What's it all about, Alfie?

It probably shouldn't be surprising to me at all that the event that got me back to writing is arrogance of Code Monkeys. These are the young Rock Stars of the community that think that Ruby is the only language you need to know, and everything else is so much less that it's hardly worth their time. Bash, C++, Python - all "toy" languages to the Code Monkey, as the One True Language is ruby.

Of course, they are pumped up by people telling them they are amazing. They solve a few problems by throwing hardware at it, and they think they are the Oracle at Delphi of everything software, and as long as they can do just a little bit more than the next guy, their confidence and assurance grows. It's kinda sad.

I can remember experiencing several humbling experiences in grad school, and for those I am eternally grateful. I have no desire to ever be like these guys, but I can realize that I probably was back before grad school. But that was a long time before I got out into "The World". By then I knew… I was not all that. I was just a hard worker.

So this came to mind this morning I looked at a failed job in a cron email. I sent the guys responsible for the job an email saying they might want to up the memory for the JRuby JVM, as that was the cause of the failure. The Code Monkey responsible for the job said that he upped it for the run, but didn't change it in the code in the git repo because it wasn't needed.

Now in my mind this isn't possible. If the code is a one-time (a.k.a. throw-away) script, or code, then it's not in the repo as it has no value past it's one use. But if it has value past it's one use, then it's in the repo. If it has value, then it should be fixed for the memory problem. So he's either wrong in putting it in the repo, or wrong for not updating it. I know this, but I try to be nice and ask him "What's the harm in updating it?"

His response I could have guessed: "It's done, there's no reason to update it." Spoken like a true Code Monkey. They hate comments. Why? All ruby code is self-documenting. What they really mean is that everyone should get used to re-reading and re-understanding the code every time they approach it. Documentation just gets in the way of that constant process of self-re-learning. He had no belief that the script would ever be used again, but that's because he's got the time horizon of two weeks. And because he can't see it, it must not be needed. Done.

So I'm going to let it go. He's convinced he's shown me a thing or two. In reality, he's shown his inability to be a tech lead for me. That's his position in the group - Tech Lead. Not a chance in the world. I respect my boss - he's a sharp guy, and I respect his skills. But if he really thinks this guy has serious skills, then he's fooled. But hey… anyone can be fooled - look at me - fooled for 27 years.

Anyway, it's just amazing to me that these Code Monkeys are as plentiful as they are. Sure, I knew plenty of C++ coders that weren't any good. I knew plenty of Java coders that weren't any good, either. But it's the consistency of these Code Monkeys that's really throwing me for a loop.

But you know… maybe that's a good thing. After all, he got me to write something. Maybe I'm making a little progress?

I'm trying to feel like writing, but it's just not yet in me. There's a lot of sadness, and I can't really move on because things have to move at what seems like a glacial pace due to all the people and things involved. I need to force myself to write about things, but I still can't seem to force myself to do it.

I wish I could… any maybe I just need to make the effort - no matter how difficult it is. I don't know… that sounds like I'm just setting myself up for more pressure and pain. Maybe it's something to shoot for every week. That might be a good start.