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@shovethisrant
Unfortunately it's not just this industry. The current culture of over-tolerance of short comings is propagating rampant intellectual laziness. It's quite terrifying if conceptualised.
I've explained it to some people as an inverted pyramid of knowledge/skill. Pyramids are the longest lasting/most durable structures in the world. Even if you remove some of the blocks from the bottom layers theyd still stand strong. If you flip it upside-down, it'd still be structurally intact and durable. But, if then, you remove anything from the new bottom layers, the whole thing gets irrevocably destroyed.
In tech/dev, the bottom of the inverted pyramid is working knowledge/ability of the base systems, data compression/storage/translation, hardware drivers/C, etc. The top is shit like similar what ITT was trying to pass off as a video game dev degree, UIs on top of UIs, on top of frameworks-- no actual comp sci knowledge or acumen.
++IA usage trends...
Be afraid, be very afraid. -
@shovethisrant
Basically, for every person that knowledgeable and skilled at the base level backend systems, there's at least dozens of pseudo-devs that can only produce anything functional or useful with some UI, on top of a tool built on a framework, of an application level programming language... and current newbies have no interest in things like how hardware, or basic languages like C, actually work.
At least ill be extremely valuable in the aftermath of an apocalyptic event. -
@jestdotty
Maybe one day you can teach me how to tolerate self-inflicted stupidity. I have to reeeeaaally like somebody and be able to logically write off at least ½ of their ignorance and/or stupidity as not their fault in order to tolerate them for any significant period of time. It's the primary reason i stopped doing typical computer repair jobs in my teens (both digital and hardware). -
@awesomeest I wouldn’t be so quick to thinking your better than these so called “pseudo-devs”. While I agree with how society is abstracted enough where innovation and quality in base levels isn’t as important anymore, it doesn’t mean you can think other people are less intelligent for simply trying to survive and follow where the money is.
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@shovethisrant
You're adding subtext... I tend to be extremely blunt and direct (aside from circumstances that require tactical acumen or when obviously being sarcastic, trollish, etc.... i doubt ill ever see devRant as the former).
I certainly don't correlate intellect with working (or chosen, at least most of the time) level of the 'inverted pyramid'. That said, i believe there's a remarkable amount(not all, just literally worthy remark) of intellectual laze present in this, and most, industries/disciplines/etc nowadays.
As for being "better" than anyone...
Assuming the typical moral and/or self-conceptualised way, I certainly don't qualify myself, as a whole person, better or worse than anyone. Im super autistic and the debate is still open as to if i even possess the majority of an ego (as in freud's id vs ego).
Im also not saying there isnt a valid use for pseudo-dev applications or those who make a career becoming adept at their use. -
@shovethisrant
What i was trying to convey, that clearly, unintentionally, hit a nerve, is only the dangers of a world that relies on a sparsely supported base.
Non-dev/tech example:
Back when soldiers fought with swords/etc... if technology stayed with swords and other non-factory-produced metalcraft, thered be the simple levels of those who are adept at combat, adept metalworkers/blacksmiths and those who can locate, identify, mine and remove large impurities to return with decent metal.
All of those levels have merit in the work being done... but if someone kills all the blacksmiths, soon the soldiers would be severely weaker in combat and ability to defend. Likewise if suddenly the people who were adept at finding and surveying veins of metals could no longer function/died off/whatever... itd start to cause a major issue for all the higher levels of metal use.
The surveyor isnt "better" than the soldier... just needed more on a base level for the soldier to function well. -
@awesomeest I am someone who compares all perceived progress to levels of abstraction as a metaphor, so bear with me. I agree that refining the very base level of abstraction leads to better results. In comparison, “jumping in” to higher levels of abstraction can lead to shittier quality of production, cumulative stress, and a bunch of other things. And I agree, that our culture now is to just fail fast and buy the cheapest shit as possible. And I agree that it is very very concerning for our future.
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@awesomeest
The BIGGEST problem I have though is when people blame “laziness” and “lack of quality” on ORDINARY people creating the product. People, which have NO SAY in operational planning or strategies, getting blamed for this monumental problem. The same people that are struggling to survive right now and will never buy a home. That strikes the biggest nerve for me, when in fact it is the SYSTEM that is making these decisions, and people with LOTS OF MONEY controlling the flow of execution.
How can you blame an entire generation? Can’t we look further into what is causing this instead of trying to construct this half-baked sentiment on how the working class is lazy now? -
@jestdotty I’m not calling her the bad guy in any way. I don’t have to apologize to your crazy ass
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@jestdotty you go MacCarthy! Keep building up your paranoid delusions!
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@jestdotty you are a free person, as am I - we are allowed to do whatever the fuck we want to do. I don’t blame anyone, but lately I’ve been very concerned about the corporate greed thing. For the benefit of my moral compass, I’m trying to be angry about how corporations are screwing literally everything up.
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@jestdotty humor me
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@shovethisrant while i agree with the overall meaning of your message about misplaced blame...
I don't think basic\typical laziness is the culprit, but intellectual laze & complacency are. Yeah, a lot of people are circumstantially forced into a shitty system w/ no direct power to fix\change things. But much of society ends up spending time\effort complaining theyre trapped there, instead of ever looking at how to change their situation or advance (college, or even looking for another job whilst employed)
there's a similar trend in voting. I've found a large % of the loudest declarers of systemic societal issues caused by politics, laws, 'the system', etc., don't vote because 'my one vote won't change anything'... dont tend to seek out news, read official docs on bills\laws\etc. i rarely see them volunteering either.
a favourite line of a german song translates to:
It's not your fault that the world is how it is, but it is your fault if it stays that way.
very applicable imo -
@jestdotty
while i recognise, and appreciate, where youre coming from... even if @shovethisrant was being super personal\vilifying me (who posted content that hit a nerve), in this case, it's still at least as accurate\relevant\indicative to the real issues.
for the record, i think it's extremely (not totally) personal, but not actually projected at me directly.
jest, I'm sure you know some form of the adage 'history is written by the victors'. It's not just true for war and Renaissance era assassinations... especially nowadays.
Imo, the biggest issue, and very plausibly the solution to that issue-- right vs wrong dont matter anymore unless you can convince the relevant masses, not only that youre right, but that theyre crucially important.
Doesn't matter if it's a moral issue or a comet coming to destroy the world if not combatted. The only difference-- moral ones will just be engrained as right to future society, but eventually people will realise theyre dying from the comet. -
@shovethisrant i must note... im literally disapproving of your, inaccurate, figurative, use of the word "literally", literally.
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@awesomeest are these large percentages of people based on your subjective view? Or is it an actual fact?
Also, what was the percentage of intellectual laze and complacency 50 years ago compared to now? It seems like college enrollment has been increasing over the years. Wealth gap has been too. Mental illness has been too. Lots of interesting things that are trending towards a weird point.
My grandma really enjoys this point of view where she thinks all of the young generation is just dumb and doing nothing to change anything. I think this view seems to arise from personal experience and a general lack of empathy and an intellectual laze to find out what is actually happening.
My subjective view is that most people make a large effort to be a part of their community and try to change things. Can you refute my subjective view? -
@jestdotty you need therapy
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@jestdotty breaking news! I'm not even real and you have been typing random ass comments on Facebook this whole time! How does it feel dumbass!?
when your code is a mess but everything work out in the end
When you keep getting +1s on a rant you posted a month ago.
Go big or go home.
There were many issues that came about during my entire employment, but I woke up today with some, honestly, quite bizarre questions from my manager that made me open an account here. This is just the latest in many frustrations I have had.
For context, my manager is more of a "tech lead" who maintains a few projects, the number can probably be counted in one hand. So he does have the knowledge to make changes when needed.
A few weeks ago, I was asked to develop a utility tool to retrieve users from Active Directory and insert them into a MSSQL Database, pretty straight forward and there were no other requirements.
I developed it, tested it, pushed it to our repository, then deployed the latest build to the server that had Active Directory, told my manager that I had done so and left it at that.
A few weeks later,
Manager: "Can you update the tool to now support inserting to both MSSQL and MySQL?"
Me: "Sure." (Would've been nice to know that beforehand since I'm already working on something else but I understand that maybe it wasn't in the original scope)
I do that and redeploy it, even wrote documentation explaining what it did and how it worked. And as per his request, a technical documentation as well that explains more in depth how it works. The documents were uploaded as well.
A few days after I have done so,
Manager: "Can you send me the built program with the documentation directly?"
I said nothing and just did as he asked even though I know he could've just retrieved it himself considering I've uploaded and deployed them all.
This morning,
Manager: "When I click on this thing, I receive this error."
Me: "Where are you running the tool?"
Manager: "My own laptop."
Me: "Does your laptop have Active Directory?"
Manager: "Nope, but I am connected to the server with Active Directory."
Me: "Well the tool can only retrieve Active Directory information on a PC with it."
Manager: "Oh you mean it has to run on the PC with Active Directory?"
Me: "Yeah?"
Manager: "Alright. Also, what is the valid value for this configuration? You mentioned it is the Database connection string."
After that I just gave up and stopped responding. Not long after, he sent me a screenshot of the configuration file where he finally figured out what to put in.
A few minutes later,
Manager: "Got this error." And sends a screenshot that tells you what the error is.
Me: "The connection string you set is pointing to the wrong database schema."
Manager: "Oh whoops. Now it works. Anyway, what are these attribute values you retrieve from Active Directory? Also, what is the method you used to connect/query/retrieve the users? I need to document it down for the higher ups."
Me: "The values are the username, name and email? And as mentioned in the technical documentation, it's retrieving using this method."
The 2+ years I have been working with this company has been some of the most frustrating in my entire life. But thankfully, this is the final month I will be working with them.
rant