icyfenix

Also, to clarify, I'm the author :D

Well, I cover that stuff. I think it's foundational to learning to program, rather than just assembling toy projects. Exposing students to the real implications of their high-level code can only make them stronger, better programmers. They don't need to write an OS to do app development, but they sure as hell need to know their big O, how to do estimation, their data structures, and some fundamental algorithms and techniques. We try to give them the tools to continue exploring as well- those who are interested tend to follow up with MOOCs, having been well versed enough in programming that they can use videos and exercises to learn on their own.

Motherfucker, that was an amazing comment. You go write that shit in a blog post right the hell now.

While I agree that moving into management is just engineering human systems (hell, I do more management stuff than code stuff nowadays), it is definitely a skill. Writing "human code", by creating processes and things, requires you to be able to look at someone and understand their psychology, their motivation, their skills and understanding. It is best performed with the zen principle of Beginner's Mind, and other theory-of-mind type skillsets.

Not all coders have the ability to do theory of mind, because they're somewhere on the autism spectrum. I myself am autistic, and I've only learned this stuff through intense study. It was definitely a skill I had to get good at.

One of the most difficult things to do is understand what you personally are good at, to break down a skill you have and understand where it comes from, and what it looks like when someone doesn't have that skillset. Not to say that someone who doesn't currently have it will never have it, but they definitely will have to work on it in order to get there.

imho, there's a lot of skill overlap for certain kinds of people from engineering to management, and a lot of those people end up in management. This is why, to most managers, what an engineer is supposed to do "next" is become a manager. But this isn't everyone, and it's not even most engineers- so developing an understanding that what is easy for you is not easy for everyone is paramount. I figured that out by teaching, and it took awhile to get there for me, so imho it's a non-obvious thing.

This is exactly the sentiment I was going for - people who want to stay engineers should be compensated for their badassery, and respected for it, which is usually all they want. That right there is exactly the "power to say No" I was talking about. And how do you know if an engineer wants to stay an engineer or not? By asking them.

Well yeah on the dollars++ and the equity++ - often that's a harder sell, existing managers usually have to have some kind of thing to point at in order to make those things manifest - a lot of non-coders don't know how to quantify your contributions- these strategies are supposed to add up to raises, promotions, bonuses, etc., and make getting the tangibles you want easier. Plus, if the tangibles don't come with the thought leadership recognition, someone else will usually come along, and recognize you in the way you want to be recognized.

Ah sweet, thanks for the share. I hope this helps engineers do things that make them happy.

This is probably the most hilarious comments thread. But, thanks for reading!

Yeah, because there aren't any open jobs in the tech sector. We'll have to kick out some of the men in order to make room for the ladies.

Totally fucked up that wording, sorry 'bout that. Edited, fixed. Also, numbers and research : http://lizthedeveloper.com/pedagogy-and-why-we-only-accept-w...

I do totally write blog posts on the internet with comments open in order to shield myself from all criticism.

Hey - it's me, @lizTheDeveloper.

We only take the top 5% because we only have space for the top 5%. We're not a huge organization that can just spin up 20 new dynos and laterally scale. We scale horizontally, which is frustrating for everyone, including us. The rest of them we try to direct to resources that DO scale, like http://teamtreehouse.com/ and learnpythonthehardway.com/book

But yeah, we'd love to help the other 95%. Got any thoughts?

"For those unfamiliar with American customs, Black Friday in the US refers to the day after Thanksgiving Day, which is traditionally considered the first day of the holiday shopping season. It's generally the busiest shopping day of the year, resulting in huge profits for retailers – thus, putting them 'in the black.'"

This is not why it's called Black Friday. It's called Black Friday originally by the retail workers who had to man the stores that day. "Black" meaning bad or dark, in this case, like "this is a black day", rather than any reference to finance (or racism). Those who worked their way into the corporate structure of many retailers, or graduated college and moved on in their careers retained their floor-worker slang, and the term spread.