Gracie Gregory (she/her)This is a weekly roundup of awesome DEV comments that you may have missed. You are welcome and encouraged to boost posts and comments yourself using the #bestofdev tag.
@yechielk shared his experience working on a team of five devs at a non-software company in the Biggest Differences Between Working for a "Tech Company" and a "Non-Tech Company" thread:
@stephanie revealed that there's a difference between software and hardware expertise in the Misconceptions About Web Development thread:
According to everyone: I can fix printers.
Some simple but powerful advice from @merri in the Give one Short Piece of Advice or Wisdom to Beginning Programmers discussion:
You write code for other humans.
@s_aitchison made a pure CSS washing machine, which she shared in the What are some of the coolest things you've made using just HTML or CSS? conversation:
As part of the "100 Days Project Scotland" I've been doing a hundred day challenge to create some new art from only HTML and CSS each day. I'm over a third of the way through and I've learned so much and made some fun things!
The 100 Days Project is about celebrating art and creativity, and I really want to show that developers create art too!
The whole collection is here: Suzanne makes 100 things in CSS
My favourite one so far is actually my washing machine - is that weird 😂
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@coly010 brings up some great points about the various risks associated with being pressured to do work-related coding outside of designated working hours in Do I need to code in my free time to be a good developer?
I think that's different. That's an indicator of a toxic work environment.
If you're staying up to 10/11pm working on a side project that isn't work related, no problem, do that.
But if you're staying up to that time doing work for the company outside office hours, that's a problem. For one, you have an issue with burnout. Two you have , like you said, the problem where decisions are being made behind closed doors, because they're happening at a time when noone else is around to weigh in.
That alone can lead to bad practices slipping into the codebase and work environment.
See you next week for more great comments ✌
My first job was part of a team of 5 devs at a non-software company.
The biggest difference in my view was that software companies view their dvs as their biggest assets where non-software companies view them as an expense.
Because we were an expense, the company was always trying to cut corners. We never got time to pay down our mounting technical debt, most of which was added by engineers that the company outsourced to in SE Asia (another cost-cutting measure).
I was even told by my manager that the reason they hired me and another bootcamp grad was because two juniors were much cheaper than the senior developer they so desperately needed...
It's no wonder I "noped" out of there as soon as I had enough experience to get a job at an actual software company.