Jimmy Miller

And because of organizational issues, as you can imagine, it did not meet user needs. And I looked at a few of them. They were all like, you know, please fix this UI element. Please do these things. But one of them will always stand out to me. And it was, very simply put, it was, remember, you're supposed to make our lives better, not worse.

And because of organizational issues, as you can imagine, it did not meet user needs. And I looked at a few of them. They were all like, you know, please fix this UI element. Please do these things. But one of them will always stand out to me. And it was, very simply put, it was, remember, you're supposed to make our lives better, not worse.

Yeah, yeah. And that's what this whole, that's what I had done. Like, the whole application I had been building with this team of 30 people was making these users' lives worse. That sucks. I mean, that's...

Yeah, yeah. And that's what this whole, that's what I had done. Like, the whole application I had been building with this team of 30 people was making these users' lives worse. That sucks. I mean, that's...

Yeah. And so like, that's what I, you know, looked at like the contrast between this first job where, yeah, things were an absolute mess. Whereas there, I mean, there was no tests, right? Like they just literally didn't exist. Yeah. of any sort, not unit tests, not integration tests, not anything. We had manual QA that sometimes did some things. I had one really good QA for a while.

Yeah. And so like, that's what I, you know, looked at like the contrast between this first job where, yeah, things were an absolute mess. Whereas there, I mean, there was no tests, right? Like they just literally didn't exist. Yeah. of any sort, not unit tests, not integration tests, not anything. We had manual QA that sometimes did some things. I had one really good QA for a while.

She was fantastic. But by all standards, it was wrong. Whereas the next job, by all standards, it was supposed to be good. It was right. Yes, everyone has different opinions, but it was Spring, and it was Angular, and we had 100% test coverage. That was the rule. Every line, every if, everything had perfect test coverage. We had an end-to-end test coverage suite.

She was fantastic. But by all standards, it was wrong. Whereas the next job, by all standards, it was supposed to be good. It was right. Yes, everyone has different opinions, but it was Spring, and it was Angular, and we had 100% test coverage. That was the rule. Every line, every if, everything had perfect test coverage. We had an end-to-end test coverage suite.

We had dedicated technical QA that did all of this. And yet it was a way worse code base. It was plagued with constant problems that it didn't meet the company needs. It didn't meet the end user needs. It couldn't scale. Everything about it was wrong, despite like on paper, we followed all the best practices. obviously a hundred percent test coverage is not actually a good metric. I know that.

We had dedicated technical QA that did all of this. And yet it was a way worse code base. It was plagued with constant problems that it didn't meet the company needs. It didn't meet the end user needs. It couldn't scale. Everything about it was wrong, despite like on paper, we followed all the best practices. obviously a hundred percent test coverage is not actually a good metric. I know that.

Well, I did get that one changed to 70 at some point, but I guess what's your broad takeaway from that circumstance? I, I think that one of the things that I've like come back to over and over again in my career looking, and I think this first job really did teach me this is like as programmers, it's very easy to give up on our responsibility and,

Well, I did get that one changed to 70 at some point, but I guess what's your broad takeaway from that circumstance? I, I think that one of the things that I've like come back to over and over again in my career looking, and I think this first job really did teach me this is like as programmers, it's very easy to give up on our responsibility and,

And say, I'm just doing what the business wants me to do. And that's what my job is. My job is to do what I'm told. It's to complete this story. Yes, I can maybe sometimes give input. But ultimately, I make it happen. But I don't decide what we do. On the how, not the what.

And say, I'm just doing what the business wants me to do. And that's what my job is. My job is to do what I'm told. It's to complete this story. Yes, I can maybe sometimes give input. But ultimately, I make it happen. But I don't decide what we do. On the how, not the what.

And I think that that's always been the problem I've seen at these companies when things went poorly, was when developers just kind of gave up on doing what was good and what was right for the system and for their end users and for the code. in order to just do what they're told. And I think that as programmers, we have to accept the fact that we're not hired to do as we're told.

And I think that that's always been the problem I've seen at these companies when things went poorly, was when developers just kind of gave up on doing what was good and what was right for the system and for their end users and for the code. in order to just do what they're told. And I think that as programmers, we have to accept the fact that we're not hired to do as we're told.

Otherwise, we just wouldn't have the salaries we do. They wouldn't pay us this much just to not want our opinion. And even if they say they don't really want our opinion, We got to do what's right. If you're a good friend with somebody, you don't always do what they ask you to do, but you always do what's right for them. And that's how I think that we have to approach these things.

Otherwise, we just wouldn't have the salaries we do. They wouldn't pay us this much just to not want our opinion. And even if they say they don't really want our opinion, We got to do what's right. If you're a good friend with somebody, you don't always do what they ask you to do, but you always do what's right for them. And that's how I think that we have to approach these things.

And every company I've been at where the software made people's lives worse and not better, programmers have kind of given up on doing what was right and just did what they were told.

And every company I've been at where the software made people's lives worse and not better, programmers have kind of given up on doing what was right and just did what they were told.