Some days, you know how good you are at your job...

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I'm probably going to be promoted at the expense of a much more experienced (read: older) employee. I already was one of the youngest employees in my department. So I guess I'm good at this job, despite hating it.

― polyphonic (polyphonic), Friday, 20 May 2005 14:54 (8 years ago) Permalink

This afternoon was another real winner. There's been something rumbling for a while - two senior developers couldn't solve a coding problem, and came to my boss and me with it. We spent some time on it, working different angles. I thought I'd got it last week (my boss was away for the last three days of the week) but when I went back to them they gave me lots of info they hadn't given me before, to my irritation, so I decided it could wait to see if my boss's approach would crack it. (I should add that I have the greatest respect and admiration for my boss, and he's the one person in the division who I'm sure is a significantly better programmer than I am.)

Today he was stumped, after spending many more hours, and we went through it together. We were really struggling, and it was getting more and more hideously complex. We took a break mid-afternoon, and I closed my eyes and started rethinking. Within two minutes I had an approach I was convinced was the right one, and within half an hour I had the code to prove it. It's a thousand times simpler to understand and maintain, took no time at all to write, and is, for all the nasty and awkward test cases we've been given, perfect. I'm 100% positive that it will work for all cases - I think I could prove it mathematically, if there were any point in doing so. It's the kind of success I've had several times by stepping way back from how things are being done to think of what we need to achieve, and then seeing better ways. As satisfying a programming achievement as I've had in months, maybe years.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 16:32 (7 years ago) Permalink

:D nice stories like this make me want to go be a proper programmer!

― teeny (teeny), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 16:46 (7 years ago) Permalink

Also malfunctioning equipment/faulty algorithms start to work when I look at them. I'm not lying/exaggerating. It's kind of scary.

This is exactly the OPPOSITE of my actual real life mutant ability! OMG UNBREAKABLE

― TOMBOT, Tuesday, 24 May 2005 17:27 (7 years ago) Permalink

You guys are the ILX-Men.

― Ken L (Ken L), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 17:28 (7 years ago) Permalink

I've had enough of scheming and messing around with jerks
My car is parked outside, I'm afraid it doesn't work
I'm looking for a partner, someone who gets things fixed
Ask yourself this question: Do you want to be rich?

― TOMBOT, Tuesday, 24 May 2005 17:32 (7 years ago) Permalink

3 months pass...

I'm crap at my job, but nobody seems to care!

― Adam In Real Life (nordicskilla), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 18:13 (7 years ago) Permalink

I felt useful because I explained the difference between a German and Indian swastika to someone who didn't understand what they were doing in writing a report on marketing to people in India.

― nobody, Thursday, 25 August 2005 02:24 (7 years ago) Permalink

Is there a difference, or have you just fallen for that whole "good=clockwise, bad=anticlockwise" myth?

― Forest Pines (ForestPines), Thursday, 25 August 2005 06:04 (7 years ago) Permalink

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