Better Devs : Book smart or Street Smart

[Hamster]

I dunno who those guys are or what their story is, but as a "regular" dev not doing quants or compiler development I can tell you the academics tend to do more damage. This goes for our in-house guys and the consultants like ThoughtWorks and Driven Development. All blog, no experience.

And for the love of god don't mention Martin Friggen Fowler...

 

[[)roi(]]

I dunno who those guys are or what their story is, but as a "regular" dev not doing quants or compiler development I can tell you the academics tend to do more damage. This goes for our in-house guys and the consultants like ThoughtWorks and Driven Development. All blog, no experience.

And for the love of god don't mention Martin Friggen Fowler...

I did provide links, but let me summarise:

• Bjarne Stroustrup -- University; MSC / PHD : Created C++, and is Managing Director at Morgan Stanley (Big financial company)
• John Carmack -- No formal education : Co-founded id Software ( Commander Keen, Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Quake, Rage, ...), Owner of Armadillo Aerospace (won 2 NASA X challenges), CTO at Oculus VR (bought by Facebook)

Nothing's ever cast in stone... Ps. would never foul the air with Fowler; but that doesn't mean I don't think theory (or "book smart") is not valuable.

 

[cguy]

I started coding at age 13. No studies.

... the latter part being why you're less likely to have worked with me. I started coding at 7 . I think early coding is a good sign, and that early coding, then studying, then professional experience is ideal, but at that age, it is also more serendipity than strategy.

 

[Beachless]

I posted something similar a while ago: http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthr...olution-of-a-Software-Engineer?highlight=code

There are some good ones in that thread :crylaugh:

 

[cguy]

Book smart only gets you so far unless you're in a very specialised field. Best is to have both (read "some book smarts at the very least") but if you could have only one experience in the "trenches" wins every time.

One could also say that you're only likely to get into a very specialized field with book smarts. Since ultimately, every book smart type lands up in the the real world eventually (well, unless they get swallowed by academia), I think it is the path that offers a wider choice of trench.

 

[krycor]

What is a specialist in the software industry? or specialized field

 

[cguy]

What is a specialist in the software industry? or specialized field

Someone who specializes in certain advanced topics, such as:
- Compilers
- System software
- 3D graphics
- Quantitative development
- Machine learning
- HCI
- HPC
- Computational Chemistry
- Computational Physics
- EM/Audio/Light propagation
- Computer vision
- Robotic control
- Computational geometry
- Cryptography
- Network developer (exotic hardware and APIs)
- Image processing
- Database developer (as in, implements database software)
- etc. (list is off the top of my head, and far from exhaustive)

It's worth noting that people can still specialize in things like:
- Bank transaction software
- Aviation control software
- Point of sale software
- Whatever it is that their company does
- etc.

which don't require "academic" types of specialization, but is still specialization none the less. Having a good academic background opens up the areas in the top list, whereas years of experience opens up the the areas in the bottom list. Also, the application of the items in the top list to a particular problem is typically a specialization in and of itself.

 

[crackersa]

Lol...Street smart? Associated with coding? Yo! Better watch out for those java gangstas....

 

[DA-LION-619]

Lol...Street smart? Associated with coding? Yo! Better watch out for those java gangstas....

Project managers better watch out before they get filled with lead

 

[crackersa]

Project managers better watch out before they get filled with lead

Touche

 

[cguy]

Touche

This is ****ing terrible, and not in a good way, but anyway:
[video=youtube;sOY1pVu-By0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOY1pVu-By0[/video]

 

[[)roi(]]

Jeez, where the hell did you scratch that up

 

[Hamster]

Lol...Street smart? Associated with coding? Yo! Better watch out for those java gangstas....

You can spot the type: he has that look in his eye, wearing a hoodie in the middle of summer, keyboard turned sideways, chewing on a toothpick...

 

[Hamster]

This is ****ing terrible, and not in a good way, but anyway:
[video=youtube;sOY1pVu-By0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOY1pVu-By0[/video]

This is why white people get shot

 

[cguy]

This is why white people get shot

How'd they let something like this go public???

 

[Hamster]

How'd they let something like this go public???

A moment of euphoric camaraderie when the team finished their sprint a day early and closed a difficult IE6 only bug will change lives forever!

 

[shooter69]

I worked with a book smart guy. He does not work here anymore because he only knew all of the big words but did not know how to actually use the stuff.

This guy could tell you about the latest and greatest in C# tech but could not figure out where to use string.Replace(',', '');
He had a "Software Engineering Diploma".

 

[[)roi(]]

I worked with a book smart guy. He does not work here anymore because he only knew all of the big words but did not know how to actually use the stuff.

This guy could tell you about the latest and greatest in C# tech but could not figure out where to use string.Replace(',', '');
He had a "Software Engineering Diploma".

Quite indicative of SA education & not just limited to diplomas.
This ignorance does however also translate to the flipside: so-called "street smart" programmers that are clueless about theory, some end up spending an inordinate amount of time "reinventing the wheel".

 

[Batista]

I started coding at age 13. No studies.

I started at 11 C64

 

[shooter69]

Quite indicative of SA education & not just limited to diplomas.
This ignorance does however also translate to the flipside: so-called "street smart" programmers that are clueless about theory, some end up spending an inordinate amount of time "reinventing the wheel".

This is where you need a lazy street smart dev. See if it is not already done before as you say "re-invent the wheel" and do a bunch of work.