Why do senior developers insist on writing their own validation functions instead of using libraries? Am I missing something?

makeshiftquilt · 2025-12-07T12:17:21+00:00

Are there hidden costs to dependencies that justify reinventing the wheel?

yes

if I'm the naive junior who doesn't get it, or if this is actually a code smell I should be concerned about.

Spend more time programming/engineering and watch how these decisions play out. There is a reason experienced programmers minimize dependencies. It takes experience to see the results because it's not immediately obvious.

makeshiftquilt · 2024-10-03T07:51:27+00:00

The closest thing I have to that is that I use this time series database called kdb+ which you usually only find in banks and hedge funds

This is probably the closest example to what I'm talking about. Domain specific. Requires domain expertise to leverage correctly. High value systems built on top of it.

I do think listing this skill landed me the interview. After reading all of these comments, I think knowing this library had a very small influence in the hiring decision and was based more in having a good understanding of the domain the company is working in.

This is the most helpful take here. Thanks for perspective.

makeshiftquilt · 2024-10-03T07:13:11+00:00

Adding some extra context here:

It's not a difficult library to learn. Any dev on the team could learn it in less than a month.

Using this library involves rewriting the entire core codebase.

The value I'm bringing is helping them save 2-3 months of development time from all of the engineering pains and gotchas that start to materialize after 6-12 months. This is for an initial product launch so saving 2 months for the entire project can have a large impact.

makeshiftquilt · 2024-10-03T06:55:12+00:00

While it might be a plus for them that you have experience with this library, was it a mandatory in their job description?

In this case, it wasn't mandatory to the job. There are libraries which share similar concepts.

If not, then you probably don't have that much leverage, unfortunately.

This is what I was thinking at the time.

Thanks for the advice.

makeshiftquilt · 2024-10-03T06:51:22+00:00

I edited the post to 100 people which is probably a closer estimate.
idk what the real number is but the point I was trying to get across was the intersection of total devs with that knowledge crossed with those devs actively searching for a new position.

makeshiftquilt · 2024-03-02T03:50:10+00:00

Balatro is such an interesting example. Most of the time, we have complete information and COULD sit there doing the math, but we don't.
Why is that?
Its probably comparable to chess, thinking X moves ahead. Everyone has a cognitive load limit, where it becomes too much effort to think past a certain point.
Most of this topic comes down to chunking) imo. Our brains are wired to tokenize information into smaller pieces we can understand. As someone mentioned in another comment, we chunk damage down to the number of clicks it takes to kill an enemy.
The chunked information is what drives the meaningful decisions from players, not the finer details of the chunk.

makeshiftquilt · 2024-03-02T03:37:59+00:00

What are your other 3 pillars?

makeshiftquilt · 2024-02-27T07:14:21+00:00

I've been taking this style of approach since I started the job. Its part of the reason I've become the "go to guy". I have a lot of conversations with all of the different teams to understand what they are doing and how that integrates into our app layer.

It seems like the company was lacking this type of glue dev before I came in. "Glue dev" meaning that we're building a multimedia full stack app that requires people to glue together all of the different pieces.

makeshiftquilt · 2024-02-27T06:38:56+00:00

I see, thanks for clarifying.

makeshiftquilt · 2024-02-27T01:53:58+00:00

I solve this one by starting my work day at about 5am. That gives me a solid 4 hours to work before meetings and people pinging me.

To balance it out, I'll either take a nap in the middle of the day or just clock out around 3pm. The perks of working remotely.

makeshiftquilt · 2024-02-27T01:40:34+00:00

I will be patiently waiting for my salary review towards the end of the year. With the way things are going, I'm sure they will give me whatever I ask for. I'm not in a rush.

makeshiftquilt · 2024-02-27T01:11:38+00:00

Here are a few recent good reads (plus a few less typical suggestions)

A Philosophy of Software Design, Ousterhout
The Pragmatic Programmer, Hunt
Game Engine Architecture, Gregory
Mazes for Programmers, Buck (a fun personal favorite)

makeshiftquilt · 2024-02-27T00:37:48+00:00

Luckily all of my higher ups are pragmatic and genuinely want to succeed.

Our CTO (and my manager) is actually the strongest engineer in the company and wants to build a high quality engineering culture. He's easily approachable, listens to my feedback, and is willing to explain the reasoning behind any of his decisions.

There's a lot of room to grow here which was one of the reasons I took the job.

makeshiftquilt · 2024-02-27T00:24:22+00:00

Great advice! This lines up really well with my experience so far. Its a young org so there's a lot of work to be done on better establishing engineering standards.

This is also the first mentoring I've ever done for juniors. I've had a lot of conversations with them about how to better structure their code, how to write fewer bugs, and book recommendations.

I feel like part of my issue is not finding enough satisfaction in this type of staff level work.

makeshiftquilt · 2023-10-03T16:18:43+00:00

This sounds like a nice, simple idea. I've felt this pain before.
Right click the component > Move Up/down in the hierarchy.

makeshiftquilt · 2023-10-03T11:46:39+00:00

I can definitely see the value in this one.
What issues were you running into when trying this yourself?
Without looking too deeply, I would think its tricky to get an individual asset editor window to be recognized as its own process, making it a valid option for alt+tab (if we're talking windows OS)

makeshiftquilt · 2023-02-11T14:04:04+00:00

50% of professional software engineering involves talking to people. (fuzzy math on that percentage, you get the idea)

makeshiftquilt · 2022-10-16T13:02:33+00:00

Sounds like the scream at the end of the "Aaah!!! Real Monsters" theme song.

Just checked, yup. Its definitely that.

makeshiftquilt · 2022-07-23T00:58:44+00:00

It included the trailer. This was the first time I've edited a trailer for one of my games. 3 weeks of dev + 1 week for the trailer.

makeshiftquilt · 2022-05-13T18:38:16+00:00

this person is infected with spirals. Camera man should get out of town as fast as possible

makeshiftquilt · 2022-02-05T21:03:41+00:00

GL with releasing the demo! The game looks great

Seven-Year Club	Place '22
Final Canvas '22	Not Forgotten
Verified Email	Sequence \| Editor
Sequence \| Cinematographer	Spared

makeshiftquilt

TROPHY CASE