• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Dion Almaer

Software, Development, Products

  • @dalmaer
  • LinkedIn
  • Medium
  • RSS
  • Show Search
Hide Search

Haters Gunna Hate; Why do we denigrate certain technologies and people who use them?

September 16, 2014 Leave a Comment

The Playa Haters as seen on Dave Chappelle’s Show

“Don’t hate the player, hate the game” — Ice T

Why do we often love to hate (especially with schadenfreude when something goes wrong)?

I see this time and time again, but often in the world of technology. Engineers make value judgements quickly based on what technology is being used.

God forbid you are building your latest Web site in PHP. Giggling at the people who wrote .NET. Rails? Scales? Visual Basic!

And then you get to the micro level. Did you use jQuery or Prototype? Backbone or Ember?

We love to make value judgements based on some tiny pieces of information. I mean, it is just so much easier to have that level of abstraction versus having to actually understand the context!

It feels great to build a class system and look down on the lower classes.

I have to admit, I have to fight impulses at times. I jump to conclusions. The thing is, why do we have to hate so much?

It isn’t that you shouldn’t care about what tools you are using. As much as I feel like we should care most about how we are affecting the lives of people via our products, that doesn’t mean that the tools don’t matter.

The tools are important as they:

#1 The right tools get the highest quality experience to the customer as fast as possible

#2 The right tools can feel right to you, which enables #1.

Ruby felt right with my brain. I enjoy other languages, but Ruby felt right in a way that Java (and other languages and platforms) never did. Since I can acknowledge that for myself, can I see the potential that others may connect with other choices that feel right to them?

I find it particularly interesting when people argue about back end technology. Truly, who cares what is spitting out the HTML for that web page.

When it gets to be closer to the experience I can see more reason to bemoan. If you recognize that hybrid tech that truly sucks…. I get it. That Swing app that is pausing all the time for GC. This is affecting you as a user in very real terms.

TDD is dead

Another good example recently was the big kerfuffle when DHH got folks up in arms over a debate on the merits of TDD.

It is fine to spark a conversation by pushing the boundaries. This can be a good firestarter, but whenever we get to absolutes and mix up “I don’t think this makes sense at all for my needs” with “no one should ever want to do this and I don’t think there is any value in this at all” I get concerned. There are some extremes where we come together as a society (You can’t murder someone randomly), but the level of arguments that we get into over petty things is just that… petty.

Music to my ears

I relate this to music. I am not a huge fan of certain genres such as rap, punk, or heavy metal. Does this mean I should:

  • Think those genres are lower?
  • Can’t appreciate that others may enjoy them (given the data that shows that they DO ENJOY THEM)?
  • Need to go out of my way to find those people and tell them they suck?

Life is too short. Be a supporter not a hater, or at the very least ignore those worlds and focus on where you can make an impact.

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Twitter

My Tweets

Recent Posts

  • I have scissors all over my house
  • GenAI: Lessons working with LLMs
  • Generative AI: It’s Time to Get Into First Gear
  • Developer Docs + GenAI = ❤️
  • We keep confusing efficacy for effectiveness

Follow

  • LinkedIn
  • Medium
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Tags

3d Touch 2016 Active Recall Adaptive Design Agile Amazon Echo Android Android Development Apple Application Apps Artificial Intelligence Autocorrect blog Bots Brain Calendar Career Advice Cloud Computing Coding Cognitive Bias Commerce Communication Companies Conference Consciousness Cooking Cricket Cross Platform Deadline Delivery Design Desktop Developer Advocacy Developer Experience Developer Platform Developer Productivity Developer Relations Developers Developer Tools Development Distributed Teams Documentation DX Ecosystem Education Energy Engineering Engineering Mangement Entrepreneurship Exercise Family Fitness Founders Future GenAI Gender Equality Google Google Developer Google IO Habits Health HR Integrations JavaScript Jobs Jquery Kids Stories Kotlin Language Leadership Learning Lottery Machine Learning Management Messaging Metrics Micro Learning Microservices Microsoft Mobile Mobile App Development Mobile Apps Mobile Web Moving On NPM Open Source Organization Organization Design Pair Programming Paren Parenting Path Performance Platform Platform Thinking Politics Product Design Product Development Productivity Product Management Product Metrics Programming Progress Progressive Enhancement Progressive Web App Project Management Psychology Push Notifications pwa QA Rails React Reactive Remix Remote Working Resilience Ruby on Rails Screentime Self Improvement Service Worker Sharing Economy Shipping Shopify Short Story Silicon Valley Slack Software Software Development Spaced Repetition Speaking Startup Steve Jobs Study Teaching Team Building Tech Tech Ecosystems Technical Writing Technology Tools Transportation TV Series Twitter Typescript Uber UI Unknown User Experience User Testing UX vitals Voice Walmart Web Web Components Web Development Web Extensions Web Frameworks Web Performance Web Platform WWDC Yarn

Subscribe via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Archives

  • February 2023
  • January 2023
  • September 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • November 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • October 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • January 2019
  • October 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • May 2018
  • February 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012

Search

Subscribe

RSS feed RSS - Posts

The right thing to do, is the right thing to do.

The right thing to do, is the right thing to do.

Dion Almaer

Copyright © 2023 · Log in