On Fri, May 22, 2009 at 12:00 PM, Robert Hoekman Jr <[email protected]> wrote:
> Look, I didn't make this up. I experienced it myself, and have talked about > it with many other people — they've all agreed. If this wasn't the case for > you folks that are objecting, well, then great — lucky you. But that > doesn't > mean you represent a trend. Evening, Robert. Okay, I realize this contention is tangential to the main point here, but you made some pretty strong statements that I think misrepresent the nature of coding and developers. You say that I am "lucky" and that I'm not representing a trend; I'll have to beg to differ. In this respect I'm not lucky nor exceptional but pretty par for the course. To illustrate, I threw together a quick poll and circulated it to my dev connections. Here's what the results look like: 1. How much do you agree with the following? answered question*69* skipped question*0* Yeah, Totally!SortaNot ReallyNo Way!Rating AverageResponse CountThe second you start dividing your time [between coding and something else], your coding skills suffer.26.1% (18)29.0% (20)26.1% (18)18.8% (13) 2.3869If I stop coding for a few months, I might as well be learning a new language from scratch.4.3% (3)21.7% (15)36.2% (25)37.7% (26)3.0769Coding is like a second language you never really master and can forget on a dime.2.9% (2)23.2% (16)27.5% (19)46.4% (32)3.1769 You'll note I pretty much asked verbatim from what you said. I answered this poll, and interestingly, my answers are also the top answers of the other 68 folks. Right at 3/4 disagree with both the latter statements. Frankly, I was surprised it wasn't higher, but hey, some folks did agree. I guess they're out there. :) BTW, I watched today as the # of responses increased, and the percentages stayed more or less the same. So you see, I'm not starting a trend or anything; I am (was) just a normal dev in this respect. Now, to the main point, I think you can acquire the skills to be both a great dev and a great designer; however, I agree that you can also become rusty in either through disuse. But that doesn't make you not great (certainly doesn't mean you start from scratch)--you'll just need to freshen up a bit. Are most people dynamic duos? I guess not, but as Andrei says, that shouldn't keep folks from trying. -ambrose P.S. Here are the comments (I just had an open box for any further thoughts/clarifications); you may find them interesting: 1. Coding is like any other learned skill, it can be rough when you take a break and get back to it. But you quickly remember things and fall back into the groove. Taking a break from coding is a good thing, it helps you get perspetive. Fri, 5/22/09 9:40 PM 2. Coding like a natural language is a skill. If one is not doing it, the level communication drops. Just like natural languages, distractions, low blood sugar, or less than ideal physical focus can impact our mode and communication skills. :) Fri, 5/22/09 8:05 PM 3. It all depends on your skill level. Fri, 5/22/09 5:32 PM 4. The qualifier for these responses is the experience level of the person before. For someone with less experience, their ability to retain the skill would be more difficult. For someone who codes day-in-day-out for years and years, that will stick with them more easily. Fri, 5/22/09 5:08 PM 5. I do forget sooner now that I am getting older. Fri, 5/22/09 5:07 PM 6. riding a bike... Fri, 5/22/09 4:09 PM 7. Focusing on multiple things takes mind share and time from the other things, but 'the second you start' isn't true at all. In fact, the broader your knowledge, the stronger you become, as long as you're giving the proper priority to coding. Fri, 5/22/09 4:02 PM 8. the ability to organize your approach, and the knowledge of the library/framework you're using are both harder to learn and harder to forget. picky syntax may elude you when you get back to it, but the compiler will find those for you and you'll be right back to it in no time. Fri, 5/22/09 3:52 PM 9. Are you a non .NET programmer? The .Net world, in existend for a decade, has evolved to minimize this familiarization loss you mention when learning new technologies BY a couple of ways. 1. living Community that can help fast track your knowledge in areas that you were once familiar in. 2. Great support network for questions you have. 3. Built in learning and support tools into the tooling of itself. 4. Great frameworks to help you build out code in a repeatable and memorable way. 5. All tools were designed with ease of use in mind (and evolve also in that way). If you are a .NET developer/designer and you don't agree with this statement then you probably need to invest more time into learning the ecosystem more and familarizing yourself with all the social aspects of it because once you "GET" all the several points mentioned above, then you'll have no problem "forgetting to code!" Fri, 5/22/09 3:46 PM 10. This relaly depends on the technolgy. For Example it usually takes me about 1 week to get comfortable again with doring SQL if l I have not used for more than 6 months. Fri, 5/22/09 3:43 PM 11. My coding time has been greatly reduced since entering into a management position. All though I don't think I am as sharp as when I coded every day, I do jump back into it whenever I need to. It is similar to the bike riding skill. You learn it and somehow, you can jump back on and it all comes back to you. Fri, 5/22/09 3:29 PM 12. 1. I am not sure your raw ability to solve problems via code suffers, but certainly your ability to keep pace with the tools that are available for solving problems suffers. 2&3. Months might be too short of a period of time and on a dime probably not accurate, but I do think that if you stop coding for a long period of time, you may need a language refresher, just as you would if you stopped speaking a learned language for an extensive period of time. Computer languages *are* much like spoken/written languages. In fact linguistics can play a significant role in the development of a computer language, and I have found that those who are naturally adept at learning new spoken languages, often are adept at learning new computer languages. Its like riding a bike, you might be a bit wobbly at first, but your ability to ride still exists and the time to become fully competent again is *much* less than leaning it the first time. Fri, 5/22/09 2:58 PM 13. more like 4 questions. For number 1-... well, there really is no way to identify which question I want to clarify, so it's the one that starts with 'The second'. If you mean dividing my time as in 'stopping coding to take this survey', then my answer is reflective of my opinion. :-) Fri, 5/22/09 2:58 PM 14. For skilled programmers, coding is a second nature. You don't forget how to code. Fri, 5/22/09 2:40 PM 15. I think the first question is somewhat loaded. If you're dividing your time between any two activities, you'll never be as good as if you devoted all your time to one or the other. Fri, 5/22/09 2:40 PM 16. I used to program in VB. Then didn't do it for literally years. Picked it right back up with minimal effort. I divide my time between coding, design, management, authoring, speaking, raising a family, etc. The only thing suffering is my sleep schedule ;) Fri, 5/22/09 2:38 PM 17. These questions seem to be missing some context, so I had trouble with the answers. Fri, 5/22/09 2:36 PM 18. coding changes at a very fast pace. Keeping up with the additions/changes is a part time job *IF* you are coding full-time. It is a full time job if you are coding part time. Fri, 5/22/09 2:30 PM 19. Regarding the third question: Coding is like a second language that is continuously growing and changing. You can master it at a single point in time but you need to keep up with it regularly otherwise you will quickly fall out of practice. Fri, 5/22/09 2:28 PM 20. To me coding is like riding a bike! Fri, 5/22/09 2:26 PM 21. You don't forget a language after a few months if you stop coding...but you may get left behind if you don't stay current! Fri, 5/22/09 2:22 PM ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... 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