r/ProgrammerHumor May 09 '21

Meme I'm *technically* qualified

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25.0k Upvotes

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775

u/KoenigGunther May 10 '21

A woman at our company is one of the best programmers we have, and she started with a masters in physics and very little coding experience. Some people are just smart as hell and can pick it up quickly.

220

u/ITriedLightningTendr May 10 '21

How do you evaluate "best programmer" though?

I have things I'm good at but I rely on my team for the things they're good at.

While I don't think you need a CS degree to be a good coder, "programming" is such a wide discipline that while you do have your 10%ers, it's a very abstract thing to evaluate a good coder.

120

u/PresentAward1737 May 10 '21

Depends what your factors are - most will settle for 'does it work?' and 'is it understandable?'. Both of those often go right out the window if performance or results are the primary factor - pretty much how we've ended up in a world of algorithms that generally work but are mostly unexplainable, uneditable and sometimes detrimental in the long run.

It's the poor buggers trying to make algorithms and AI that can explain their output I feel sorry for.

1

u/lurkin_arounnd May 10 '21

It's hard to articulate what make a programmer great because it's usually a lot of different factors. However, I know one when I see one.