After hearing these words, can programmers bear it? This is a sincere rant from a CTO who used to be a programmer:
Ken Mazaika (Boston, USA, Graduate of Northeastern University , CTO, Co-founder):
Those non-programmers say things that always break us down:
(15th is probably the worst)
1. "Are we on track?"
I don't know how to answer this question exactly. Maybe we're "on schedule" right now, but what if something happens? We can deviate from the right track at any time. I don't want to promise something that I'm not entirely sure about.
2. "Sorry, we promised the client this deadline."
All programmers hate DDL. The issues we're dealing with can be very complex, so committing to an arbitrary date is usually not helpful.
3. "You can cut corners if necessary."
Thank you for allowing me to cut corners. But as you know, if you hadn't informed me of such an unrealistic deadline, I wouldn't be in this situation now.
4. "There is a bug in the code."
There are bugs because you made me cut corners.
5. "I know I shouldn't do this, but can you help me with this asap?"
People who are not product managers sometimes try to do something in the system. I'm a nice guy and love to help, but it just adds to my workload and gets in the way of others.
6. "Sorry to interrupt, I have a quick question."
It takes programmers 30 minutes to get into the state, so taking a 1-minute break to help someone get what they need would actually take me half an hour off.
7. *Tap my shoulder*
If you sneak behind a programmer and pat them on the shoulder, sometimes, that scares us to death.
8. "Not sure I fully understand the question, but how do we do this..."
You can't come up with credible solutions to problems you don't understand. Programmers are problem solvers, so I would appreciate if you could take a moment to dig into a problem before offering a potential solution.
9. "My heart tells me that we should..."
A programmer's job is to make rational, fact-based decisions. So when emotions are part of the decision-making process, you upset me!
10. "This should be easy."
Solving problems with code is never as easy as it seems.
11. "I need a status update"
If a client's website goes down, it's my job to get it back, and I'm obviously in a high-stress situation, doing my best to fix the problem. I understand clients need constant updates, but if a PM interrupts my status, they just prevent the issue from being resolved.
12. "Please A/B test the size of this button."
Is it really worth spending a day testing an 80px button versus an 85px button?
13. "But it's just a checkbox!"
At one point, this PM asked us to add a checkbox to the final stage of the project. He designed it as a "simple add-on" which obviously doesn't respect the complexity in it.
14. "I know it's late, but we need to change X, Y and Z."
Nothing is more frustrating than changing demands.
15. "It's not what I want."
Not what you want? Then why don't you just tell me what you want? Negative feedback does not help solve the problem. As a programmer, I need specific points in order to make the necessary changes to give you what you want.
Programmers are no different from everyone else. We appreciate when people can do three things:
Respect the complexity of our work
give us enough time to finish
Give us enough space to do our best
Most non-programmers understand this, and I enjoy working with most of the non-technical people I've met in my career.
Be a sane, polite person. Usually it's that simple.
The collapse of programmers may only be known to them, and colleagues as programmers should be more considerate of them. In fact, it is not only the above, many programmers are also facing 35+ career bottlenecks and anxiety, because the computer field is developing rapidly, and technologies and tools are updated and iteratively changing with each passing day. In the face of such a constantly changing environment, programmers still need to keep learning , Improve your skills.
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