A portrait of the best worst programmer (Changelog News #60)
Sep 5, 2023
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Dan North shares the story of Tim, the worst programmer who is also a talented programmer. Kevin Lin discusses the success of OpenTelemetry in providing open observability. Justin Garrison compares Terraform, GitOps, and System Initiative. Additionally, the podcast explores Apple's work culture, salary negotiation tips, and bonus content.
Building a strong team is more important than individual productivity in delivering effective software.
OpenTelemetry has become a stable standard for observability, but its complexity can be overwhelming.
Deep dives
Tim's Approach to Productivity and Teamwork
In a post by Dan North, he recounts the story of Tim, the worst programmer he's worked with, who turned out to be an exceptional collaborator. Despite scoring zero on the company's productivity metric, Tim focused on pairing with less experienced developers and guiding them to find solutions. With junior programmers, Tim asked probing questions to foster learning, while with seniors, he engaged in co-creation and sparring to produce innovative outcomes. Rather than delivering software, Tim built a team that delivered software, making the entire team more effective, aligned, and productive.
The Success of Open Telemetry and its Complexity
Kevin Lindeclair highlights the success of Open Telemetry in providing a stable standard for observability in metrics, logs, and traces. Not only has it gained popularity with contributors from various observability vendors, but it has also achieved near universal adoption. However, the author acknowledges that while it is effective, the complexity of Open Telemetry can be overwhelming due to the wide array of interests it serves. Despite its potential complications, Open Telemetry has proven to be a valuable tool for sending data from applications to observability providers like Honeycomb.
Dan North tells the tale of Tim, the worst programmer he’s worked with (who also is a heck of a programmer), Kevin Lin declares that OpenTelemetry delivers on its promise for open observability, Justin Garrison details Terraform vs GitOps vs System Initiative, Inc. writes how Apple beats burnout & Aline Lerner’s advice on how (not) to sabotage your salary negotiations before you even start.