Comment by 94b45eb4
1 day ago
I used to hear this all the time back in the early 2000's. It's far from a new idea.
The version I heard (or at least the one which stuck in my head) was "your job is not to write code, your job is to solve problems".
edit: I wish this was more mentioned more frequently these days. I see junior developers very focused on superficial aspects of code and specific "cool" frameworks these days. Often I find myself asking "what problem does this solve? What are the trade-offs with your approach? etc." and it's just crickets. I think we have made a lot of progress with modern frameworks, tools, etc. but I also think there is something from the "old days" of programming which we have lost, which I think we should have fought a bit more to keep.
I mentor a few friends and my first question when they come to me for troubleshooting is: What's the problem you're having and what has you tried so far? Then I restrict them from talking in too specific technical terms. Instead I orient the conversation to the appropriate metaphor, and more often than not, they can see the solution by themselves (unless it's really a technical implementation issue).