Re: not enough real programmers? (was Re: Byte Magazine: 18 Vintage issues, 1985-1986)

[Marco S Hyman <marc@snafu.org>]

hshubs@mindspring.com (Howard S Shubs) writes:

> In article <xlxu2q9x13g.fsf@gold.cis.ohio-state.edu>, Matt Curtin
> <cmcurtin@interhack.net> wrote:
> 
> >Those who in it for the hack tend to be the best and most focused
> >programmers.  This is especially true when dealing with languages that 
> >have emerged from the open source community or have strong ties to it: 
> >Perl, Python, Lisp, etc.
> 
> They also tend to be young.  Some of us have gotten to the point where
> enough stuff has been thrown at us that we know that there's more to life
> than computers, hacking, and pizza.

They are often also all to eager to focus their energies on the wrong
issues.  Now if you give me a focused programmer who gets his kicks by
seeing people actually *use* his software, great.  But if he's one of
those who's biggest concern is that he's using the latest tools, the
latest processors, the latest algorithms, regardless as to their
applicability, I don't want him.  After all, if I work for a company
that makes and ships widgets my priority must be in making sure
widgets get shipped.  No widgets... no money... and soon no company.
The guy who wants to see his software used is more likely to concentrate
on getting widgets shipped.

This was a real issue in the days I was hiring.  More than once an offer
was declined because the candidate didn't like the processor used
in our embedded system.  The fact that it was the most cost effective
solution for our "widget" wasn't important to these people.

// marc