Extending the Front-End Engineer role

This blog have been shared on Medium in a better structure and more organized thoughts, please read it over there for a better experience: https://medium.com/@KhaledElAnsari/extending-the-front-end-engineer-role-77d86100d2

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Seriously Front-End Engineers need to handle more than the client side application where they only update the UI and send AJAX requests to get data, yes some application require an experience person to handle some serious interaction like interactive games or financial apps with so many charts but still Front-End Engineers to be part of some stuff that considered ambiguous for people who should handle just because it is related to UI and they don't like dealing UI or anything close to it.

Some of what I'm going to say was part of what some companies used to call Web Engineer but anyway let's kick it to the topic.

For example:

• DevOps: FEEs need to have knowledge about what is CORS and how to allow servers to give access to their apps specially if there is an edge case like calling a proxy API.
• System Design: knows your main components in the app and start drawing them, draw how state management is handled, draw how fetching data from local cache work and so, do what others brag about and don't know how to do!
• Cloud Engineering: not sure if this is the right term but you need to know how to prepare your own container and deploy it, setup a basic CDN, setting a pipeline and storing the package in the a bucket or an FTP server or what ever, just learn some cloud development basics please.

If you don't like doing this for your own sake at least do it so they won't say you are not working!

I might make it a full post with some examples and for those who are already part of such things please share your experience.

 

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Originally published as a quick thought on my Facebook page: https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid031Mhur4WHnGpaCbJP9UrJnsSGPJP2B6W4s8f52VyKuVZe1KaGKPoC6Ja4uakVKsZEl&id=1296041354&mibextid=Nif5oz

The Brogrammer Phenomenon

So geeks and nerds are known to be awkward specially geeks and programmers are geeks by nature because they are mostly introverts or because they just like to enjoy some solo activities quietly like reading a book or playing video games or maybe learning a new thing for work (yes private time is for learning in this career!) and so far it is ok and fun to be in such a position where you can find fellow geeks and enjoy the nice little thing productively.

Nowadays with the rise of big companies and the way they changing the world and affecting our lives people want some of what some called it "The Revenge of The Nerds", everyone wants the big money everyone wants to be cool and hip again and everybody wants to brag about the secret life of the nerds that people are wondering how it changed the world and how it is nicer than the way that the rest of the world is living. This wave of nerd winning brought us what I like to call the "Brogrammer Phenomenon".

Now companies wants a good PR, looking good will attract customers and will create a crowd of loyally blind people that want to be part of your movement (see Google and Facebook as a clear example) and that's what the nerds did with their companies in a way that drove people to crazy preparations to be part of the nerds and this is where it all started!

People started to talk about their journey to prepare for the interview and how some of them managed to get a job without a previous experience or a degree making it look so good even though it is just an entry level job or maybe just an internship, I'm not mocking their achievement but I don't the brag here which created a wave of people who want to talk about the Utopian life that everyone should have by having such a job and focus on how eat good, look good, and spend good leveraging the PR of the work life balance and the social media trends to get more audience.

Nowadays we don't have programmers we have BROGRAMMERS! People who focus on how to look and how programmers have a different mind and life where in fact these BROGRAMMERS are just copy cats who wants attention through social media and the misery of others who are watching them and guess what? they are toxic to work with because they spend time talking about nonsense and being lame and fill everything with jargons they don't even understand to impress the naive people around.

Trust me when it comes to hard work these people would fail and their videos about cool features in VS Code or the hottest new framework won't get them anywhere so please focus on being a PROGRAMMER not a BROGRAMMER.

Note: this is a criticism to the toxic actions by everyone following the paradigm and not to be confused with the "Brogrammer Culture" in the US where people mix programming with activities like drinking and chasing women or even being sexist.

 

Update: after writing this article I stumbled upon a Reddit post for someone finding an article titled "SQL vs. CSS What’s the Difference? Which Is Better?" and guess what? The article exist! Now you can see what this phenomenon is getting us.

It's all about perspective

There is a quote by Tupac Shakur that I find really inspiring, it says "Just because you lost me as a friend, doesn't mean you gained me as an enemy. I'm bigger then that, I still wanna see you eat, just not at my table".

Such words are strong because people change but that doesn't mean they become bad! Your perception of them is short and that's why you think they are bad though they become better and bigger.

I like this way as it shows how people grow in silence and surprise others while these days people calling this as passive aggressive encouraging people to be toxic by not trusting anyone and make trouble instead of minding their own business somewhere else!

It's all about perspective my friend, all about perspective!

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This article was published originally as a thought on my Telegram Channel, follow me if you are interested.

The "Family" Developer

 Many of you, if not all, know about the Fast and Furious movies and the cliche of the family where it become a world wide meme where people make fun of Dom Torreto character and the family thing.

Now as a software engineer I can see Dom almost everywhere in my career, you know that guy who always underestimate the work and when he gets in trouble he start asking for help saying words like "come on man it won't take 5 mins to deploy forget about testing" in a downplay tone thinking he's your friend so it's ok to do that since it's logical to him and he deserves to be covered up to look good in front of others. Will this guy is the "Family" developer.

Now such developers makes our life harder, why? Will you will say because they are not smart which is not right as some of them is aware he is wrong and kinda knows the right action so it's not about being smart. So what is? It's their disrespect to other's work and to the engineering culture inside the team and to the global community, I'm not trying here to over complicate things but trying to make things faster by downplaying others work and allow a path to mess things up is not ok and even if you have to you need to discuss your opinion with the other side and put a plan to avoid such things as much as you can (unless you have a bad management/business team then good luck lol).

At the end software engineers needs to be both exact and creative not reckless and oblivious like a mechanic so try to be that and stop missing around!

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This article was published originally as a thought on my Tech Telegram Channel, follow me if you are interested.

في أدب البعد...

كنت قد اقتربت من انهاء كتاب "عرائس الشعر" طلبا لمعرفة بعد الأدب بشكل عام والغزل العذري بشكل خاص وإذ بي أنشدُ بعض الأبيات رثاءً بمن كان في يومٍ يملئ المكان والوجدان لعل هذه الأبيات تشفي ما في القلب من مرارة.

أشكو إلى الله البعد عنهمُ ... كما شكى قيس بُعدَ لبنى
أشكو بحرارةٍ من ضيق صدري ... شكوى اليتيمِ فقد الوالدينا
في القلب غُصَّةٌ كادت أن ... تصيبني بما أصابَ مجنون ليلى
لكني لست بابن الملّوح ... فما طلبت القُربَ إلا إرضاءً لرب العالمينَ
ربي أنت أعلم بحالي فاسترني ... في هذه الدنيا ما دامت الروح فينا

لا أمنّي النفس بما لا تملك فقد صدق من قال "ما ليس لكَ حرامٌ عليك" ولست أدعوا بما لا يرضي الله رغم ضعفي كإنسان لكنّ الشعر هنا تزكيةٌ للنفس لترتقي لعلها تكون ممن قال فيهم الصدّيق "علموا أولادكم الشعر فإنه يعلمهم مكارم الأخلاق".

علِموا أولادَكم الشعرَ فإنّهُ يعلّمُهم مكارمَ الأخلاقِ

رابط المادة: http://iswy.co/e29blo

علِموا أولادَكم الشعرَ فإنّهُ يعلّمُهم مكارمَ الأخلاقِ

رابط المادة: http://iswy.co/e29blo

Classic Programmer Paintings

A year ago I discovered a website/blog called Classic Programming Paintings that takes classic paintings and add a title or a description inspired by software engineers life and work so I liked the idea and published some of my own on my Facebook page as a way of having fun and stress relief of work.

Here is some of the posts published (comments can be in both Arabic and English).

Alternative Tech Solutions.

 

 

 

مشان الله بدي approve عشان مديري يحل عني.
Oh please can you approve my CR so manager can leave me alone.

 

 

وين اليونت تست يا حدق.
Gotcha! Where is the unit test you fool!.

Project sizing/scoping.

بدي permissions.
I need access/permissions.

 

وين الاسكيليشن، الاسكيليشن أهو (شكرا على الدندنة يا محترم).
Why you didn't escalate them.

مش مشكلة ارميها على S3.
It's ok we will just through it to S3.

جبتلك بروجكت زي ما بدك.
I got you the project that will get you promoted.

تخافش المقابلة خفيفة لطيفة.
Don't be afraid, we will just evaluate/interview you.

Team meeting/gathering.

And that's it folks! see you later.

Salam.

The Credit Paradox

I'm writing this as a sign of growing up enough to be able to share my opinion in a way that can help others grow and not to punish them or just nag about my problems, so here we go.

 

When I was a kid I remember watching a clip on TV from an award show where one guy took the mic and said that production companies and movie theaters should keep the credits rolling no matter what, obviously not for the audience since they do not care but for the crew who worked on the movie and would like to feel recognized and appreciate.

Years later I grew up to realize how true that statement was, even though I don't work in a media related field but the main idea can touch any worker on this planet and as a software engineer who spend most of his time working from a desk with almost no noticeable interaction with others I think I need to see my name in the credits a.k.a. team planning docs, email updates and leadership meetings so I can achieve something meaningful in my career to be proud of, I know its tough for manager to represent the individuals reporting to them but ICs (individual contributeres) need full support from their managers to grow because that's what "managing people" is all about.

I have worked most of my career as an IC so I'm not here to tell others how to do their job but I'm able to advice them how enhance it and I believe I can tell any manager what makes them a great manager by telling them how to gain the loyalty of their team!

First thing first, make the 1:1s and standups meaningful and please don't waste time by asking for updates that does not concern anyone but you.

Second, please invest in the people you manage by mentoring them and funding their learning resources.

Three, don't push them without telling them why! we all know managers get pushed by their managers in a chain of douches pushing each other but that does not mean you can't cut that chain at your end and be reasonable with the team for sometime!.

Four, when the team do mistakes tell them and don't just punish them in the background without their knowledge, this is the worst that can happen to an IC!

Finally, when they grow you grow so don't be that selfish and relax! your turn will come as theirs!

I can talk more and more about this but I won't though I'm waiting for the time I become a manager to prove to everyone that I can do it better.

That's all folks.

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Update (09/April/2021)

Abdulrahman Afia (a leadership coach) shared a video on his TikTok account talking about a study saying that appreciating an employee will affect there performance and that is noticeable in after 30 days, I don't know if you like studies or even believe in them but the one Mr. Afia is talk about is something that we can touch in our life easily!.

The video I talked about: https://www.tiktok.com/@abdurahmanafia/video/6948696974099090689