How to Make Your Organization Attractive to Engineering Talent | Hacker News Reader

How to Make Your Organization Attractive to Engineering Talent

codewithjason.com

7 pointsjasonswett6 comments

I disagree with his point about '"interesting" technical problems' not being a perk. He describes working on 40+ different jobs which were all about the same in terms of technical interestingness, and says that the majority of business applications are boring CRUD apps/"a giant ball of TPS reports". This isn't an argument against working on technically interesting problems being a perk -- it just means that he hasn't ever worked on technically interesting problems.

If his point is that most job ads are lying about whether the work is technically interesting, fair enough. I have no idea whether or not that's true. But his point as stated, that technically interesting work is not a perk that developers care about, is just wrong in my experience. Not all jobs are doing tedious CRUD work, and that is a legitimate perk.

Speaking of perks of negative value, I once worked somewhere with ping pong tables, fuzzball, and so on, where a man started playing the bagpipes directly behind me when I was trying to get some damned work done!

Good to know that ping pong tables are a red flag for someone else! I personally avoid any gig advertising for "rock star" developers on much the same basis...

We hired a rock star developer. He had been an actual rock star, with a song that was nominated for a Billboard Music Award. Does that count? Fortunately, he doesn't play music when I'm trying to get work done. We hired him to develop software.

I wish I liked using our ping pong table. It would help shrink my belly. Getting up out of your seat to get your blood flowing is important. Some people take a walk around the block at our office. Some people lift weights. Some people pace. Maybe ping pong is kind of silly, but it fills a need. Humans aren't built to sit motionless all day long.

I often see Imposter Syndrome being discussed on HN and in other software development circles. While I have yet to face the feeling of being an imposter; this particular quote from the article strikes a bit of a nerve,

"Sturgeon’s law says “ninety percent of everything is crap”. I’ve found this to be true of developers. Nine out of ten developers are not just bad but incompetent."

I'm not a mathematician, but if this statement is true, chances are I am an awful developer. Knowing this, how do I and others proceed? Can we be useful on a team?

I am reminded of the addage "If you run into an asshole in the morning, you ran into an asshole. If you run into assholes all day, you're the asshole." I suspect the author is has systemic problems working with others. I think if someone is earnestly doing their best to improve their skills, a true professional will accord them the respect they deserve.

I think my estimate was a little on the high side. I've tempered my opinion since then (and I've edited that part out of the post). I don't think 9 out of 10 developers are incompetent.

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