadth vs depth, and learning from code review.
Never Stop Hacking
Randall Degges's manifesto on maintaining a hacker's curiosity as a professional programmer — the argument that the best developers never stop building things purely for learning, outside of their day job. About intrinsic motivation over career optimization.