This is a weekly roundup of awesome DEV comments that you may have missed. You are welcome and encouraged to boost posts and comments yourself using the #bestofdev tag.
The What's your desk setup? thread contained plenty of much-loved replies, but none more-so than @tvanantwerp's super cool setup. Monitor real estate for miles...
Here is my desk! I've got a 27" iMac with two extra 27" monitors on either side, all on a 48" wide Varidesk. Not as tidy as it could be, but I'm in heaven with all the screen real estate.
@detunized offered a humorous and insightful joke in response to What If Drivers Were Hired Like Programmers:
An oldie but a goodie. It could be found online in many places, I think the original author is unknown.
Interviewer: So, you're a carpenter, are you?
Carpenter: That's right, that's what I do.
Interviewer: How long have you been doing it?
Carpenter: Ten years.
Interviewer: Great, that's good. Now, I have a few technical questions to ask you to see if you're a fit for our team. OK?
Carpenter: Sure, that'd be fine.
Interviewer: First of all, we're working in a subdivision building a lot of brown houses. Have you built a lot of brown houses before?
Carpenter: Well, I'm a carpenter, so I build houses, and people pretty much paint them the way they want.
Interviewer: Yes, I understand that, but can you give me an idea of how much experience you have with brown? Roughly.
Carpenter: Gosh, I really don't know. Once they're built I don't care what color they get painted. Maybe six months?
Interviewer: Six months? Well, we were looking for someone with a lot more brown experience, but let me ask you some more questions.
Carpenter: Well, OK, but paint is paint, you know.
Interviewer: Yes, well. What about walnut?
Carpenter: What about it?
Interviewer: Have you worked much with walnut?
Carpenter: Sure, walnut, pine, oak, mahogony -- you name it.
Interviewer: But how many years of walnut do you have?
Carpenter: Gosh, I really don't know -- was I supposed to be counting the walnut?
Interviewer: Well, estimate for me.
Carpenter: OK, I'd say I have a year and a half of walnut.
Interviewer: Would you say you're an entry level walnut guy or a walnut guru?
Carpenter: A walnut guru? What's a walnut guru? Sure, I've used walnut.
Interviewer: But you're not a walnut guru?
Carpenter: Well, I'm a carpenter, so I've worked with all kinds of wood, you know, and there are some differences, but I think if you're a good carpenter ...
Interviewer: Yes, yes, but we're using Walnut, is that OK?
Carpenter: Walnut is fine! Whatever you want. I'm a carpenter.
Interviewer: What about black walnut?
Carpenter: What about it?
Interviewer: Well we've had some walnut carpenters in here, but come to find out they weren't black walnut carpenters. Do you have black walnut experience?
Carpenter: Sure, a little. It'd be good to have more for my resume, I suppose.
Interviewer: OK. Hang on let me check off the box...
Carpenter: Go right ahead.
Interviewer: OK, one more thing for today. We're using Rock 5.1 to bang nails with. Have you used Rock 5.1?
Carpenter: [Turning white...] Well, I know a lot of carpenters are starting to use rocks to bang nails with since Craftsman bought a quarry, but you know, to be honest I've had more luck with my nailgun. Or a hammer, for that matter. I find I hit my fingers too much with the rock, and my other hand hurts because the rock is so big.
Interviewer: But other companies are using rocks. Are you saying rocks don't work?
Carpenter: No, I'm not saying rocks don't work, exactly, it's just that I think nail guns work better.
Interviewer: Well, our architects have all started using rocks, and they like it.
Carpenter: Well, sure they do, but I bang nails all day, and -- well, look, I need the work, so I'm definitely willing to use rocks if you want. I try to keep an open mind.
Interviewer: OK, well we have a few other candidates we're looking at, so we'll let you know.
Carpenter: Well, thanks for your time. I enjoyed meeting you.
NEXT DAY:
Ring...
Interviewer: Hello?
Carpenter: Hello. Remember me, I'm the carpenter you interviewed for the black walnut job. Just wanted to touch base to see if you've made a decision.
Interviewer: Actually, we have. We liked your experience overall, but we decided to go with someone who has done a lot of work with brown.
Carpenter: Really, is that it? So I lost the job because I didn't have enough brown?
Interviewer: Well, it was partly that, but partly we got the other fellow a lot cheaper.
Carpenter: Really -- how much experience does he have?
Interviewer: Well, he's not really a carpenter, he's a car salesman -- but he's sold a lot of brown cars and he's worked with walnut interiors.
Carpenter: [click]
Taking a stroll down memory lane, people were asked to Show off your first app!. @vintharas ramps up the nostalgia with a great throw-back to this beauty of a site:
Behold! The first website I built was when I was 12ish and managed a Age of Empires/Kings clan. I can't believe it is still there after 20+ years:
(Brace yourselves)
(No. Really. Brace yourself)
tnt-lord.tripod.com/mainpage1.htm
Curiously, the next time I did any web development was 15 years later xD
In the Hold up, did you know you can build standalone, cross-platform application using C# in 2019? thread, @rhymes talks about the drawbacks of Electron:
Electron doesn't come without its drawbacks to the end user (though here we're talking more about developer experience than everything else):
- every app shipping a web browser (big size)
- a lot of RAM usage
We keep using VS Code as an example of a poster child for great usage of Electron but that's not an app for "regular" users (and has Microsoft's budget behind it).
Most desktop apps are not written by thousands of engineers and most users don't have 16 GB of RAM.
I'm not saying "bad Electron, bad" but I think that in context we should take into consideration both aspects seriously. Slack, which is famously a resource hog, it's an app that non developers might use and complain about.
I don't have hard numbers on this but I think it's likely that not caring about lowering resources occupation also drives the hardware industry (at least for people who can afford upgrading a computer because software developers give up optimizing).
In a sense it's like web programming: we create apps on shiny computers with fast networks and then comes the disadvantaged regular user that's going to curse us because they have a 700$ computer with a slow network.
I think we just do a disservice to everyone by plugging our favorite tool of the day all the time without considering their impact.
On the other side of the argument there's developer velocity and time to market, which are definitely important. I'm just saying everything should be weighed.
We'll finish up with a comment about writing itself. In Junior Developers Should Start A Technical Blog Early In Their Career, @marek talks about the rationale and positive outcomes that can come from putting pen to paper in a public setting:
While you may not have seen it in your industry, I've seen a TON of cases where people have been hired for their blog.
I cannot recommend blogging enough as a career strategy, or at least as a tool in your career toolbox.
To be more accurate, it's not really about the blog itself. It's about showing initiative, expertise, and ability to communicate. That puts you miles ahead.
The blog doesn't have to be "good", it can be just a random collection of thoughts, and that's still a valuable and powerful addition to your online presence.
See you next week for more great comments ✌
Top comments (4)
Congrats to @tvanantwerp , @detunized , @vintharas , @rhymes , and @marek for making the list this week!
Thanks! Though my comment is way too serious :D
Good stuff 🎉
haha awesome! :D