We need fewer programmers; A rant.

4 points by tjr226 14 years ago | 5 comments

I have been trying, for the past week, to learn Ruby. I hoped to become my own technical co-founder, get into YC, and change the world. Going through some tutorials had confirmed that Ruby's no more difficult than VBA or Matlab. However, installing RoR on my PC has been a goddamned nightmare. What's wrong here? I've taught myself enough code to get work done. A quick Google search can usually get me the right answer in 5 minutes. But in this case, I've been banging my head against the wall for a week and have had no success.

Then it hit me: Writing code is easy! Any middle schooler can tell you that after writing x = 5 + 3, x = 8. The reason they don't write code is not because it's hard, but because of the disaster surrounding it. What the hell is a module, a controller, a script, a git, a gem, any and all of the essential parts of the program that are located far away from where you actually write your code? Why do they all require impossibly finicky install mechanisms?

We don't need more programmers, more high priests of file folders, git commands, and opaque installations. We need a way for the rest of us to actually work on ideas.

Piskvorrr 14 years ago |

They're tools - git, gems, all those things.

I don't presume to come into a car repair shop, expecting to be capable of using all the tools there - I mean, if you put me in front of a wheel alignment visualizer, you'd get a blank stare. What the hell is a spark coil, a brake test, a jack, a compression, and all the essential parts of a car? Why do they all require impossibly finicky install mechanisms? We don't need more car mechanics, more high priests of all that stuff. It's easy to use, it should be easy to set up, right?

I guess I could start learning the tools, bit by bit. For any other profession, expecting a DWIMsuperTool which Does What I Mean, automatically, correctly and efficiently, would be seen as extreme sci-fi. Why would you expect it in this profession?

(oh, and if you plan to run the code server-side, you can get a pre-installed environment for a reasonable price, too)

And BTW, writing code is easy. Writing good, efficient, maintainable code, which won't take your program down in flames just because the month has rolled over, now that is hard. (NP-hard, you might even say. ;))

tjr226 14 years ago | |

Hmm... I guess I was pretty whiny that day.

After taking another commenter's advice, switching to Python let me get to the first "Hello, world!" tutorial in an hour rather than never.

paparoger 14 years ago |

I am not a programmer but more of a BD person and outside thinker. I do agree a company should have both a BD/Programmer because a programmer doesn't want to sit around talking about a strategy or learn stats or projections. I don't know if that makes sense.

saiko-chriskun 14 years ago |

lol

PythonDeveloper 14 years ago |

Try Python with Django.

All the benefits of ROR, many fewer headaches.

Not knocking ROR, just saying I've been down this road and what I found was Python/Django was ultimately exactly what I was looking for.

Cheers!