Generality creep

[Andrei Alexandrescu]

On 3/28/19 9:26 PM, Mike Franklin wrote:
> On Thursday, 28 March 2019 at 20:14:19 UTC, Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:
>> On 3/28/19 3:12 PM, H. S. Teoh wrote:
>>> I applaud this direction, but let's not kid ourselves
>>> that this is going to happen overnight.
>>
>> Or at all. The entire effort would require three strong like-minded 
>> engineers, and I don't know them.
> 
> Or a team of subordinate apprentice/junior engineers (who have 
> demonstrated sufficient potential) working under the mentorship of a 
> master who is willing to make an investment.

This is a lot more difficult to set up than it seems.

One reason is that surprisingly few of the contributors come here to 
learn, to acquire knowledge. Most come to dispense. I spent long times 
reviewing pull requests in our community, calibrated to the reviews 
standards at Facebook (however controversial, they have an impressive 
software engineering force). There, the code review process is locked in 
a virtuous circle: you get good reviews that help you improve, and you'd 
be motivated to give good reviews to improve others'.

Here, my reviews were more often than not met with hostility.

As a pattern, a reviewer would be more willing to write the code once 
and then defend it in its current state, rather than improve it through 
review. In a few extreme cases, people flat out told me they'll abandon 
the PR if I don't take it as it is. Larger disagreements on matters of 
architecture and design were often taken as personal offenses. Of 
course, retaliation was soon to follow. My own ideas and code would be 
met with suspicion and I'd need to push them uphill instead of them 
being encouraged and improved, which provided disincentive for trying 
any creative work. I'd be routinely followed on github and countered at 
whatever I'd do or say. Of course this happened to Walter even more, and 
the only therapy we got was commiseration via the occasional email 
titled "Somebody shoot me" or similar, and containing just a link to a 
github comment.

I'd wake up in the morning for days, then weeks and months, with one 
thought: "I have so many things to do today, and I like none of them." 
The irony! Here I was, independent, working for myself on whatever I 
dreamed of. Yet this was worse than the worst jobs I've ever had. How 
did I get into this situation? I think it has to do with a simple 
reality - I was trying to mentor people who didn't want to be mentored.

So I think it would be difficult to establish a master/mentee dynamics.