http://simonwillison.net/2013-10-19T09:48:00+00:00Simon Willison2013-10-19T09:48:00+00:002013-10-19T09:48:00+00:00https://simonwillison.net/2013/Oct/19/why-do-programmers-tend/#atom-tag

<p><em>My answer to <a href="https://www.quora.com/Why-do-programmers-tend-to-fall-in-love-with-non-mainstream-languages/answer/Simon-Willison">Why do programmers tend to fall in love with non-mainstream languages?</a> on Quora</em></p> <p>Just because something is popular doesn't mean it's right for every person, every problem or every situation. If no one ever explored non-mainstream options, better solutions would never be discovered.</p> <p>Tags: <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/programmers">programmers</a>, <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/programming">programming</a>, <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/programming-languages">programming-languages</a>, <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/quora">quora</a></p>

2013-08-08T18:44:00+00:002013-08-08T18:44:00+00:00https://simonwillison.net/2013/Aug/8/what-is-the-best/#atom-tag

<p><em>My answer to <a href="https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-best-resource-for-someone-who-is-non-technical-to-learn-about-computer-programming-creating-software/answer/Simon-Willison">What is the best resource for someone who is non-technical to learn about computer programming/creating software?</a> on Quora</em></p> <p>Learn to program. You don't need to learn programming to the standard where you could work professionally as a software engineer, but having enough programming knowledge to write some simple programs and automate some simple tasks will make you enormously more capable when it comes to working with programmers - or in business life in general.</p> <p>Think about it like learning to write: being able to draft effective emails, blog posts and press releases is a valuable skill for any businessperson, even if you don't write professionally to the standard required to produce magazine articles and novels.</p> <p>As for the best resource... <span><a href="http://www.codecademy.com/">Code Academy</a></span> is worth a look as a starting point.</p> <p>Tags: <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/enterprise">enterprise</a>, <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/entrepreneurship">entrepreneurship</a>, <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/hacking">hacking</a>, <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/programmers">programmers</a>, <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/programming">programming</a>, <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/software-engineering">software-engineering</a>, <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/startups">startups</a>, <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/quora">quora</a></p>

2013-08-05T11:13:00+00:002013-08-05T11:13:00+00:00https://simonwillison.net/2013/Aug/5/how-can-i-become/#atom-tag

<p><em>My answer to <a href="https://www.quora.com/How-can-I-become-a-world-class-coder-in-under-three-years/answer/Simon-Willison">How can I become a world-class coder in under three years?</a> on Quora</em></p> <p>Write code. Lots of code. Code that does stuff.</p> <p>Build your own blogging engine. Next, try to design and write the One True CMS (you'll fail just like thousand of others have before you, but you'll learn lots in the process).</p> <p>Build your own todo list software. Now expand it to be your own email client. Extend it to support plugins. Now invent your own scripting language for writing plugins in, and write your own interpreter for it.</p> <p>Tags: <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/programmers">programmers</a>, <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/programming">programming</a>, <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/quora">quora</a></p>

2013-07-23T12:08:00+00:002013-07-23T12:08:00+00:00https://simonwillison.net/2013/Jul/23/are-there-any-sitesservices/#atom-tag

<p><em>My answer to <a href="https://www.quora.com/Are-there-any-sites-services-that-you-can-subscribe-to-where-you-can-watch-a-developer-code-Live/answer/Simon-Willison">Are there any sites/services that you can subscribe to where you can watch a developer code &quot;Live&quot;?</a> on Quora</em></p> <p>The <span><a href="http://www.ludumdare.com/">Ludum Dare</a></span> game development contest sometimes has contestants that livestream - Notch (the creator of Minecraft) has done so in the past.</p> <p>Tags: <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/programmers">programmers</a>, <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/startups">startups</a>, <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/quora">quora</a>, <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/web-developers">web-developers</a></p>

2013-07-19T17:03:00+00:002013-07-19T17:03:00+00:00https://simonwillison.net/2013/Jul/19/how-do-you-become/#atom-tag

<p><em>My answer to <a href="https://www.quora.com/How-do-you-become-a-good-programmer?no_redirect=1">How do you become a good programmer?</a> on Quora</em></p> <p>In my experience new programmers progress a LOT faster if they're learning with a higher level dynamic language such as Python or Ruby than if they only use C++ or Java. That's not to say it isn't a good idea to learn Java/C++ (though I'd encourage you to learn C as a lower-level language) but you may find you pick up programming concepts a whole bunch faster with a language that has a good interactive prompt.</p> <p>Personally I think Python is a fantastic learning language - it's great for beginners, but it can also be used to solve real-world problems. The official Python tutorial is an excellent starting point: <span><a href="http://docs.python.org/2/tutorial/">The Python Tutorial</a></span></p> <p>Tags: <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/programmers">programmers</a>, <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/programming">programming</a>, <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/quora">quora</a>, <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/careers">careers</a></p>

2013-07-06T17:27:00+00:002013-07-06T17:27:00+00:00https://simonwillison.net/2013/Jul/6/in-which-programming-language/#atom-tag

<p><em>My answer to <a href="https://www.quora.com/In-which-programming-language-do-programmers-get-paid-the-most/answer/Simon-Willison">In which programming language do programmers get paid the most?</a> on Quora</em></p> <p>The best (and best paid) software engineers work in multiple languages, and pick new ones up as and when they need to. If you pigeon-hole yourself as an "X programmer" you'll limit yourself to relatively uninteresting, interchangeable roles.</p> <p>Tags: <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/programmers">programmers</a>, <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/programming">programming</a>, <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/programming-languages">programming-languages</a>, <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/quora">quora</a></p>

2012-12-01T16:29:00+00:002012-12-01T16:29:00+00:00https://simonwillison.net/2012/Dec/1/how-do-i-really/#atom-tag

<p><em>My answer to <a href="https://www.quora.com/How-do-I-really-learn-coding?no_redirect=1">How do I really learn coding?</a> on Quora</em></p> <p>Build real websites. Find a project and work on it. A personal blog is a great project as it can be simple to start with and get more complex over time. </p> <p>Tags: <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/programmers">programmers</a>, <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/programming">programming</a>, <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/web-development">web-development</a>, <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/quora">quora</a></p>

2012-11-14T15:17:00+00:002012-11-14T15:17:00+00:00https://simonwillison.net/2012/Nov/14/what-are-the-best/#atom-tag

<p><em>My answer to <a href="https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-best-practices-for-onboarding-new-software-engineers/answer/Simon-Willison">What are the best practices for onboarding new software engineers?</a> on Quora</em></p> <p>I'm a huge fan of "deploy on the first day" - which forces the issue in getting all of their accounts set up, their development environment ready, showing them where source control is, how code review works and so on. Even if it's just adding themselves to the about page or humans.txt file, it means they can come in on day two ready to get real work done.</p> <p>I can't say how well that would scale up to Twitter/Facebook, but for a small startup like ours it works extremely well.</p> <p>Tags: <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/code-review">code-review</a>, <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/programmers">programmers</a>, <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/software-engineering">software-engineering</a>, <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/startups">startups</a>, <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/quora">quora</a></p>

2012-11-01T09:02:00+00:002012-11-01T09:02:00+00:00https://simonwillison.net/2012/Nov/1/what-communities-and-interest/#atom-tag

<p><em>My answer to <a href="https://www.quora.com/What-communities-and-interest-groups-in-London-should-software-developers-get-involved-in/answer/Simon-Willison">What communities and interest groups in London should software developers get involved in?</a> on Quora</em></p> <p>The monthly <span><a href="http://www.meetup.com/HNLondon/">Hacker News London Meetup Group</a></span> (held near Old Street) is a great opportunity to meet up with entrepreneurial-minded hackers - the talks are usually a good combination of technical and startup/entrepreneur material, and it attracts a really interesting crowd.</p> <p>Tags: <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/london">london</a>, <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/programmers">programmers</a>, <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/software-engineering">software-engineering</a>, <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/startups">startups</a>, <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/quora">quora</a></p>

2011-12-18T09:54:00+00:002011-12-18T09:54:00+00:00https://simonwillison.net/2011/Dec/18/whats-the-difference-between/#atom-tag

<p><em>My answer to <a href="https://www.quora.com/Whats-the-difference-between-a-software-engineer-developer-and-programmer?no_redirect=1">What&#39;s the difference between a software engineer, developer and programmer?</a> on Quora</em></p> <p>Absolutely nothing. Job title differences like those only really matter when working for a large organisation that sets compensation based on title - in which case you want to figure out which title gets you the best deal at that particular company.</p> <p>Tags: <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/programmers">programmers</a>, <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/programming">programming</a>, <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/software-engineering">software-engineering</a>, <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/quora">quora</a></p>

2011-12-08T11:34:00+00:002011-12-08T11:34:00+00:00https://simonwillison.net/2011/Dec/8/what-are-good-2012/#atom-tag

<p><em>My answer to <a href="https://www.quora.com/What-are-good-2012-Technology-Conferences-in-US-for-Programmers/answer/Simon-Willison">What are good 2012 Technology Conferences in US for Programmers?</a> on Quora</em></p> <p>It would help if you were more specific about the kind of programmer you are - there's a big difference between C++ game developer conferences, Ruby on Rails events, Agile methodology conventions etc. Each developer ecosystem has its own flagship events (for Microsoft developers it's the BUILD conference, which hasn't been announced for 2012 yet - for iPhone/Mac developers it's Apple's WWDC, Oracle have Oracle OpenWorld, the Rails community has RailsConf, for Django people it's DjangoCon US and EU, etc).</p> <p>Our site Lanyrd is an attempt to catalog all of the conferences and events happening around the world. If you sign in with Twitter we'll show you events your Twitter contacts are attending or speaking at, but you can also browse the site by topic. Here are a few pages that you may find relevant, depending on the kind of programming you do:</p> <ul><li>Mobile: <span><a href="http://lanyrd.com/topics/mobile/">http://lanyrd.com/topics/mobile/</a></span></li><li>HTML5: <span><a href="http://lanyrd.com/topics/html5-1/">http://lanyrd.com/topics/html5-1/</a></span></li><li>Agile: <span><a href="http://lanyrd.com/topics/agile/">http://lanyrd.com/topics/agile/</a></span></li><li>Open Source: <span><a href="http://lanyrd.com/topics/open-source/">http://lanyrd.com/topics/open-so...</a></span></li><li>Java: <span><a href="http://lanyrd.com/topics/java/">http://lanyrd.com/topics/java/</a></span></li><li>Ruby: <span><a href="http://lanyrd.com/topics/ruby/">http://lanyrd.com/topics/ruby/</a></span></li><li>PHP: <span><a href="http://lanyrd.com/topics/php/">http://lanyrd.com/topics/php/</a></span></li><li>Python: <span><a href="http://lanyrd.com/topics/python/">http://lanyrd.com/topics/python/</a></span></li><li>Web Development: <span><a href="http://lanyrd.com/topics/web-development/">http://lanyrd.com/topics/web-dev...</a></span></li></ul><br />I hope that's useful. Let me know if there are any more specific categories of events you'd like tips on. <p>Tags: <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/conferences">conferences</a>, <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/programmers">programmers</a>, <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/programming">programming</a>, <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/technology">technology</a>, <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/quora">quora</a></p>

2007-07-17T10:24:09+00:002007-07-17T10:24:09+00:00https://simonwillison.net/2007/Jul/17/fishbowl/#atom-tag

<p><strong><a href="http://fishbowl.pastiche.org/2007/07/17/understanding_engineers_feasibility">Understanding Engineers: Feasibility</a></strong></p> Charles Miller provides smart definitions of what programmers mean when they say “impossible”, “trivial”, “unfeasible”, “non-trivial”, “hard” and “very hard”. <p>Tags: <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/charles-miller">charles-miller</a>, <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/hard">hard</a>, <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/language">language</a>, <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/nontrivial">nontrivial</a>, <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/programmers">programmers</a>, <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/programming">programming</a>, <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/trivial">trivial</a>, <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/unfeasible">unfeasible</a>, <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/veryhard">veryhard</a></p>

2007-03-08T00:27:26+00:002007-03-08T00:27:26+00:00https://simonwillison.net/2007/Mar/8/mediashift/#atom-tag

<p><strong><a href="http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2007/03/digging_deeperthe_geek_in_the_1.html">Web Focus Leads Newspapers to Hire Programmers for Editorial Staff</a></strong></p> It’s great to see this trend taking off. A newsroom is an excellent place to work as a programmer. <p>Tags: <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/adrian-holovaty">adrian-holovaty</a>, <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/jacob-kaplan-moss">jacob-kaplan-moss</a>, <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/jobs">jobs</a>, <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/newspapers">newspapers</a>, <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/programmers">programmers</a></p>