The programming talent myth [LWN.net]

The programming talent myth

Posted Apr 29, 2015 18:42 UTC (Wed) by dlang (guest, #313)
In reply to: The programming talent myth by dskoll
Parent article: The programming talent myth

you also don't need every programmer to be a 'rock star'.

A real 'rock star' programmer/designer/architect multiplies the effectiveness of the people around them. They design good stuff (the part that is the art), that can then be implemented (and tests written, and maintained, etc) by others who are not as good at the art.

a programmer who is extremely productive when writing their own code, who can't communicate with others to spread the work and knowledge is a short-term asset to the company/project, but a long-term liability because they won't be there forever.

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The programming talent myth

Posted Apr 30, 2015 1:32 UTC (Thu) by dskoll (subscriber, #1630) [Link] (3 responses)

In my book, a programmer who cannot communicate effectively with others is by definition not a "rock star" programmer.

Communicating your intent to a computer is the easy part. Communicating your software design to other people is far more demanding.

The programming talent myth

Posted Apr 30, 2015 9:29 UTC (Thu) by ms (subscriber, #41272) [Link] (2 responses)

> Communicating your intent to a computer is the easy part. Communicating your software design to other people is far more demanding.

Completely agree. I have zero patience for programmers who claim tests are a sufficient form of documentation. Lots of people seem to think this. Like a test can express overall architecture design.

The programming talent myth

Posted May 5, 2015 1:36 UTC (Tue) by speedster1 (guest, #8143) [Link]

> I have zero patience for programmers who claim tests are a sufficient form of documentation. Lots of people seem to think this. Like a test can express overall architecture design.

That sounds like a good challenge for an anti-obfuscation contest: solve X non-trivial problem and write a test that clearly expresses the overall design :)

The programming talent myth

Posted May 5, 2015 21:04 UTC (Tue) by bronson (subscriber, #4806) [Link]

How about tests that are also documentation?

http://www.relishapp.com/rspec/rspec-expectations/v/2-14/...

(personally, I'm against it just because the writing style tends to be awful... but, I've got to admit, the documentation is always up to date and always correct... that's very rare.)