Qualities that I believe make the most difference in programmers’ productivity

Re:Qualities that I believe make the most difference in prog... by simonw on Tuesday February 28, 2017 @07:37AM (#13753292)

Maybe this is the distinction that throws off these "10x programmer" threads: the idea that a 10x programmer produces ten times the amount of code in a given time. The best programmers I have worked with frequently replace thousands of lines of code with hundreds. Programmer productivity is about value delivered, not lines of code.

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Re:Qualities that I believe make the most difference in prog... by LordKano on Tuesday February 28, 2017 @09:04AM (#13753797)

The best programmer I have ever worked with used to be my boss. When I learned Perl, he had me write a very simple program to monitor some network printers. When I was finished, I showed him what I came up with and it worked pretty well.

I guess it was to show me that I was thinking too much like a C programmer, he rewrote my program in about 10 lines of Perl.

He was always willing to listen when I had design ideas that differed from his own. When my ideas were better, he'd incorporate them into our plans.

We had a four man team that was probably the most productive one of which I have ever been a member.

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Re:Qualities that I believe make the most difference in prog... by rak00n on Thursday March 02, 2017 @02:49AM (#13772381)

> He was always willing to listen when I had design ideas that differed from his own. When my ideas were better, he'd incorporate them into our plans.

This is what makes someone a good Tech Lead and/or manager.

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Re:Qualities that I believe make the most difference in prog... by Ensorceled on Tuesday February 28, 2017 @07:42AM (#13753319)

Exactly. Years ago, one company I was at proposed we start a bonus plan based on lines of code. I wrote a script that inspected the RCS commits (it was years ago) and generated a report that showed that most of our best developers were net negative lines of code.

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Re:Qualities that I believe make the most difference in prog... by icebraining on Tuesday February 28, 2017 @08:15AM (#13753473)

http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?story=Negative_2000_Lin...

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Re:Qualities that I believe make the most difference in prog... by dsacco on Tuesday February 28, 2017 @07:57AM (#13753385)

And how did you define and measure the "best developers"?

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Re:Qualities that I believe make the most difference in prog... by watwut on Tuesday February 28, 2017 @08:16AM (#13753475)

1.) When I am stuck on hard problem, he is a good bet for help.

2.) History: was assigned tasks or project multiple people failed previously and was first to succeed.

3.) Tasks and projects assigned to him/her move with reasonable speed, does not need handholding. When other people take over, they don't complain all that much and are able to continue without encountering major wtgs.

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Re:Qualities that I believe make the most difference in prog... by Ensorceled on Tuesday February 28, 2017 @08:33AM (#13753573)

People getting important shit done.

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