And so but anyway, did I ever tell you about my most humiliating experience as a skilled and successful computer programmer?
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And, for the record, I have been a successful professional programmer, an independent, for 45 years. I've failed more times than most people have even tried.
Some days you get the bear.
Some days the bear gets you.
Find joy in it. Without joy, why are we even doing this shit?
@GeePawHill thanks for the write up. Really cool.
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@GeePawHill Thank you for this great story. As so often, we programmers don't get access to clients soon enough to catch these kinds of unclear/misleading requirements.
I don't think I can count the times where at product delivery the client has crucial insights that nobody told me about.
...and I never even got a helicopter flight out of those situations.
@tsturm @GeePawHill ^this...
The times I've requested "real data" to be told that "its simple" or "covered in the spec" and guess what. Huge bits were complex or/and not in the spec. Usually followed by a massive rewrite, or once, abandoning the project entirely.
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And so but anyway, did I ever tell you about my most humiliating experience as a skilled and successful computer programmer?
@GeePawHill what a great story! I'll be using it to teach juniors about fun... And talking to your users before even planning anything
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And, for the record, I have been a successful professional programmer, an independent, for 45 years. I've failed more times than most people have even tried.
Some days you get the bear.
Some days the bear gets you.
Find joy in it. Without joy, why are we even doing this shit?
@GeePawHill wonderful story, well told. there are special skills, and wrangling multiple serial datastreams is among them. these days I'd lazily convert separately, drop into database and hide all the complexity in totally separate software that can only read the db. How times have changed...
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And so but anyway, did I ever tell you about my most humiliating experience as a skilled and successful computer programmer?
@GeePawHill Beautiful story, thanks for sharing
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@GeePawHill
Fantastic story. Would you mind if I screenshot it and share it on Tumblr - I would link back to your posts as a source.@Rhube Go for it.
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@GeePawHill One of my uncles was medical offer on a submarine. Two weeks out of port, all the various *ahem* medical illnesses have resolved themselves one way or another. And so now his job is... entertainment! That really was his job for most of the time - keeping folks from going stir-crazy.
@TomF Yep. "Comedy Officer" isn't a thing, except, on most ships that stay at sea for a while, there always *is* one!
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@Rhube Go for it.
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And so but anyway, did I ever tell you about my most humiliating experience as a skilled and successful computer programmer?
@GeePawHill Delightful thread -- and you lived to laugh about it! Also happy at the mention of Canadian icebreakers. My grandpa was a merchant sea captain and was responsible for delivering a much-needed icebreaker abroad during the war (to Russia, maybe?). Got a medal for it and they used his silhouette in a poster. Bc when you need an icebreaker, even when lots else is going on, you NEED an ICEBREAKER.
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And, for the record, I have been a successful professional programmer, an independent, for 45 years. I've failed more times than most people have even tried.
Some days you get the bear.
Some days the bear gets you.
Find joy in it. Without joy, why are we even doing this shit?
@GeePawHill
That was a great story.Thank you!
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And, for the record, I have been a successful professional programmer, an independent, for 45 years. I've failed more times than most people have even tried.
Some days you get the bear.
Some days the bear gets you.
Find joy in it. Without joy, why are we even doing this shit?
@GeePawHill your writing is so engaging, I had a lot of fun reading it. Thank you for sharing! Anywhere else you put up your writings?
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@GeePawHill your writing is so engaging, I had a lot of fun reading it. Thank you for sharing! Anywhere else you put up your writings?
@adityakhanna Sure, check geepawhill.org , tho I must say I don't usually just tell funny stories about my career.
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Canada has serious ports that are, well, kinda up-north-ish. In order to get ships in to those ports, which include some significant manufacturing and other supplies, one must use a kind of ship called an icebreaker.
Icebreakers are, basically, a big-assed razorblade at the prow, and big-assed engines at the stern.
Being an icebreaker captain is one of the most stressful jobs you can imagine.
@GeePawHill actually, icebreakers use thier mass to break ice. the engines push the dull prow on top of ice and ice gives in. there is also one icebreaker that goes sideways https://akerarctic.fi/arctic-passion/the-world-s-first-oblique-icebreaker/
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So, for my juniors, when I tell you "typing is not the bottleneck", I know what I'm fucking talking about.
It took me a couple of weeks to re-create 4 months worth of work. If I had to bet, I'd bet my second edition was *better* than the edition I lost.
So we come down to the day, and I am ready.
@GeePawHill The second edition usually is but they never want to wait (=pay) for the improvement once 'good enough' ships ; (
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And so but anyway, did I ever tell you about my most humiliating experience as a skilled and successful computer programmer?
@GeePawHill thank you for sharing this story with us
