While this list does correlate highly with the list of good developers I've worked with, it makes me a little uncomfortable to use any of these as a filter - none of these are essential. There are probably other questions you could ask that are just as quick and actually are skill-related (how do you list the disk volumes on a unix machine? what's a good library to parse HTML?) - maybe it will still have some of the same biases (e.g. I don't know how .NET people parse HTML, their answer might not convince me), and maybe it will end up selecting the very same set of people - but it's just easier to defend as being about technology rather than about fashion.
I agree with you, but I'm assuming technical questions are asked too. But given several candidates who seem to do well on that portion (which is more of an academic exercise), you have to differentiate them on metrics which you have not (or possibly would have a difficult time) capturing. Hence a set of heuristics which rely on the observation that correlations between practical developer quality (or possibly just the archetype the poster prefers) and seemingly meaningless series of choices exist, you can (hopefully, favorably) bias your decision based on the latter. Choices to speak a lot about the person, especially when it deals with something you work with for such a large fraction of your professional life (e.g., OS, go-to language, sources of information). Sure, you could be selecting mostly mainstream developers and denying potentially stellar candidates, but there is also risk in taking chances with people who fall outside the norm (or what might be the norm for "solid" developers) too. Having said that, I guess I just want to make the statement that while the premise of the post sounds appalling, I'm not entirely against it.
I'm not a huge fan of this .net hate. It smacks of fashion. Yes, .net is used heavily in the enterprise and probably 90% of the time .net projects are CRUDdy big balls of mud, but C# is actually a great language, visual studio is an amazing environment and (from what I hear) ASP.NET MVC is pretty great too. A good hacker who made the informed choice to use windows and .net would get unfairly penalised here. Just because it isn't cool doesn't mean you should throw the baby out with the bathwater.
(I speak as an OS X/emacs/go/prolog/javascript/... hacker, who was up until recently using .net/C# a lot)
This person (jackg) either does not know or realize that a great software engineer can use any platform, language, and tool to do whatever she needs to achieve. I'm also not a big fan of his own choices of "trendy" technologies. This post almost seems like trolling IMO.
I've been reading and participating in HN for a couple months now. It's become clear, like in every social group, that HN has a "popular" crowd. It might not necessarily be specific people, but that there's an aura of an HN mainstream that bubbles to the surface on and off.
This post stinks of that popularity. For someone like me who is generally a contrarian, it puts me off. I don't have anything personally against the OP. I certainly don't want to insult him, and I'm not even sure that my feelings are correct or warranted. I don't know him and have only casual familiarity with his startup, but his list read like a list of "popular" topics on HN. PG! YC! ShowHN! git! Python! Ruby! OS X!
I apologize for being off topic like that, this post just brought it out of me.
I know these are your heuristics, but find it quite puzzling that you think the average web designer using ASP or Windows is an immediate rejection. What are you saying here?
I know quite a few RoR/Java/Linux/Unix sys admins who still use Windows on the desktop (inc. me).
OS choice shouldn't be a deal breaker.
Is having a Windows Phone also a deal breaker?
As a side point, is there really that much difference between OSX/Windows now a days? I've have Macbook Pro's, Imacs and Windows things as main machines and nowadays I don't see that much difference between them (esp if you're working on web dev). From Mac -> Windows or back seems like just a new novelty tech to learn not a deal breaker any more. From your article it seems unlikely that Mac OSX or Windows is running your servers anyway.
(Same with Android vs iPhone - both are so similar now)
I love the implication that working in PSD's isn't challenging because it's easy. Maybe not interesting to programmers, but by no means is designing a product a trivial task.
Completely agree. I meant the raw PSD->HTML conversion, after all design is done. The sort of thing these outfits do: http://www.psd2html.com/. I'll update the post to make that more clear.
There are several hot-button issues that I can't help but think you drizzled over your posting to increase the likelihood of visceral reaction by the demographic this posting targets.
Either that, or I have to conclude that the Heuristics you mention are sullied by personal bias, and if so should be reviewed.
It may also be that your blog is part of the svbtle network that has triggered my personal biases.
These heuristics, if they have any validity at all, are industry specific. In AAA game development, everyone (with a few statistical outliers) is Windows based for their development environment. For that reason, it's not surprising that most of the good programmers I know personally use and prefer Windows. I'm the only one of my coworkers who uses OS X at home.
Generic software development posts on craigslist can often net you a flood of resumes -- there's quite a few unqualified people you have to filter through
Agree - but your going to miss talent anyway, right? He just reduces the pool of candidates quickly since he doesn't have time/bandwith for an exhaustive search.
[+] [-] jes5199|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] probably|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] singular|14 years ago|reply
(I speak as an OS X/emacs/go/prolog/javascript/... hacker, who was up until recently using .net/C# a lot)
[+] [-] bkhl|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tnash|14 years ago|reply
I've been reading and participating in HN for a couple months now. It's become clear, like in every social group, that HN has a "popular" crowd. It might not necessarily be specific people, but that there's an aura of an HN mainstream that bubbles to the surface on and off.
This post stinks of that popularity. For someone like me who is generally a contrarian, it puts me off. I don't have anything personally against the OP. I certainly don't want to insult him, and I'm not even sure that my feelings are correct or warranted. I don't know him and have only casual familiarity with his startup, but his list read like a list of "popular" topics on HN. PG! YC! ShowHN! git! Python! Ruby! OS X!
I apologize for being off topic like that, this post just brought it out of me.
[+] [-] SeanDav|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jack7890|14 years ago|reply
You mention web designers--out of the dozens of designers I respect, I don't know a single one who uses Windows. Do you?
[+] [-] netpenthe|14 years ago|reply
I know quite a few RoR/Java/Linux/Unix sys admins who still use Windows on the desktop (inc. me).
OS choice shouldn't be a deal breaker.
Is having a Windows Phone also a deal breaker?
As a side point, is there really that much difference between OSX/Windows now a days? I've have Macbook Pro's, Imacs and Windows things as main machines and nowadays I don't see that much difference between them (esp if you're working on web dev). From Mac -> Windows or back seems like just a new novelty tech to learn not a deal breaker any more. From your article it seems unlikely that Mac OSX or Windows is running your servers anyway.
(Same with Android vs iPhone - both are so similar now)
[+] [-] ap3|14 years ago|reply
I've seen a lot of open source programming languages that list cygwin as the windows installer option. That is a huge tell.
I would put linux & osx on their own camp and windows on another
[+] [-] nintax|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] AshFurrow|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jack7890|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mike626|14 years ago|reply
Either that, or I have to conclude that the Heuristics you mention are sullied by personal bias, and if so should be reviewed.
It may also be that your blog is part of the svbtle network that has triggered my personal biases.
[+] [-] psykotic|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jack7890|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] barryswenson|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] asianexpress|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] BudVVeezer|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ap3|14 years ago|reply
I like his 'fail early' approach
[+] [-] losethos|14 years ago|reply
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