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Are Quirky Developers Brilliant Or Dangerous?
jammag writes "Most developers have worked with a dude like Josh, who's so brilliant the management fawns over him even as he takes a dump in the lobby flowerpot. Eric Spiegel tells of one such Josh, who wears T-shirts with offensive slogans, insults female co-workers and, when asked about documentation, smirks, "What documentation?' Sure, he was whipsmart and could churn out code that saved the company millions, but can we please stop enabling these people?"
Reiser?
Couldn't resist.
But only if you're married to them.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
Yeah, get him a proper litter box. That should solve the problem.
The office females already notice you.
Right before they say things like "Oh dear God that THING.. that mouthbreather is looking at me again. I wish he'd just go away. Ewww gross, look how sweaty his palms are. Think he's ever heard of a shower?"
Sock Puppets: damn_registrars=pudge_confirmer=jimmy_slimmy=raiigunner=cml4524=a_klavan=red4men=ronpaulisanidiot
He may be an ass, but I agree with the parent that if you cure cancer I don't care if walk around shirtless and speak in Klingon.
"I only speak the truth"
Karma: null(Mostly affected by an unassigned variable)
It only took you 90 words to say what he did in 11.
Obviously he had the time to clearly document his thoughts, while the other guy needed to make his post and make his post NOW!
If I have been able to see further than others, it is because I bought a pair of binoculars.
I put on my robe and wizard hat.
Haida Manga
Thanks Bob, Bob. I'll get right on those TPS reports now.
I take showers.
NOT
I used to comment my code's 'intent' and document what I was trying to make it accomplish. (Instead of, and I kid you not, writing shit like "C = C + 1; /* add one to C */" [What was C counting, you fucking butt munch? There's terse and then there's stupid.] )
Then and only then, after documenting the intent, would I feel free to write the code.
I ended up giving courses to the other programmers because I was doing things in CICS Command Level COBOL that they had never heard of (like dynamic memory allocation to take a data structure and stand it on its ear.)
There were two ways to approach the problem.
I choose NOT to be a cock-biting ass-hole about it.
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
"They would prefer that a project *definately* take 16 weeks instead of taking 2 to 9 weeks."
I've obviously been working for the wrong companies for the last 25 years. They would prefer that a project definitely takes 1 week.
I've also encountered the corollary -- I find some absurdly written ridiculous piece of code and wonder what moron wrote it only to find my own initials in the comments.
i.o.w.: josh isn't payed to go hold your hand, share funny stories or go to the mall with you and your kids, he's payed to get the job done, whatever it takes.
If that makes life hell for his co-workers, the company should make a decision: what are we: an organization which purpose is to keep some group of people off the streets or a business? If it's the former, Josh has to go, as he'll force the rest of his coworkers to go back to the streets, however if it's the latter, the rest should either shutup or do their work as well, as they too aren't payed to babble for hours at the watercooler.
Never underestimate the relief of true separation of Religion and State.
Drop down menus should come with an ok button
Slashdot doesn't allow pictures, but this is what I imagine is one of the drop-down menus on Reiser's last computer:
Action->
*Open sandbox for ReiserFS improvements
*Edit documentation
*Kill wife
He meant to edit the docs but his finger slipped.
An OK button would've really helped a lot here.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
Embedded programming is an entirely different beast, I'm sure. The way you talk about it, I think all programmers should be forced to write and maintain embedded code for a year or two before they're allowed to work on anything else.
[insert witty quote here]
After reading this I thought "humbug." What ever happened to "Diversity" and accepting people for who they are. Most brilliant programmers I've come across in my career weren't very sociable. Some could be jerks but at times aren't we all? I worked with a guy like that who was involved in some of the early days of computing, eclectic yes, arrogant, sometimes...
Or is it that we only pay lip service to "Diversity" just to be inclusive of race or sexual preference so companies can push us to the lowest common denominator? Ahh yes, strive for mediocrity, that's what the MBAs want. Don't stir the pot, sit down and shut up.
Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
Reading these comments make me realize the sad state of the tech industry.
Look, who gives a damn if the guy is a "people person" or not. When they come to you and say that they're not paid to document or be a people person, that's correct. They did not go to school, spend their lives learning how to "be a social butterfly", they went to school for coding.
Their job description, in this case, says "programmer" not "social worker".
I'm sure if you took the time to ask "Josh" about what he's doing he would be more than willing to tell you, but only if you're not sitting there trying to derail the conversation to bullshit about fantasy football the whole time.
I should know..I'm this type of person. I'm not the crazy genius that many people here have been discussing, but I'm "that guy". I've always pretty much been "that guy".
That doesn't mean I'm "that guy" for every computer-related incident, but I certainly know my shit and far more than most of my peers.
That's because while you're pair programming, you spend 80% of your time programming and 20% of your time talking about it. When you're solo programming, you spend 80% of your time reading slashdot and 20% of your time programming.
Rampant carbon sequestration destroyed the Dinosaurs' tropical paradise. I'm here to help repair the damage.