Ask HN: What are common things you see in a bad developer? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What are common things you see in a bad developer?

5 pointscrush_xc6 comments

When you're working with a developer what do you find most bad developers do that good ones tend to avoid?

Thanks!

If you don't have ten years of experience with at least five very-distinct languages (i.e., C & C++ only count once, & Java and C# only count once), you're not really a developer yet -- just an apprentice.

Sorry to say, there's no way to cut the gordian knot there: you're going to have to wait until you gain the necessary experience before you're a benefit rather than a liability.

If it's any consolation, most people with entry level / junior software engineer jobs are in the same boat, & there are whole companies that are essentially doomed because of a monoculture of people who haven't yet reached minimum competence. If you're surrounded by peers that know twelve languages & have been working as a dev for twenty years, then you're in a much better place than most of your cohort.

I respectfully disagree with everything you said here. Firstly, you are speaking in vast generalizations about what being a "developer" means. You don't need 10 years of experience with 5 distinct languages to be effective or not a liability. That's bullshit.

I am curious - what kind of development are you referring to here? What kind of things do you think people need 10 years of experience with multiple languages to be effective at?

OP - don't listen to this guy. Focus on writing clean, simple, non-abstract code that reads like a book. Make sure your code reads well and is written with performance taken into consideration and you'll be fine.

To answer the original question - common things I have seen from bad developers are the following:

1) Over complicating/engineering solutions to simple problems. 2) Not using readily available libraries that solve 99% of the problems you'll run into. 3) Naming methods and variables abstract things that don't accurately explain what they're for. 4) Not asking co-workers for help/domain knowledge before they start coding.

In defense of the person you replied to, I had the original question framed around my situation more but edited it to be more generic. Thank you for the information!

I'm also going to respectfully disagree. While exposure to a few different languages is not a negative, it also doesn't equal experience. Everyone coming coming out of school has a few languages on their resume'. IMO, experience is not the tools (languages) used - experience is the problems solved.

I can't remember working with any bad developers but the qualities of the good developers I've worked with included: humility, a desire to learn and most importantly, a concern for the next guy who has to work with the code.

Treats other people like crap. The better someone is, generally the kinder they are to other folks. Crap developers seem to have an edge to them- it's as if they're afraid they're going to be found out as not being as skilled as they portray themselves as, so they try to avoid that by demeaning others.

- Specialization (as someone said) because they haven't learned how to learn. Being able to learn a new stack, library, or language is really important.

- Pre-mature optimization and/or perfectionism

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