I'm in a parallel dimension

One of my co-workers said that the old boss often called the old developer a genius. I was at a loss. Maybe he was. Maybe I'm the stupid one. I mean...I like things to be super simple when I'm coding them. I code as elegantly as possible and probably use too much commenting for my code. All of my stuff works really well, and if there's a bug it usually takes only a few minutes to fix.

Sigh...I've been staring at inline SQL all day long wondering why the hell a row was showing up only some of the time. Nothing was documented, our DBA has no idea what's up so it's up to me. Thank god for the debugging mode.

The thing that gets me is that everyone thought he was a genius, and he certainly thinks he is...and he's not. I'd say the code looks like my code when I first started programming in .NET. How strange. My coworker then said something about how every coder does things differently. Is it odd that I find the opposite when looking at a lot of code out there (particularly Open Source). Sometimes I have to check myself because it looks like code that I wrote. I can essentially pick up on their code and just run with it. Is that just me?

Of course, I could be wrong. Maybe I am a newb and just don't know it?

Wednesday, October 11, 2006 2:15 PM

Your Comments.

# re: I'm in a parallel dimension

Willie, I'm not that kind of programmer by any stretch, but I finance a software company and play ball with guys that are doing the bigtime military stuff and hear the same song from them all the time. Some bozo with a good line of bs has the management thinking he's a guru when he's barely competent and they end up ripping his crap apart at great time and expense and bringing it up to speed.

I'd bet you're not a newb and have been a victim of the same syndrome..lol.

Q

Left by Qjakal at 10/13/2006 4:25 AM

# re: I'm in a parallel dimension

Well, the crappy part is this guy gets paid the same. I'd put my code from 2 years ago up against his anytime. The thing is, he did get things done, which over time I will show that I can do too. I just think well...the better programmers out there should be paid more.

I mean...I knew then how to use object, I commented my code profusely (because I knew the project was going to another company at a later time) and I had support documentation (technical and end-user based) that was up-to-date, AND functional, and higher level business requirements that showed the path of the project. We had gannt charts even for the managers. It took one day to train the other employee on my code, and I never ever heard from them again, except to get a password for their server.

Left by Willie Tilton at 10/13/2006 6:49 AM

# re: I'm in a parallel dimension

Sounds like you have the programming/coding stuff down pat...now you need to hone the "sucking up to management" skills...ewww...lol.

It all seems to come out in the wash eventually, but it takes years at times for the community to know who's full of hooey and who can get the lines done consistently. My doubles partner is apparently a savant of some sort in that he can produce double the requested code lines at a consistent rate for over 20 years now...makes him indispensable but not necessarily the best paid player in the game...go figure. His interaction with upper level mgt is a sticking point because he's a bit too honest,imo, when it comes to assessing the estimate times and production levels. Makes him unpopular when budgeting but wildly popular when someone needs their hash saved from a project deadline that was grossly miscalculated.

If you're looking for fair in this business I'd suggest finding it with the word "State" written in front is your best bet...lol.

Keep doing it correctly...someone will notice, I promise! [(just not soon...:-)]

Q

Left by Qjakal at 10/14/2006 6:01 AM

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# re: I'm in a parallel dimension
Willie, I'm not that kind of programmer by any stretch, but I finance a software company and play ball with guys that are doing the bigtime military stuff and hear the same song from them all the time. Some bozo with a good line of bs has the management thinking he's a guru when he's barely competent and they end up ripping his crap apart at great time and expense and bringing it up to speed.

I'd bet you're not a newb and have been a victim of the same syndrome..lol.

Q

Left by Qjakal at 10/13/2006 4:25 AM
# re: I'm in a parallel dimension
Well, the crappy part is this guy gets paid the same. I'd put my code from 2 years ago up against his anytime. The thing is, he did get things done, which over time I will show that I can do too. I just think well...the better programmers out there should be paid more.

I mean...I knew then how to use object, I commented my code profusely (because I knew the project was going to another company at a later time) and I had support documentation (technical and end-user based) that was up-to-date, AND functional, and higher level business requirements that showed the path of the project. We had gannt charts even for the managers. It took one day to train the other employee on my code, and I never ever heard from them again, except to get a password for their server.

Left by Willie Tilton at 10/13/2006 6:49 AM
# re: I'm in a parallel dimension
Sounds like you have the programming/coding stuff down pat...now you need to hone the "sucking up to management" skills...ewww...lol.

It all seems to come out in the wash eventually, but it takes years at times for the community to know who's full of hooey and who can get the lines done consistently. My doubles partner is apparently a savant of some sort in that he can produce double the requested code lines at a consistent rate for over 20 years now...makes him indispensable but not necessarily the best paid player in the game...go figure. His interaction with upper level mgt is a sticking point because he's a bit too honest,imo, when it comes to assessing the estimate times and production levels. Makes him unpopular when budgeting but wildly popular when someone needs their hash saved from a project deadline that was grossly miscalculated.

If you're looking for fair in this business I'd suggest finding it with the word "State" written in front is your best bet...lol.

Keep doing it correctly...someone will notice, I promise! [(just not soon...:-)]

Q

Left by Qjakal at 10/14/2006 6:01 AM

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I'm in a parallel dimension

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