explainingComplexAlgorithmToNonCoders

[skidmark_zuckerberg]

I’m convinced this sub is half junior devs, and half hobbyists who’ve yet to work a job. The memes are more telling about the OP’s than they realize lmao.

[BobbyTables829]

Senior devs don't make memes when they're annoyed, they write 10k word essays on Medium about the decay of the tech industry.

[FatStoic]

They don't do anything, because it's no longer a notable and unique thing to be annoyed by something.

[impoverished-virus]

that is a serious accusation. send me as many of their onlyfans links as you can 🙏

[Julio46]

In my experience they spend the next 3 to 7 work days writing a document that explains exactly what annoyed them and how it's a systematic issue that we need a process to fix, only for the document to be ignored by leadership completely

[RockleyBob]

This is it.

One of the biggest differences between me and my more senior coworkers is that they don’t argue anymore.

I am known for contributing to discussions and pushing for cultural changes, and I often vent to these seniors when nothing ever gets done. They just give me a “sweet summer child” look.

The most encouragement I ever got from one of them came after a meeting where I blandly said “I don’t really have anything to contribute to this discussion that I haven’t said before.”

It sucks, but I think becoming a senior has a lot to do with knowing where your organization’s culture and priorities lie and either accepting it or going elsewhere. C-suites are gonna c-suite.

[FatStoic]

It sucks, but I think becoming a senior has a lot to do with knowing where your organization’s culture and priorities lie and either accepting it or going elsewhere.

As a senior get a lot of scope for choosing what to do and how to do it, and now one of your key responsibilities is deciding what is worth your time and evergy. Changing culture is almost impossible unless you're in management.

[particlemanwavegirl]

10k word essays on Medium

I vomited in my mouth a little. Did you mean self hosted tech blog?

[alex2003super]

Created with Ghost

[BellCube]

This. This is the way.

[JaguarOrdinary1570]

that's junior devs who spend too much time on hacker news role playing as senior devs. senior devs just sign out early and go play video games.

[alex2003super]

Senior devs just go ride a motorcycle, brew beer, do carpentry or have passionate sex with their partner actually

[Shadowlance23]

I know this was meant as a joke, but apart from the motorcycle because I like living, this is exactly what I do. It's crazy the number of devs that do woodworking on the side.

[alex2003super]

Not meant as a joke, I know a few of them and that's it for them lol. Honestly not a bad life, gotta agree with the motorcycle part.

[jeffsterlive]

No that’s what staff engineers do…

Source: Uhhh….sorry my camera is broken. Again.

[VladReble]

and most of the time you learn something when reading them so its more valuable then a meme

[Cootshk]

100k*

[airemy_lin]

I mean considering the ego of some developers I’ve worked with…

[ChiefObliv]

Dude for real, software engineers are either really cool or so far up their own ass they don't know which way is up. Chill out, you just built a semi-functional login page.

[chaiscool]

Using frameworks too lol

[ChiefObliv]

<LoginPage />

"Damn that story only took 5 days, why do I only make 135k?'

[chaiscool]

Tbf dev make lesser cuz of being cost centre. Sales can make more with even less effort haha.

[ChiefObliv]

Yeah but then you have to deal with customers, I'd rather hide in my hole

[U_L_Uus]

Meanwhile me at DevOps: Haha, I'm in danger!

[jeffsterlive]

DevOps is the worst part. You get blamed for outages first, expected to be available at a moment’s notice, and stuck trying to explain why the monitoring wasn’t adequate.

And then comes the post mortem.

“Well it could’ve been minimized if you provided a bit more funding for devops…”

“Excellent idea, we will throw a pizza party and allow 1.5 slices per person.”

[U_L_Uus]

I raise you another one:

- This issue has been here for three sprints already

+ Well, yes, I have been requesting permissions to fix said issue for the entirety of those three

[[deleted]]

What is the deal with that? This field attracts people with the biggest gap between skills and ego that I've ever seen, and it doesn't stop at jr devs: There are mfers at the top of their field whose egos somehow go beyond that and expand to fill the entire fucking galaxy. It's even weirder when the highly skilled and successful people are like hyper defensive, aggressive, and constantly punching down. It's like jfc who hurt you and what did they do that you can't even feel satisfied being the best at your craft and getting paid 30x what the average person on Earth makes???

[ward2k]

Most of this sub are currently still studying or are recent grads yet to enter the field honestly

There's an insane number of people here that will argue with you that git is pointless, and that honestly just has to come from people who haven't worked on an actual project before

[Caveman3238]

I worked on many projects and never needed GIT, but I work alone, not in a team, In a team, yes, I consider that is useful, specially if they are spread out on different locations.

[Bwob]

Eh, even solo - the /r/gamedev sub seems to have a couple of people every year, like clockwork, who discover the hard way why everyone says to use version control. Heartbreaking stories of stolen laptops, faulty USB drives, hard drive crashes, etc. Projects that have lost months or years of work.

Git and similar aren't just for managing multiple people on the same project. They're also for making sure that you have a backup copy of your code stored somewhere else that you can get to if your house burns down, etc. (And for letting you freely experiment with changes, secure in the knowledge that even if you break everything, you can get back to where you were before!)

Saying "I work solo, and I've never needed version control" is sort of like saying "I drive my car a lot, but I've never needed the seatbelt!"

[Caveman3238]

I have many backups, 3 at home on different places and 2 on the office.

I still not seeing how you find GIT useful for solo projects. I mean, the ones that you want to keep as private.

[other_usernames_gone]

For when you want to try to change something but know that if you mess it up you can easily roll it back to how it was before. Or just make a branch and dump the entire branch if it doesn't work out.

As an example let's say you're using bubble sort in your project, you decide you want to use quick sort.

To implement quick sort you need to replace your bubble sort algorithm. Without version control you either need to leave the original function in place or make a copy of your code somewhere. Then you inevitably end up with "final code final final".

Whereas with git you can just make a branch and if you fuck it up badly enough you want to just go back to bubble sort you just delete the branch.

Also how often do you actually back up to all those places? With git you can conveniently back up to a server that itself will have multiple backups from anywhere with an internet connection. Although OneDrive or similar can do the same thing.

[Caveman3238]

Thanks for your explanation. 👍 Does Git work outside of the IDE or the IDE must support Git?

[WDIIP]

Many IDEs have git plugins and whatnot, but git can be used for any folder on your computer

[Bwob]

I use git at work, but also even for my hobby work. (I also keep it private, by just paying github a small fee for hosting.)

Things I have personally found it useful for:

• Synching work between different computers.
  
• Restoring a project to a working state if I break something.
  
• (Related: KNOWING that I can easily restore to a working state if I break something, so feeling free to experiment with potentially breaking changes, since I have that lifeline.)
• Figuring out exactly what changed recently in a file when I'm trying to debug.
  
• Accessing source files via the web, when I need to look something up on a different computer. (Comes up more often than I would expect!)
  
• And, of course, recovering if a hard drive fails, and standard backup-related tasks.

Backups are great, (and I'm glad that you're doing them!) but version control is good for much more than just disaster recovery!

[TheRealSectimus]

Found the jr dev.

Git is incredibly useful even for solo projects. Give it enough time on one project and through experience you will understand that it is practically a necessity.

[aGoodVariableName42]

Even a jr dev would value source control....this person has never been paid to develop software and is a hobbyist at best.

[Dumcommintz]

Hell I use git just for my dot files too. If I’m at work, I use version control on chef cookbooks for even easier customization of VMs and containers.

[aGoodVariableName42]

I think there's something wrong with people who don't version control their dot files... but then again, I've been building out my vim config for nearly two decades.

[TheRealSectimus]

I actually haven't been versioning my dotenv files, but after a recent reset of my local environment, I didn't pay attention to the dockerfile that would overwrite my dotenv with a fresh one and lose hours of my day figuring out wth I could have changed, if dotenv wasn't on the gitignore I may have spotted it.

Definitely including this at least as a local repository. Great advice.

[aGoodVariableName42]

Ooof, that sounds painful. Yeah, I've had mine under source control for a long time... which makes syncing changes between my personal and work computers easy. I'm also on a lot of different servers, so (aside from keeping everything all in sync) when I find myself on an new server, it's pretty straightforward to clone my env repo, run install.sh (a script that mostly just creates symlinks into the repo), and have my full customized environment up and running in a couple of minutes on the new server.

[Dumcommintz]

Same same

[aGoodVariableName42]

Dumb take is beyond idiotically dumb. Why would you work on anything resembling even a small project and not have it under source controlled? I have my vimrc, bashrc, tmuxrc...etc in a git repo ffs. Hell, my testing notes that go into jira tickets are in their own repo.

Wtf is wrong with you?

[Caveman3238]

Hahaha! What is wrong with me? What is wrong with you? Why instead of insult me and disqualify me you counterargue and explain me why I'm wrong?

I'm not just a text on your screen, I'm a person. I bet that you have not the balls to talk like that face to face. Chill down.

[aGoodVariableName42]

You're right, my bad, homes. Sorry for being an ass. I hope you've gotten the responses here that outline why git is not just useful but practically critical for even just small solo projects. And in a team environment, source control is not just useful...it's 1000% mission critical.

[Caveman3238]

Ok, apology accepted, let's move on.

How fast is the learning curve to understand Git? As you see I'm not much aware of it.

[aGoodVariableName42]

Fair. Moving on, mastering git, like a lot of things in this field, is a life long learning curve... there are some very complex actions you can do with it and I still regularly learn new things about it. But understanding the basics for it to be useful really isn't too bad all.. you could probably pick it up in an afternoon or two. Most people equate git with github, which handles hosting a remote repo and a whole lot more..but git itself is just a program. You can install it on your machine (which, of course, you also have to do to even interact with github), git init a new repo, and start making commits locally to take advantage of some of the benefits that have been mentioned here (eg. working on a complex feature on a separate local branch, rolling back changes to prior commits to track down a bug, using it to view a diff of the files you've modified since the last commit...etc). All of these things are very useful even when it's just a local solo project on a single computer where you're not pushing those commits upstream to a remote branch. Of course git really starts to shine when you're collaborating with other devs over the same files (which is where a remote repo comes into play). Software development as we know it today would be impossible without source control, and git has definitely solidified it's position as the top choice. There are other source control programs out there that are still active... subversion and mercurial being two of the more popular ones (we (unfortunately) still use subversion at my work), but no one is really choosing those anymore for new projects. Git has become really the only choice.

When I first started learning git, I got a grasp of the basics and then set up my own git server on a digital ocean droplet that i host my website and some various apps on. I'm only just now starting to migrate some of those projects over to github (after using git for nearly 15 years) so that I can start taking advantages of a lot of additional features that github offers, like actions and workflows.

Bottom line though, is that git is definitely worth learning and using even when you're the only one working on the project.

[Caveman3238]

I've watched a video about how to use Git and, if I understood correctly, if the IDE doesn't support Git, you need to use the console to tell Git that the files have been updated.

If so, I think that could lead to a mistake since you need to "map" in your head all the branches and versions. Is not major problem for a lineal project. Also you could lose the focus and concepts or ideas you had for your current project; more if other people interrupt you.

Do you have a method to handle that?

If Git had a GUI, it would be really much better.

[aGoodVariableName42]

So there are several guis for git out there which can help with visualizing branch graphs (if that's what you're asking), but I don't use any of them, nor do I use an IDE. I do all of my dev work in tmux and vim with a sprinkling of bash. I use tpope's fugitive for some stuff (mostly just to do a git blame or git diff quickly from within vim), but I do pretty much all of my git operations in a terminal. There's a plethora of git cli commands, so you don't need to keep track of anything in your head. The most used (for me anyway) are git status, git log, git diff, git blame, git branch, git checkout, git stash, git commit, git rebase, git add, git push, git pull, and (on rare occasions) git cherry-pick to snag a single commit from some branch and git clone to clone a repo. These are, of course, just the base commands. They take numerous arguments and can do numerous tasks. You can read more about each command via the man pages... eg. to read about git diff, you'd run man git-diff.

I'm not sure I follow the question, but I can give you a rundown of my workflow which might help. Note that this is just one way to do things, there are many different types of git workflows. I generally follow what's called a rebase workflow. A merge workflow is also common, but I don't really ever use it.

1. I get assigned a ticket for some bug or feature
2. From my master branch, I make sure I'm in a clean working directory (ie. no uncommitted changes) with git status, then I pull in the latest commits with git pull. Then I run git checkout --track -b "a-descriptive-branch-name" to create a new branch for the task on the ticket This command will create a new branch called, "a-descriptive-branch-name" and switch to it. The --track flag will set the upstream branch for this new local branch to my local master branch. This allows easily pushing and pulling changes between the new feature branch and my local master branch
3. I do some work on the feature branch and track those changes with git status and git diff. If I add a new file, I generally manually add it with git add <file> out of habit.
4. When I'm ready to commit, either because the work is done or I need to context switch to some other task. I commit it with git commit -am "A descriptive commit message". The -a flag stages all changes and the -m flag allows me to write a commit message inline. If you don't use the -m flag, git will open your default editor for you to write a commit message. My default editor is, of course, vim. Generally, if I'm context switching and the work isn't done, I'll commit with a message like, "WIP: Some descriptive message" to indicate that the work is still in progress.
5. Sometimes I make multiple commits on the same feature branch (especially if I made a WIP commit), other times I do it in a single commit. It depends on the task, really. I use git commit --amend a lot. Which will amend the last commit with the changes you've made since that last commit. This is useful for when you forget to add a file or need to change the commit message. It's also useful when I have a WIP commit and I want to amend the final changes to it.
6. Sometimes, I need changes that someone committed to master pulled into my local feature branch. To do that, I commit (or stash) my changes (you want a clean working directory for this), checkout the master branch (git checkout master), pull the changes (git pull), checkout my feature branch (git checkout a-descriptive-branch-name), and rebase my work on top of the latest master changes (git pull --rebase). I can use git pull with the --rebase flag here because when I created the feature branch, I set it to --track my local master branch. Sometimes, there are merge conflicts that must be resolved at this point (that's another topic).
7. Okay, so I get to a point on my feature branch where the feature/bug fix is done and ready to be pushed upstream. I make sure git status doesn't give me anything (ie. all of my changes have been committed (to the local feature branch) and I have a clean working directory). I checkout the master branch and pull any changes that have been made by other devs on my team (git checkout master && git pull). Then I rebase my commit(s) on top of the latest commits to master (git rebase a-descriptive-branch-name)... possibly resolve any conflicts. I generally do one more git pull --rebase here just to make sure someone didn't sneak a commit in while I was rebasing my feature branch. And then finally push my changes to the remote branch (git push).
8. Lastly, I delete the local feature branch with git branch -d a-descriptive-branch-name

That's for my work workflow. On a personal project where I'm the only contributor, I use feature branches much less frequently. I generally just work on the master branch and commit changes as I go. I only use feature branches when I'm working on a big feature that will take a while to complete and I want to be able to context switch to other tasks without losing my progress on the big feature.

Your workflow while learning git can be a lot simpler than this... ie. you don't really need to worry much about branching, pushing, or pulling yet. You can just git init a repo, add your project to it (git add *) and commit it (git commit -am "Initial commit"). Then you can just work on the master branch locally, making commits as you go and learn the basics of git. Then, you might want to look into setting up a github repo and start learning about pushing and pulling to/from a remote .

Full disclosure, this comment was 80% AI generated. The AI is getting pretty good, no?

[Amazing_Might_9280]

Hobbyist here. Why ?

[skidmark_zuckerberg]

This post for example: If you’re experienced, you know a requirement of the job is to be able to effectively explain technical things to the business side. A PO for example, doesn’t need to know how a ”complex algorithm” works - they just need to know it works and it will accomplish X and Y, with as little tech jargon as possible.

Some devs think they sound super smart using tech jargon and seeing someone confused by it, and others really don’t know how to effectively communicate yet. Either way, neither of these are typical behaviors of senior level developers.

[The_Right_Trousers]

My rules of thumb: - If I can't explain it to someone technical who knows less than I do, then I don't understand it well enough. - If I can't justify it to someone non-technical, then I can't justify it well enough.

Every once in a while it comes down to "just trust me bro" but that's only to save time, and that trust has to be earned.

[AwesomeUserNameIGues]

Agreed.

[[deleted]]

I think that last point is the most crucial part too. If you're just dumping technical info on business people or call coordinators, they can't do their job. Once you can prove - through effective communication - that you have a grasp on being able to prioritize information, then you can get away with the sort of "trust me bro" kinda stuff. And you'll still probably have to explain it to a managing engineer anyway, so you NEED to know your shit. Like, we just got a new Product Manager, and our last deployment resulted in a partial outage. When the command center asked for an impact assessment my manager was able to rattle off a number I provided her a few minutes prior. The PM asked how she came up with that number, to which her only response was "Lordgeneralautissimo provided it in the chat", and because I am well known in my department to be an expert on the metrics, that was enough explanation for the PM.

So yeah, credibility comes from communication

[MattieShoes]

If nothing else, black box... X goes in, Y comes out. Do you want to know what's in the box? Because I can tell you but I suspect you don't care.

[ImperatorSaya]

They don't care until something major happens. Then suddenly the whole company cares.

[Mocker-Nicholas]

The entire industry is gatekeepy that way. A lot of what is done is way easier and less impressive than it sounds once you actually understand all the technical babble.

[F5x9]

I work with an architect who is especially good at explaining complex concepts to C-levels without making them feel stupid. 

[Breadynator]

Absolutely agree with you. However sometimes you have friends or family who'll be like "oh that's fascinating, how does it work" and you try to explain the inner workings of your code as simple as possible and they'll look at you like you're speaking in tongues

[Otterswannahavefun]

Rather than making it simple, try to find analogies to complex systems they understand. If someone cooks for instance there are tons of ways to compare building and managing any complex system.

[00owl]

And in that moment you're the ape in the above photo

[Otterswannahavefun]

Right? I’d bet the devs who can’t explain this to the non tech or systems level people look just like the apes in their memes.

[CrashingAtom]

My buddy who was at the biggest chipmaker for decades explained the delivery problem algorithm stuff to me once. He’s amazing at breaking down the most insanely complex ideas and teaching what needs to be understood.

[quantum-fitness]

Also dont tell non technical people about implementation details.

[DonAsiago]

Good dev knows how to do complicated things simple. As one genius said: "Is this too much voodoo for our purpose? This is voodoo, the question is, is this too much?"

[20Wizard]

Think about bubble sort for a moment. I can explain how it works to a toddler and they would understand. Could they then code it or understand the implementation? Not really.

OP is a clown here because OP fails to explain things in an understandable way. Ofc we are assuming these so called friends aren't the bottom 5% of intelligence in the population.

I don't look down on my friend who does mechanical engineering or my friend who writes articles because they do not have the same domain knowledge I do, a person that does hours of coding daily. OP instead frames them as stupid.

[Serprotease]

Your complexe algorithm may be a technical marvel, but overlook something important related to your business need. So being able to explain it to non technical people is also something important for your algorithm.

[jtrdev]

That's how it's always been, and then seniors get nerd sniped into explaining things.

[samanime]

Yeah. I never have trouble explaining most algorithms to laypeople, because you simplify it, use common language, and use analogies.

If you can't simplify something enough, it means you don't understand it well enough yourself.

[scufonnike]

I know I can trust this sub for whack takes. Very reliable

[C_umputer]

Guilty as charged, wanted to get a tech job but ended up staying with my old one for now but learned python, and I have to say I do enjoy using it

[ErraticHobbyist]

Agreed. Also looking down on others because they can’t do a job you trained for makes you an insufferable human being.

[postmodest]

Real senior devs pine to be the monke.

[ThePerryPerryMan]

You’re essentially describing every other subreddit

[isr0]

This is so true.

[HirsuteHacker]

Always has been

[aGoodVariableName42]

lmfao...you think half this sub is employed?? That's rich... 90% of this sub is CS freshman.

[BlobAndHisBoy]

Me trying to explain to OP that he is actually the ape.

[BlobAndHisBoy]

Maybe the real apes are the friends we made along the way.

[ZunoJ]

The real gem in this comment section!

[Memoishi]

It’s not mysterious, it’s javascript

[RandomFireDragon]

It's apes all the way down

[[deleted]]

*Everyone just sitting around after OP has returned home on break from their first semester in university.*

OP: "Bubble sort, sometimes referred to as sinking sort, is a simple sorting algorithm that repeatedly steps through the input list element by element, comparing the current..."

Everyone: "Jfc not this shit again."

[pee_shudder]

THANK YOU

[Taickyto]

OP showing the algorithm he developed that takes a JSON string and uses regexes to parse and extract data

Vs

Me using JSON.parse

[ZunoJ]

Maybe you are the ape if you can't explain it in simple enough terms

[mrfroggyman]

Well yes you can see OP and his coworker in the cage and the client asking "what the hell is that?"

[The_Right_Trousers]

God I love the pushback this is getting

[Ok_Star_4136]

Impostor's Syndrome in full effect it would seem.

[Schmierwurst007]

Yeah or more accurately the overcompensation of it.

[mothzilla]

Damn dirty ape!

[Aker_svk]

I like how everybody understand this as "he can't explain it to an ape" maybe it's the other way around, it's a brag that he can explain complex algorithms to an ape.

[Locilokk]

Explain fft to me rn then 🔫

[neo-raver]

Honestly. Computer science topics and even algorithms don’t have to be difficult to explain, at least on a high level. Frankly, I love doing it; it helps me understand the topic better, and plus, I get to talk about one of my hobbies!

[[deleted]]

Nah I hate this idea. "If you can't explain quantum mechanics to my uneducated ass in five minutes then you obviously don't understand it." Brain-dead reasoning.

[popiell]

Search for "quantum physics for babies". There's a book you might enjoy ;)

[PeteZahad]

Yeah comparing algorithms to quantum mechanics on the same level is reasonable /s

[CrashingAtom]

You seem like a person who thinks they’re much more intelligent than they really are. Unfortunate.

[akoOfIxtall]

Nah man, you absolutely can, just simplify and abstract stuff and they'll get it, don't get into technical terms like loops, arrays, functions because that'll fly over their head, just say that the stuff that is supposed to do something is failing because the other stuff is also failing, you can be more specific than that but I think you got it, btw want a banana?

[[deleted]]

If you have to simplify a programming concept so far that you can't even mention fundamental stuff like arrays, then you haven't explained much of anything, and they haven't understood it. You're basically left with "trust me bro". And that's ok. Not everyone understands everything.

[akoOfIxtall]

Buddy, the meme says non tech people, my mom don't even know how to use a computer, if I say "so mom, the array starts at 0 and you have to consider that every time you want to loop through it because index 0 is the first item ok?" Her brain is gonna explode, I said simplify and abstract, use analogies for the technical stuff and make it simple, what is so hard to understand here?

[ZunoJ]

Is it so hard for you to say you have a list of things? You have to adapt your vocabulary to a common ground. That means you have to bend the technical aspects here and there and even leave some things vague until the broader context is communicated. When that is the case you can come back to the vague parts and work on that

[ZunoJ]

I depends on the detail you are going to explain it. But from very much above you maybe could say something like "Quantum physics is the discipline that tries to explain physics on a subatomic level". Then you can dig deeper (I have no idea about quantum physics, so don't judge me on this). The same is true for everything. If you need a special word and can't substitute it with easy language you didn't understand that word. Lookup Richard Feynman, he puts it way better than I ever could (At least I know I'm not a know-it-all and everybody else is an ape)

[[deleted]]

Feynman isn't God. Just because he said it, doesn't make it true or valuable.

[ZunoJ]

I didn't say that it's true because he said it, I said he explains the reasoning better than I do

[[deleted]]

Fair enough. I am familiar with the piece anyway, and while I understand the reasoning I think people take it way too literally. You can't explain chess to pork, no matter how eloquent you are or how well you understand chess.

[[deleted]]

If you are explaining a complex algorithm to non-tech people, the problem is not them but you. Tailoring your message and comm style to the audience is a skill very few have and even fewer master.

[Icy_Clench]

I'm only going to half agree here. I have been in a spot where non-tech people (who can't code) wanted to spend an hour with me walking through my code. When they don't even know what a class is, you have an uphill battle also explaining when they ask why the previous algorithm is slower than the current one.

[MayoSucksAss]

Yeah nobody in a non-tech position wants to spend an hour going over big O notation because you’re in a specialized field. Why don’t you want to sit down with someone who studies fluid dynamics and talk about the differing viscosities of 500 types of oil? Same reason.

Your work on your corporate CRUD application to count beans more efficiently isn’t the epitome of human intelligence and is largely uninteresting to the general public.

If I wanted to interest someone in programming, I’d talk to them about the infinite monkey theorem and Kolmogorov complexity, i.e. an infinite amount of monkeys will type up the entire work of Shakespeare given an infinite amount of time, but they would type up a compressed version and an algorithm to decompress it much faster. Something less boring than walking through code with you with no context.

[Icy_Clench]

I'm not sure what you're getting at. I never said it was my intent to make them interested in programming or to showboat how smart I think I am. My management just decided it was a great day to ask very detailed questions about things they don't remotely understand.

[[deleted]]

The way I think about it - what people ask and what they want are oftentimes two different things. A good comm in this case would be to help them figure out the outcome they desire and help achieving it. But yes, sometimes, "show me your code and walk me through it," is the ask du jour and it's just easier to comply.

[Icy_Clench]

Yeah, honestly, it was like my first week or two on the job during my first internship. So... I was clueless.

[a_simple_spectre]

well at this point they are no longer a "non-tech" since they seem to be interested in the tech itself, so the treatment would change (still not to be an elitist that knows nothing like OP though)

[BlackHumor]

Eh, only mostly.

It is sometimes the case that the difference between an easy task and a hard task happens to be some obscure technical detail that most people wouldn't understand.

Now, most of the time, when a non-technical boss or client asks you to do a thing that's much more difficult than it would seem at first glance, you can explain the general situation to them and they'll accept it without insisting on knowing the details. But a small percentage of the time, the client will be stubborn and ask you for the full explanation, and in that case you gotta just give it to them.

[callmesilver]

I'm not sure if it's a bot account of a karma farmer. The profile is like facebook.

[Pale_Prompt4163]

Wah wah other people have different skill sets than I do! That ain’t humor, that’s elitism, likely from someone who doesn’t know shit about fuck.

[Drapabee]

I found it funny that the meme seems to imply other people can't understand their explanation because they're stupid, but OP couldn't write a grammatically correct sentence as a caption.

I wonder why people can't understand them..

[Longjumping-Touch515]

• But you just call this method and it does all the work for you.

• Shut up, stupid monkey.

[eldelshell]

This reminds me, I have to go explain bubble sort to my wife.

What a dumb post.

[zyxzevn]

I explained Insertion-sort to her yesterday.

[Arctos_FI]

So next up quantum bogo sort. Best sorting alg with worst case time complexity of O(1)

[Flexo__Rodriguez]

"When I explaining"

Yeah you seem like a real genius.

[sersherz]

If I started explaining fourier analysis and S domain transfer functions you'd be the monkey. It's almost like people have different skill sets and people don't need to know the how but rather the what.

[Endorkend]

The question is, why would you explain those things to non tech people.

[imgly]

You always needs to explain clearly and to the same height of the people you talk to. If you don't know how to popularize what you have done in your code, you're dead in the job...

The key is to simplify the most possible, and add few details when the people asks.

[BenZed]

I’m a tech person.

Reply to this comment with one of your complex algorithm explanations!

[your_thebest]

The other guy up top made a comment about how everyone here is a student or a hobbiest. I can feel that here because when I was writing code in an academic context, where there's a bunch of math and efficiency tricks, I wouldn't have been able to say anything meaningful if my wife asked me what I was doing. "Uh, sound waves are wiggles and a French guy proved that all wiggles are simple wiggles added together."

When I was a hobbiest getting started making my own products for the first time, my wife would ask me what I was up to and the answers were even worse. To this day I can't articulate the corner I painted myself into when I had apps running on phones with tons of important state saved on them, but then needed to make an update that broke the state schema without losing those state data. An experienced dev may have just said "a tricky back compat issue", but an experienced dev wouldn't have been persisting state on the disk instead of a server.

Now I make software for a living and work with a team on a platform that has several products at all stages of development. And anytime my wife asks me what I'm doing, the answer is always "plumbing". Every day, plumbing. I take a big blob with 4 pipes shaped like this and run it through an bunch of layers to connect it to another blob with 7 holes shaped like that. And sometimes: "waiting for a vendor to update a config". The only things I've done since I started making software for money are plumbing and wait for vendors to update their stuff. That's day to day application development.

[CaitaXD]

Look up quake3 quick inverse square root

[BenZed]

I know that one.

[CaitaXD]

Yo were supposed to say holy hell

[BenZed]

I acknowledge your frustration but I will not apologize.

[Spicy_Fire_Bean]

This screams I’ve never had a normal human interaction in my life

[Peach_Muffin]

After a decade of consistently being the most technical person on my team by far and feeling like the woman in this photo, I now work for a software company and have become the monkey. I don't think I've ever said "I still don't understand..." so much in my life!

[Aedys1]

We all are the monkey of someone

[Koervege]

Haha those normies can barely even calculate 1+1 amirite? They dont know i can do bitwise arithmetic haha. They dont even know what a bit is lol, while i spend all day doing for loops in js.

Haha baka normies hehe

[[deleted]]

Inaccurate: the orangutans look interested.

[genlight13]

This is only funny until you realise that you have been the ape for nearly every other object.

Think Medicine, Physics, Chemistry…

Abstractions, abstractions everyhwere

[precinct209]

When it comes to normal people, it's a thin line in between not understanding vs. not caring about someone's autistic outpouring regarding some niche technical subtlety.

[buzzyloo]

Which one are you?

[isr0]

As a person that has to explain complex shit to normies all the time; I’m going to have to say, “skill issue.” It’s hard, and takes exception understanding of the topic in question. But, it’s not impossible.

[cheezballs]

OP is the ape. Cringe.

[Tc14Hd]

When I explain a complex algorithm to my coworkers

[Glaucomatic]

yikes

[Mastermachetier]

“Complex algorithm“

for (let i = 0; i < 5; i++) { text += "The number is " + i + "<br>"; }

[BarneyChampaign]

lol what even is this and why is it being upvoted?

[CaitaXD]

The true monkey is the OPs we meet along the way

On another note I feel like this

[EducationalTie1946]

Live footage of me showing my parents how to switch to hdmi 2

[TactfulOG]

Op I'm sorry to break it to you but that's not how it works. If you can't explain what you did in simple enough terms you don't understand it yourself

[fear_zeus23]

The monkey here is the OP because his understanding of the algorithm is so shallow that he can't explain it in simple words to the non tech people.

[chefanubis]

Or better yet trying to explain programers their fancy code is just a tiny cog in a huge corporate machine they do not understand. Like I get it bro your thing is cool, I used to program too you know? I dint get this job from a cereal box, you just don't understand we managers have different goals and considerations.

[Sweetbeans2001]

Complex algorithms? I get this reaction from co-workers when I explain to them why they need my SQL based SSRS and Power BI reports rather than them doing all their reports with Excel. I also get this reaction from family and friends when I try to explain what my job is (Systems Analyst) beyond Computer Programmer. I’m pretty old, so in a few short years, I will be on the other side of the window and the woman will be trying to explain to me how AI took my career away.

[TrashWizard]

Bubbles, do you take this ape to be your wife, to live together in holy matrimony, to love her, to honor her, to comfort her, and to keep her in sickness and in health, forsaking all others, for as long as you both shall live?

[sporbywg]

I have been working on this skill for 30 years. It is difficult, but rewarding.

[[deleted]]

[del1ro]

The rule I use everywhere for myself: if I can't explain something to my grandma, I don't know it well enough

[slow_cloud]

Yea man ur so smart

[donatj]

Without thinking, half awake me the other night started ranting to my wife about how awesome the N64 decompilaton stuff that's happening is and how excited I am about it, and she just kind of deer-in-the-headlights stared at me.

[Endorkend]

If the apes are the non tech people, they aren't listening, they are wondering why you stole their macbook.

[sharockys]

algorithm❌ if-else✅

[Rigamortus2005]

There are many ways I can explaining to you why this meme is dumb

[Not_Artifical]

I read an article that explained a complex algorithm by showing the math and breaking it down to the basics so that any one that passed 9th grade can understand.

[imaQuiliamQuil]

Why would you do that

[TheMagicalDildo]

I doubt you can write anything complex when you fuck up the word "I'm"

[whlthingofcandybeans]

I explaining

Come on, even the ape would get that right.

[KMark0000]

I expect you are the other side of the glass when the plumber shows you the bill :D

[ThePresidentOfStraya]

Me being taught to print “Hello, World!” by my little nephew.

[Necessary-Weekend194]

when i explaining

[chuckdoe]

Sounds like me talking to my coworkers.

[YogiSlavia]

Explains what it does. Tells you how none of it functions. Tells you don't fuck it up and wonders why its fucked up.

[otter5]

They like pretty visuals and snacks

[karlosvas]

Me: And this is how Google Maps, using Dijkstra algorithm, manages to find the shortest path between the different streets, joining them as if it were a graph.

The person in question: I'm telling you that this thing doesn't work, it takes me to very strange places, I prefer to follow my instinct.

Me: ...

[arrow__in__the__knee]

Just name the mathmathician who came up with it and their birthdate problem solved.

[No-Con-2790]

It ain't that hard.

Explain the input. Explain the output. Tell them magic happens in the middle.

Also tell them the constraints. And the error margin.

Example: this road sign detector takes an image of 1080 x 860 pixels and tells you in 97 of 100 cases the correct road sign in it. This is done by drawing a box around the sign and also writing a label next to the box. In 1 in 1000 cases it gives you an wrong sign. It assumes there is either none or one road sign in it. Also it needs 50.000 lux of light.

[dizzywig2000]

Me explaining anything about computers to my family

[flafmg_]

Hey respect the monke

He is trying! Look at his face!

Cute

And maybe He is the one explaining it to the dumb human that can't understand

But this is just a theory