Mike Benner

Were We Born This Good?

Jul 9 by Michael Benner

I overheard something today that made me think. It was an experienced and successful developer ripping on cheap and sloppy Craigslist developers. Now, I know I have done it and many people I respect in the industry comment under their breath about projects that are "picking up garbage" created by inferior developers. But today for some reason (maybe the clarity that comes with the lack of sleep) it hit me,

that may be my project from when I was starting out.

That's right, I wasn't always this good;) I didn't user frameworks until 3-4 years ago and just really got a handle on MVC and how to create, cache and truly use CFCs. Does that mean I was an inferior developer? Sure. But does that mean I was not trying my hardest and doing my best for my client? Absolutely not. Think back to your first few projects. Are you proud of that code? How did you get where you are today? My guess, a path of progressively better projects. So while, I agree we can offer better solutions to the clients, I think belittling and making fun of these other developers does no one any good.

I would like to suggest that in the future when we run across one of these projects that uses 1000's of evals or whatever the case may be, we post that "inferior" solution and the solution we have found to be better from our experience and maybe even a sample of what you would have done in the past.

Comments (4)              | 338 Views | Tags: Design, Programming, General

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Hey Mike. I couldn't agree with you more. I've always felt this way as well and it doesn't only apply to development, it applies to anything that anyone is trying to learn. I've been working with Flash for 10 years now and I often open up any old work of mine that I can find just to see how my development has changed or those years. The other day I was actually looking at something that I did only a year ago and, even after that short amount of time, I found that if I were to develop the same project again today I would do it different and "better".
While I also might get a little frustrated to get one of those "garbage" projects, I've never really understood the seasoned developers that belittle those starting out. I mean everyone has to start somewhere and those developers probably got help from more experienced devs when they were learning, right? Also remeber that no matter how experienced we are, we probably don't know absolutely everything there is to know (especially when you consider the fact that technology evolves so quickly).

# Posted By Jason Fincanon | 7/9/08 8:26 AM

I definitely wasn't born with the experience I have now, but I will say that at times you see stuff (code, blog posts) which suggest that many developers have either forgotten the basics they learnt in CS or that they never knew them.

Although the problem there is that many firms look at the cost, rather than the value, of the staff they hire.

# Posted By JulesLt | 7/9/08 8:34 AM

We are talking about web development in here (although I am sure it applies across the board) and I know many developers that took 0 CS courses and came from a design or network admin background. So, of course, they don't know anything about design patterns, OOP, ORM, frameworks, etc. That is why I am suggesting that we take a stop laughing at them, take a deep breath and use our experience writing the code as an opportunity to teach them or others that maybe coding the same way.

I do agree that, not only firms, but customers take a greater look at a developers background and current knowledge level. I am constantly educating my customers with the differences in languages and options available (even if they exceed my ability) so the can make the right choice for their business and explain that, hopefully, by spending more (time and money) upfront you can reduce the maintenance and other expenses that can rear up later.

# Posted By Mike Benner | 7/9/08 2:56 PM

I think part of the geek ethos is that everyone who is "below" yourself (in terms of experience, knowledge or skill) is meant to be slighted, ignored, made fun of and otherwise looked down upon.

It's that mentality that helps people forget that at some point they had to learn something from nothing.

Think back to high school, you've got all of those super cool seniors joking with each other about how stupid all of those freshmen are, as if four years ago they themselves were not also stupid freshmen.

While jockish machismo is not something you usually see in developer communities, there still needs to be some way to pound one's chest and elevate one's status above other people in the community. Ripping on craigslist posting is just the low hanging fruit for this endeavor.

# Posted By Clayton | 7/11/08 1:29 PM

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