OpenDrapery

I guess generic-ware like Microsoft Dynamics CRM is putting this to the test. Written once, configured for whatever domain you wish.

Sometimes, as a developer, I ask higher level questions about the business. Who is the customer? What problems do they have that we are trying to solve? How does this business make money? How are the executives measured?

These are questions that are relevant if you want me to add value in a non code monkey way. But, sometimes, when I ask these questions, I get looks that say "You're paid to write code, so stop asking non code questions." Or maybe I'm just projecting.

Every line of code you write or modify is potential technical debt that someone will have to own.

With the turnover rate in this industry, I'm not sure anyone plans to be around when the monstrosity that they wrote starts to become a maintenance nightmare.

This is why the demo should just be a pre-recorded video that you can narrate live. Seriously.

what about people who just want to make money and don't care about the patient?

I imagine even the most Type A extrovert gets worn down after spending 3 consecutive days with the same people?

I don't think the introvert/extrovert thing really factors in. If you spend X amount of time with person Y, you need a break from person Y.

Attention everyone! Attention! I just wanted to make sure that you all know that I don't care what you think of me. As you were.

You may be more likely to be promoted if you display a backbone. Real straight shooter with upper management written all over him.

Problem with this is the feature that is used by some external actor once every 18 months. You'll pull the plug, and when 6 months go by, you'll think you're safe. Then when shit blows up, you'll have no context and spend 3 days tracking it back to the "pulled plug"

Anyone remember "Drawing with Friends"? It was all the rage for about 15 minutes.

Productive according to what measurement? The problem is that the tech industry is still failing to measure productivity, even when people are onsite. So the lazy fall back is "butts in seats". If I can see you sitting in you're chair, I think you're productive. If I can't, then you are not. So, while you say you were productive while working remotely, there was some manager who thought you were doing nothing at all.

Most all of us work for companies that would like to make us obsolete. Payroll is a necessary evil in the enterprise, as far as "the business" is concerned.

"Interesting" is in the eye of the beholder. If you don't think it's interesting, then it's not. Don't ask the internet to help you form an opinion.

I used to enjoy the thrill of the refactor, especially on applications where there weren't a lot of users or the product didn't generate much revenue. Or better yet, refactoring before the product has even been released. When the stakes are low, you can be much more fearless, and it is fun to rearchitect and introduce new patterns, etc.

But when the stakes are higher, the risk/reward ratio just isn't there. You can refactor the code to make it more sensible or pleasing to your eye. Two problems with this: 1) Someone else may disagree and refactor it again. 2) When it blows up or has unintended consequences, and you are now on the hot seat, you find yourself working on Saturday asking yourself if it was worth it at all. Thus the fear sets in.

Agreed. It's another instance of making a tech to finance analogy that just doesn't hold up. It's really nice when you can just put a number on something. And it really sucks when you can't, but that doesn't prevent people from trying.

Why does the sales guy get to go play golf after closing a big deal? And yet the developer still has to show up and sit in his seat after he performs some equivalent wizardry? Because the sales guy's effort has a number attached to it, that's why.

Didn't click link. Just came to comments. I would have guessed Japan.

Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell.

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edward_Abbey

I was thinking more in terms of this

http://www.daedtech.com/the-gravitational-force-of-wage-labo...

Yeah, as I read many comments in this thread I'm left thinking that either these people are very naive or I'm severely jaded (or both). But the notion of work hard and you'll be rewarded is kind of silly when you're working as an engineer at MegaCorp.

I think if you're in a small company things could be different.

Willingness to do grunt work is a fast track to becoming a manager who says "I haven't coded in years".

No good deed goes unpunished. When you step up to be a team player and do that grunt work, you open yourself up to getting more and more of it. Next thing you know you have to stand up for yourself or become a door mat.

I think the difference between line of business software and companies that are actual software companies is so huge that it starts to make no sense to compare them.

I've worked on technology that goes out the door and contributes to the company's revenue stream, and I'd have been insulted if someone said I was in "IT". The cultural differences between that and truly working in the IT cost center is massive.

Most people who spend the careers working for banks and insurance companies never see the other side of the chasm.

This is something I'm coming to grips with. Massive inefficiency is not just the domain of government agencies. There are plenty of firms in the private sector that have teams sitting idle, and the kicker is they are hiring!

It is not uncommon for a software developer to be asked to keep a seat warm in an open office seating environment. It feels very unnatural to be expected to sit in front of a computer for 8 hours and be given nothing to do. Some people convince themselves that they are riding the gravy train, others go crazy and leave to find actual work.

"Why do we hire hourly wage labor as if though its was permanent?"

Could you give an example of this? Are you talking about using contractors to get through a project, and then keeping them on indefinitely after the project is over?

Ha! The team that "loses" gets to go try something new, and the team that "wins" gets to take their new product into maintenance/bug fix/enhancement mode?

Looks like the joke is on the winning team.

Has anyone had much success with negotiating the health care benefits out of the equation? For example, if your spouse carries the benefits, then you don't need them. I'm guessing most employers don't have the luxury of substituting $20k in salary in lieu of healthcare.

This is a fairly common scenario across the industry. But I'd venture a guess that usually the guy/gal who had a large role in writing the original system is long gone.

In other words, while the rewrite is common, having the original author around is uncommon.

Interesting co-workers is a big one. Very hard to vet before accepting a job, however. You won't know how uninteresting they are until after you start.

Same holds true for functional programming & languages. If you believed that HN forums were a reflection of reality, you'd be shocked when you looked for Haskell jobs.

Seems to me that most technical people in this business have no career strategy. They settle into a job and inertia takes hold, and a body at rest tends to stay at rest until a force is applied to move it. So they will sit their butt in a seat and be underutilized, and perform mind numbing work, with a nagging voice in their head telling them that their tech muscles are experiencing atrophy, but yet still they stay put until the bitter end.

I am looking at buying a telescope that I can mount to my son's playhouse, and leave it outside year around. We live in the midwest, so there is weather.

I was thinking of something like the coin operated ones that you see at tourist spots. They are pretty expensive. Anyone have any info or done something like this before?