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Comment by freditup | Hacker News Reader

I disagree actually. I think having a specialization (front-end vs. back-end for example) is a good thing. It allows someone to dedicate themselves to one specific area and learn it thoroughly. When I'm doing back-end development, I love having a front-end guy who can make it look pretty - I don't want to have to use time/energy up doing that when I'm concentrating on making a secure, fast, maintainable back-end.

However, there is a limit to this. A back-end guy should still have some idea what goes on front-end and vice-versa. So, the key is to be an expert at what you're best at, but not to be a dummy at what you're not as good at.

[On a side note, I don't see why specialization should create contempt. In my opinion, it should breed appreciation]

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When I'm doing front-end development, I love having a back-end guy who can flip the switch and turn it on.

What you said:

"When I'm doing back-end development, I love having a front-end guy who can make it look pretty"

How that sounds to me:

"When I'm done with a hard day's work, I love having a wife at home who can make me a drink"

Seriously! Read what you wrote.

Hehehe, that's a good one. But we both know what he meant :)

I don't think I understand the analogy? If two people are working on the same project and one enjoys and specializes in front-end development and the other enjoys and specializes in back-end development, and the project is roughly 50/50 front-end and back-end, why on earth should they NOT split up the project accordingly? They will both enjoy working on it more, they will get it done faster, and with better results than if they each took half the front-end and half the back-end work. Neither partner is "exploiting" the other or anything like that (as implied by your analogy); it's just in their mutual interest to divide the work in this way.

He was saying that the phrasing, from a back end guy, revealed exactly the lazy attitude that was described in the post.

When a back end guy says, "Hey front end guy, make it look pretty" -- that's not showing much appreciation for what they actually do. Front end guys: is what you do just making things look pretty? Or maybe it's closer to understanding how people actually use a product. And designing a UI that can cater to both novices and experts, etc.

Here's the reason I said that: "No matter what I try, I can't make it look pretty. I realize I'm such a horrible artist/designer that no matter how much effort I put in, it's always going to be an ugly mess if I do the front end. So what I appreciate most is them making it look pretty. Other aspects of the jobs I can do better, so it's not quite as important to me to have someone else doing it. Perhaps it is a "lazy" attitude, but it's not a condescending one. :)

But that's not what front end devs do. Maybe you could say that's what designers do. Front end dev != designer.

It all depends on whether you take "make it look pretty" as an insult or just a simplified statement of what a front-end person does.

I, for one, read "make it look pretty" as "make it look like something people would want to use".

relevant (figure of speech) > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lipstick_on_a_pig

I agree with this, but for a different reason.

Having specializations work for developers, not against. Consider all these technical lead sort of job openings in start ups asking the developer to execute everything from being archetecture to test/development to deployment. If you want to subject yourself to this, by all means, but keep in mind that there are developers who just want to go home at 5.

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