Overcome with a terrible sense of depression
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I don't post on here at all really, I read a lot of articles and have learned a lot of awesome skills from the community here, but today I feel compelled to say what's on my mind and ask for help. I am a .NET app developer working for a web agency for the past 3 years, my first job as a developer, and today I came home from work entirely depressed. My boss is forever stuck in the past, horribly afraid of anything new and different, and completely out of touch with changes and advances in the world of software development. He's a nice guy, and genuinely loves programming, but he just has no idea about what's been happening in the C#/.NET world for the past few years I've been working there. He is still completely unfamiliar with LINQ and the functional aspects of C#, knows nothing about MVC yet maintains it is no better than WebForms, refuses to let us developers try new things or change the way we build apps simply because it takes time to learn and the fear that other developers at work aren't familiar with such things. When I brought up SOLID in a discussion a while ago, I was laughed at and told to stop talking about such "wanky ideals" ... mentioning any kind of design pattern or best practice gets ignored or dismissed with a comment about it being irrelevant. MVC is still (to him) just "reinventing the wheel in a way that has no benefits over WebForms". Yesterday I had to explain to him what an Expression was. The list goes on and on. I've known this about him for quite some time, even as a new developer when I started there I was introducing him to concepts I thought were common knowledge such as LINQ, functional programming, ORMs, certainly things that a newbie shouldn't have to explain to his Technical Director. But today it hit home that this is not going to change. I was told we cannot use .NET MVC due to the learning and skill improvement required for developers at work to understand it (even though I've taught myself over the past few years on side projects, and other developers at work have done the same). So basically, our current skills determine what we're ever going to be allowed to do, no self-improvement or changing of methods to keep up with the industry. I've pretty much given up trying to suggest things or discuss how we could improve the way we work. I love my job, I am extremely passionate about development, and I have a strong need to be continuously learning and improving my skills as a developer. This seems to be the opposite of what my boss is encouranging. He is stuck in
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I don't post on here at all really, I read a lot of articles and have learned a lot of awesome skills from the community here, but today I feel compelled to say what's on my mind and ask for help. I am a .NET app developer working for a web agency for the past 3 years, my first job as a developer, and today I came home from work entirely depressed. My boss is forever stuck in the past, horribly afraid of anything new and different, and completely out of touch with changes and advances in the world of software development. He's a nice guy, and genuinely loves programming, but he just has no idea about what's been happening in the C#/.NET world for the past few years I've been working there. He is still completely unfamiliar with LINQ and the functional aspects of C#, knows nothing about MVC yet maintains it is no better than WebForms, refuses to let us developers try new things or change the way we build apps simply because it takes time to learn and the fear that other developers at work aren't familiar with such things. When I brought up SOLID in a discussion a while ago, I was laughed at and told to stop talking about such "wanky ideals" ... mentioning any kind of design pattern or best practice gets ignored or dismissed with a comment about it being irrelevant. MVC is still (to him) just "reinventing the wheel in a way that has no benefits over WebForms". Yesterday I had to explain to him what an Expression was. The list goes on and on. I've known this about him for quite some time, even as a new developer when I started there I was introducing him to concepts I thought were common knowledge such as LINQ, functional programming, ORMs, certainly things that a newbie shouldn't have to explain to his Technical Director. But today it hit home that this is not going to change. I was told we cannot use .NET MVC due to the learning and skill improvement required for developers at work to understand it (even though I've taught myself over the past few years on side projects, and other developers at work have done the same). So basically, our current skills determine what we're ever going to be allowed to do, no self-improvement or changing of methods to keep up with the industry. I've pretty much given up trying to suggest things or discuss how we could improve the way we work. I love my job, I am extremely passionate about development, and I have a strong need to be continuously learning and improving my skills as a developer. This seems to be the opposite of what my boss is encouranging. He is stuck in
Asking it at workplace.stackexchange.com[^] might further help you solve your dilemma.
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Asking it at workplace.stackexchange.com[^] might further help you solve your dilemma.
I went there, but that site specifically forbids discussion related topics, as do all stackexchange sites ...
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I went there, but that site specifically forbids discussion related topics, as do all stackexchange sites ...
Your right, a question simmilar to yours[^] is closed as "not constructive". :doh: You might find some answer on that question or this[^] helpful.
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I don't post on here at all really, I read a lot of articles and have learned a lot of awesome skills from the community here, but today I feel compelled to say what's on my mind and ask for help. I am a .NET app developer working for a web agency for the past 3 years, my first job as a developer, and today I came home from work entirely depressed. My boss is forever stuck in the past, horribly afraid of anything new and different, and completely out of touch with changes and advances in the world of software development. He's a nice guy, and genuinely loves programming, but he just has no idea about what's been happening in the C#/.NET world for the past few years I've been working there. He is still completely unfamiliar with LINQ and the functional aspects of C#, knows nothing about MVC yet maintains it is no better than WebForms, refuses to let us developers try new things or change the way we build apps simply because it takes time to learn and the fear that other developers at work aren't familiar with such things. When I brought up SOLID in a discussion a while ago, I was laughed at and told to stop talking about such "wanky ideals" ... mentioning any kind of design pattern or best practice gets ignored or dismissed with a comment about it being irrelevant. MVC is still (to him) just "reinventing the wheel in a way that has no benefits over WebForms". Yesterday I had to explain to him what an Expression was. The list goes on and on. I've known this about him for quite some time, even as a new developer when I started there I was introducing him to concepts I thought were common knowledge such as LINQ, functional programming, ORMs, certainly things that a newbie shouldn't have to explain to his Technical Director. But today it hit home that this is not going to change. I was told we cannot use .NET MVC due to the learning and skill improvement required for developers at work to understand it (even though I've taught myself over the past few years on side projects, and other developers at work have done the same). So basically, our current skills determine what we're ever going to be allowed to do, no self-improvement or changing of methods to keep up with the industry. I've pretty much given up trying to suggest things or discuss how we could improve the way we work. I love my job, I am extremely passionate about development, and I have a strong need to be continuously learning and improving my skills as a developer. This seems to be the opposite of what my boss is encouranging. He is stuck in
well, there's always the vote with your feet option - just make sure where you're going is better, and dont burn any bridges ... what I would do is (in my own time), write an app that sh*ts over 'winforms' for instance, play with it and demo it, and casually let him see it - when he asks "how does it do x, y, z", you have the chance 'g'
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I don't post on here at all really, I read a lot of articles and have learned a lot of awesome skills from the community here, but today I feel compelled to say what's on my mind and ask for help. I am a .NET app developer working for a web agency for the past 3 years, my first job as a developer, and today I came home from work entirely depressed. My boss is forever stuck in the past, horribly afraid of anything new and different, and completely out of touch with changes and advances in the world of software development. He's a nice guy, and genuinely loves programming, but he just has no idea about what's been happening in the C#/.NET world for the past few years I've been working there. He is still completely unfamiliar with LINQ and the functional aspects of C#, knows nothing about MVC yet maintains it is no better than WebForms, refuses to let us developers try new things or change the way we build apps simply because it takes time to learn and the fear that other developers at work aren't familiar with such things. When I brought up SOLID in a discussion a while ago, I was laughed at and told to stop talking about such "wanky ideals" ... mentioning any kind of design pattern or best practice gets ignored or dismissed with a comment about it being irrelevant. MVC is still (to him) just "reinventing the wheel in a way that has no benefits over WebForms". Yesterday I had to explain to him what an Expression was. The list goes on and on. I've known this about him for quite some time, even as a new developer when I started there I was introducing him to concepts I thought were common knowledge such as LINQ, functional programming, ORMs, certainly things that a newbie shouldn't have to explain to his Technical Director. But today it hit home that this is not going to change. I was told we cannot use .NET MVC due to the learning and skill improvement required for developers at work to understand it (even though I've taught myself over the past few years on side projects, and other developers at work have done the same). So basically, our current skills determine what we're ever going to be allowed to do, no self-improvement or changing of methods to keep up with the industry. I've pretty much given up trying to suggest things or discuss how we could improve the way we work. I love my job, I am extremely passionate about development, and I have a strong need to be continuously learning and improving my skills as a developer. This seems to be the opposite of what my boss is encouranging. He is stuck in
If you think about it from his point of view, he has to strike the right balance between cutting edge vs reliability and ease of hiring people to maintain the existing systems. If you constantly upgrade tech to keep up, what happens if Microsoft drop the technology (for example Silverlight)? Will you be able to recruit for that particular tech? If I'm developing the architecture for my entire system I tend to steer clear of things like LINQ or ORM in favor of ADO.Net because it gives better system performance, and is easier to recruit for (find me a .Net developer who can't use ADO.Net and I'll find you a developer who has lied about their .Net experience, however the same can't be said for LINQ, NHiberate, Entity Framework etc). If you constantly switch techs for each project you'll end up in an environment where this project uses .Net 2.0, this one uses LINQ, this one uses NHibernate, this one uses F#, this one uses EF, this one uses SOA, this one is N-Tier - that's an un-maintainable mess, and you suddenly have to hire for a much higher basic skill level to be able to maintain these very disparate systems. The alternative to remove this particular "technical debt" would be to constantly rewrite every system for every new tech, and never achieve anything. Generally speaking you can "upgrade" techs you use most easily by moving to a company that isn't already heavily invested in a tech stack i.e. a company who are working on new products, or have decided to take the plunge and move from their legacy Access database to a web system. By and large though, there's very little justification for a business to upgrade to the tech of the day.
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I don't post on here at all really, I read a lot of articles and have learned a lot of awesome skills from the community here, but today I feel compelled to say what's on my mind and ask for help. I am a .NET app developer working for a web agency for the past 3 years, my first job as a developer, and today I came home from work entirely depressed. My boss is forever stuck in the past, horribly afraid of anything new and different, and completely out of touch with changes and advances in the world of software development. He's a nice guy, and genuinely loves programming, but he just has no idea about what's been happening in the C#/.NET world for the past few years I've been working there. He is still completely unfamiliar with LINQ and the functional aspects of C#, knows nothing about MVC yet maintains it is no better than WebForms, refuses to let us developers try new things or change the way we build apps simply because it takes time to learn and the fear that other developers at work aren't familiar with such things. When I brought up SOLID in a discussion a while ago, I was laughed at and told to stop talking about such "wanky ideals" ... mentioning any kind of design pattern or best practice gets ignored or dismissed with a comment about it being irrelevant. MVC is still (to him) just "reinventing the wheel in a way that has no benefits over WebForms". Yesterday I had to explain to him what an Expression was. The list goes on and on. I've known this about him for quite some time, even as a new developer when I started there I was introducing him to concepts I thought were common knowledge such as LINQ, functional programming, ORMs, certainly things that a newbie shouldn't have to explain to his Technical Director. But today it hit home that this is not going to change. I was told we cannot use .NET MVC due to the learning and skill improvement required for developers at work to understand it (even though I've taught myself over the past few years on side projects, and other developers at work have done the same). So basically, our current skills determine what we're ever going to be allowed to do, no self-improvement or changing of methods to keep up with the industry. I've pretty much given up trying to suggest things or discuss how we could improve the way we work. I love my job, I am extremely passionate about development, and I have a strong need to be continuously learning and improving my skills as a developer. This seems to be the opposite of what my boss is encouranging. He is stuck in
The fact that you have posted this here means that you know what you need to do, and it looks like you're just seeking confirmation that it's the right option. There are many things to consider here, but if I were you, I'd make a list of pros and cons of your current job and compare this to the pros and cons of any job that you would like to apply for. As a left field idea, have you considered contracting? I don't mean shrinking in size, I mean the heady world of self employment.
I was brought up to respect my elders. I don't respect many people nowadays.
CodeStash - Online Snippet Management | My blog | MoXAML PowerToys | Mole 2010 - debugging made easier -
I don't post on here at all really, I read a lot of articles and have learned a lot of awesome skills from the community here, but today I feel compelled to say what's on my mind and ask for help. I am a .NET app developer working for a web agency for the past 3 years, my first job as a developer, and today I came home from work entirely depressed. My boss is forever stuck in the past, horribly afraid of anything new and different, and completely out of touch with changes and advances in the world of software development. He's a nice guy, and genuinely loves programming, but he just has no idea about what's been happening in the C#/.NET world for the past few years I've been working there. He is still completely unfamiliar with LINQ and the functional aspects of C#, knows nothing about MVC yet maintains it is no better than WebForms, refuses to let us developers try new things or change the way we build apps simply because it takes time to learn and the fear that other developers at work aren't familiar with such things. When I brought up SOLID in a discussion a while ago, I was laughed at and told to stop talking about such "wanky ideals" ... mentioning any kind of design pattern or best practice gets ignored or dismissed with a comment about it being irrelevant. MVC is still (to him) just "reinventing the wheel in a way that has no benefits over WebForms". Yesterday I had to explain to him what an Expression was. The list goes on and on. I've known this about him for quite some time, even as a new developer when I started there I was introducing him to concepts I thought were common knowledge such as LINQ, functional programming, ORMs, certainly things that a newbie shouldn't have to explain to his Technical Director. But today it hit home that this is not going to change. I was told we cannot use .NET MVC due to the learning and skill improvement required for developers at work to understand it (even though I've taught myself over the past few years on side projects, and other developers at work have done the same). So basically, our current skills determine what we're ever going to be allowed to do, no self-improvement or changing of methods to keep up with the industry. I've pretty much given up trying to suggest things or discuss how we could improve the way we work. I love my job, I am extremely passionate about development, and I have a strong need to be continuously learning and improving my skills as a developer. This seems to be the opposite of what my boss is encouranging. He is stuck in
You need to reme,ber that the company is in business to make money and not to be a fun place to learn new things. Your td may have a sense of fear, uncertainty and doubt but you need to show him a real advantage in bringing in new tech. I have worked at many a place where they have introduced the latest mvc , mvvm, wpf etc. and the debs have thought they knew their stuff, but found many problems when applying into a larger solution - result? E software took just as long if not longer to develop, was less flexible and had more maintenance problems. If you want to look t new stuff, why not suggest you phase it in over a long period of time - formally investigate (say) mvc , develop standards and exemplars for the company, and report on each technology - provide real, financial advantages, pros and cons etc. If you can persuade the company to let you LOOK at new stuff, while continuing using the standard tech, it may alleviate his fear , and it may also make you realize that you cannot justify some of the changes you'd like to see on a business level. After all, if you can develop x application using web forms in 10 weeks, to a high standard, then I would be asking you how much faster, and how much better (ie more easily maintainable, flexible etc.) it would be with mvc. Finally, if you love your job stick with it, is my advice. I work with the latest tech in a rotten environment that depresses me daily!
MVVM# - See how I did MVVM my way ___________________________________________ Man, you're a god. - walterhevedeich 26/05/2011 .\\axxx (That's an 'M')
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I don't post on here at all really, I read a lot of articles and have learned a lot of awesome skills from the community here, but today I feel compelled to say what's on my mind and ask for help. I am a .NET app developer working for a web agency for the past 3 years, my first job as a developer, and today I came home from work entirely depressed. My boss is forever stuck in the past, horribly afraid of anything new and different, and completely out of touch with changes and advances in the world of software development. He's a nice guy, and genuinely loves programming, but he just has no idea about what's been happening in the C#/.NET world for the past few years I've been working there. He is still completely unfamiliar with LINQ and the functional aspects of C#, knows nothing about MVC yet maintains it is no better than WebForms, refuses to let us developers try new things or change the way we build apps simply because it takes time to learn and the fear that other developers at work aren't familiar with such things. When I brought up SOLID in a discussion a while ago, I was laughed at and told to stop talking about such "wanky ideals" ... mentioning any kind of design pattern or best practice gets ignored or dismissed with a comment about it being irrelevant. MVC is still (to him) just "reinventing the wheel in a way that has no benefits over WebForms". Yesterday I had to explain to him what an Expression was. The list goes on and on. I've known this about him for quite some time, even as a new developer when I started there I was introducing him to concepts I thought were common knowledge such as LINQ, functional programming, ORMs, certainly things that a newbie shouldn't have to explain to his Technical Director. But today it hit home that this is not going to change. I was told we cannot use .NET MVC due to the learning and skill improvement required for developers at work to understand it (even though I've taught myself over the past few years on side projects, and other developers at work have done the same). So basically, our current skills determine what we're ever going to be allowed to do, no self-improvement or changing of methods to keep up with the industry. I've pretty much given up trying to suggest things or discuss how we could improve the way we work. I love my job, I am extremely passionate about development, and I have a strong need to be continuously learning and improving my skills as a developer. This seems to be the opposite of what my boss is encouranging. He is stuck in
It's not worth letting that get to your health. Not exactly a defense of your boss, but consider: There are many great products where the underlying technology lags behind one or two decades. I've recently seen a magnificient demo where the underlying technology is a weird mix of fortran, c, java and proprietary macros that gives my dev synapses shell shock. Why we do that? Because you can take any tech student, throw an idea at them and they make happen what all my meta-template-mastery won't. As developers we are in an extraordinary lucky position: we can hope a job not just puts food under a roof, but also is fulfilling. There's no guarantee, though. being happy is your job. Look for a new job - of course, but that's not always the most rewarding way to go. Can you afford to live with a little less bling? You may try to reduce your working hours, join other projects, there's a lot of fun out there to be had. Taking off two unpaid days a month costs you roughly 10% of your pay, and can give you a lot of long weekends you can dedicate to whatever you want to do. It is certainly not foolish that you want to change how you guys write code, and realizing you won't change it is, on a personal level, a great leap forward for you: you have just unlocked a lot of resources that were locked down in an uphill battle.
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I don't post on here at all really, I read a lot of articles and have learned a lot of awesome skills from the community here, but today I feel compelled to say what's on my mind and ask for help. I am a .NET app developer working for a web agency for the past 3 years, my first job as a developer, and today I came home from work entirely depressed. My boss is forever stuck in the past, horribly afraid of anything new and different, and completely out of touch with changes and advances in the world of software development. He's a nice guy, and genuinely loves programming, but he just has no idea about what's been happening in the C#/.NET world for the past few years I've been working there. He is still completely unfamiliar with LINQ and the functional aspects of C#, knows nothing about MVC yet maintains it is no better than WebForms, refuses to let us developers try new things or change the way we build apps simply because it takes time to learn and the fear that other developers at work aren't familiar with such things. When I brought up SOLID in a discussion a while ago, I was laughed at and told to stop talking about such "wanky ideals" ... mentioning any kind of design pattern or best practice gets ignored or dismissed with a comment about it being irrelevant. MVC is still (to him) just "reinventing the wheel in a way that has no benefits over WebForms". Yesterday I had to explain to him what an Expression was. The list goes on and on. I've known this about him for quite some time, even as a new developer when I started there I was introducing him to concepts I thought were common knowledge such as LINQ, functional programming, ORMs, certainly things that a newbie shouldn't have to explain to his Technical Director. But today it hit home that this is not going to change. I was told we cannot use .NET MVC due to the learning and skill improvement required for developers at work to understand it (even though I've taught myself over the past few years on side projects, and other developers at work have done the same). So basically, our current skills determine what we're ever going to be allowed to do, no self-improvement or changing of methods to keep up with the industry. I've pretty much given up trying to suggest things or discuss how we could improve the way we work. I love my job, I am extremely passionate about development, and I have a strong need to be continuously learning and improving my skills as a developer. This seems to be the opposite of what my boss is encouranging. He is stuck in
I can fully sympathise with your position.
Ryan Criddle wrote:
My boss is forever stuck in the past, horribly afraid of anything new and different, and completely out of touch with changes and advances in the world of software development.
This isn't my boss, but a good number of my colleagues.
Ryan Criddle wrote:
He is still completely unfamiliar with LINQ and the functional aspects of C#, knows nothing about MVC yet maintains it is no better than WebForms
We've got devs who tell me that I need to remove all dependencies on IIS from my ASP.net apps because one day Microsoft might stop supporting IIS. These are the same devs who loop over generic collections to create arrays, despite .ToArray(), arguing that "you don't know what LINQ is doing internally".. bottom line is, I don't give a hoot if internally LINQ faxes a photocopy of handwritten IL to a roast pork sandwich shop in the Dearne Valley for a laugh. I trust my tools enough to get on with my job and not apply the programming equivalent of duct tape.
Ryan Criddle wrote:
When I brought up SOLID in a discussion a while ago, I was laughed at and told to stop talking about such "wanky ideals" ... mentioning any kind of design pattern or best practice gets ignored or dismissed with a comment about it being irrelevant.
I get dismissed as a "fanciful theorist" when I bring up stuff like this, until they almost drown in their own WTFs. Then they come to me for help. But seriously, "wanky ideals"?? a person idly dismissing industry best practices with language like that is in the wrong job.
Ryan Criddle wrote:
I have a strong need to be continuously learning and improving my skills as a developer
It's part of being a developer as far as I'm concerned. You don't see any building firms making housing estates of mud huts, nor do you see estate agents selling ideal caves for small families or young professionals. things move on.
Ryan Criddle wrote:
What should I do?
Get another job.
Ryan Criddle wrote:
Am I foolish for wanting to change these things?
Not in the slightest. You give a shit and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that.
Ryan Criddle
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I don't post on here at all really, I read a lot of articles and have learned a lot of awesome skills from the community here, but today I feel compelled to say what's on my mind and ask for help. I am a .NET app developer working for a web agency for the past 3 years, my first job as a developer, and today I came home from work entirely depressed. My boss is forever stuck in the past, horribly afraid of anything new and different, and completely out of touch with changes and advances in the world of software development. He's a nice guy, and genuinely loves programming, but he just has no idea about what's been happening in the C#/.NET world for the past few years I've been working there. He is still completely unfamiliar with LINQ and the functional aspects of C#, knows nothing about MVC yet maintains it is no better than WebForms, refuses to let us developers try new things or change the way we build apps simply because it takes time to learn and the fear that other developers at work aren't familiar with such things. When I brought up SOLID in a discussion a while ago, I was laughed at and told to stop talking about such "wanky ideals" ... mentioning any kind of design pattern or best practice gets ignored or dismissed with a comment about it being irrelevant. MVC is still (to him) just "reinventing the wheel in a way that has no benefits over WebForms". Yesterday I had to explain to him what an Expression was. The list goes on and on. I've known this about him for quite some time, even as a new developer when I started there I was introducing him to concepts I thought were common knowledge such as LINQ, functional programming, ORMs, certainly things that a newbie shouldn't have to explain to his Technical Director. But today it hit home that this is not going to change. I was told we cannot use .NET MVC due to the learning and skill improvement required for developers at work to understand it (even though I've taught myself over the past few years on side projects, and other developers at work have done the same). So basically, our current skills determine what we're ever going to be allowed to do, no self-improvement or changing of methods to keep up with the industry. I've pretty much given up trying to suggest things or discuss how we could improve the way we work. I love my job, I am extremely passionate about development, and I have a strong need to be continuously learning and improving my skills as a developer. This seems to be the opposite of what my boss is encouranging. He is stuck in
I have been there and I feel for you. I started out in a very progressive firm and didn't know how bad it could be but when I first cam to Nottingham I worked for an outfit where the senior devs didn't want me to use COM, considered it too newfangled and edgy, in 2004 :omg: I moved on and my only regret was not doing so sooner, however I have no dependents and being poor is not such an issue for me as it is for some so I can take risks. You'll need to look at your own situation and decide. I hope things improve for you and yes there are progressive companies out there where the latest technology is embraced pretty much as a matter of course.
"The secret of happiness is freedom, and the secret of freedom, courage." Thucydides (B.C. 460-400)
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I don't post on here at all really, I read a lot of articles and have learned a lot of awesome skills from the community here, but today I feel compelled to say what's on my mind and ask for help. I am a .NET app developer working for a web agency for the past 3 years, my first job as a developer, and today I came home from work entirely depressed. My boss is forever stuck in the past, horribly afraid of anything new and different, and completely out of touch with changes and advances in the world of software development. He's a nice guy, and genuinely loves programming, but he just has no idea about what's been happening in the C#/.NET world for the past few years I've been working there. He is still completely unfamiliar with LINQ and the functional aspects of C#, knows nothing about MVC yet maintains it is no better than WebForms, refuses to let us developers try new things or change the way we build apps simply because it takes time to learn and the fear that other developers at work aren't familiar with such things. When I brought up SOLID in a discussion a while ago, I was laughed at and told to stop talking about such "wanky ideals" ... mentioning any kind of design pattern or best practice gets ignored or dismissed with a comment about it being irrelevant. MVC is still (to him) just "reinventing the wheel in a way that has no benefits over WebForms". Yesterday I had to explain to him what an Expression was. The list goes on and on. I've known this about him for quite some time, even as a new developer when I started there I was introducing him to concepts I thought were common knowledge such as LINQ, functional programming, ORMs, certainly things that a newbie shouldn't have to explain to his Technical Director. But today it hit home that this is not going to change. I was told we cannot use .NET MVC due to the learning and skill improvement required for developers at work to understand it (even though I've taught myself over the past few years on side projects, and other developers at work have done the same). So basically, our current skills determine what we're ever going to be allowed to do, no self-improvement or changing of methods to keep up with the industry. I've pretty much given up trying to suggest things or discuss how we could improve the way we work. I love my job, I am extremely passionate about development, and I have a strong need to be continuously learning and improving my skills as a developer. This seems to be the opposite of what my boss is encouranging. He is stuck in
Ryan Criddle wrote:
I love the people I work with and also love my job
Then why worry about anything else? Take note of just how bluddy lucky you are that those two are right, and program in MS Basic, if it lets you keep them that way.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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I don't post on here at all really, I read a lot of articles and have learned a lot of awesome skills from the community here, but today I feel compelled to say what's on my mind and ask for help. I am a .NET app developer working for a web agency for the past 3 years, my first job as a developer, and today I came home from work entirely depressed. My boss is forever stuck in the past, horribly afraid of anything new and different, and completely out of touch with changes and advances in the world of software development. He's a nice guy, and genuinely loves programming, but he just has no idea about what's been happening in the C#/.NET world for the past few years I've been working there. He is still completely unfamiliar with LINQ and the functional aspects of C#, knows nothing about MVC yet maintains it is no better than WebForms, refuses to let us developers try new things or change the way we build apps simply because it takes time to learn and the fear that other developers at work aren't familiar with such things. When I brought up SOLID in a discussion a while ago, I was laughed at and told to stop talking about such "wanky ideals" ... mentioning any kind of design pattern or best practice gets ignored or dismissed with a comment about it being irrelevant. MVC is still (to him) just "reinventing the wheel in a way that has no benefits over WebForms". Yesterday I had to explain to him what an Expression was. The list goes on and on. I've known this about him for quite some time, even as a new developer when I started there I was introducing him to concepts I thought were common knowledge such as LINQ, functional programming, ORMs, certainly things that a newbie shouldn't have to explain to his Technical Director. But today it hit home that this is not going to change. I was told we cannot use .NET MVC due to the learning and skill improvement required for developers at work to understand it (even though I've taught myself over the past few years on side projects, and other developers at work have done the same). So basically, our current skills determine what we're ever going to be allowed to do, no self-improvement or changing of methods to keep up with the industry. I've pretty much given up trying to suggest things or discuss how we could improve the way we work. I love my job, I am extremely passionate about development, and I have a strong need to be continuously learning and improving my skills as a developer. This seems to be the opposite of what my boss is encouranging. He is stuck in
My own experience tells that the most effective way to persuade the boss that some approach works is to offer him 75% ready solution using it, for the boss (on average) is eventually looking for solutions not for technologies. Unfortunately such an opportunity is quite rare... In general bosses deserve to be undestood. Treat this as a producer-consumer chain. You as a developer consume technologies and produce working code. The boss consumes your outcome and produces whatever he is expected to produce to feed the next in chain consumer and so on... At some stage in project's life every new technology looks the more desireable the more it is a profitable replacement for already used ones, not just fashionable extension. So that it makes your outcome easier to consume, not just your skills alone are pumped up.
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I don't post on here at all really, I read a lot of articles and have learned a lot of awesome skills from the community here, but today I feel compelled to say what's on my mind and ask for help. I am a .NET app developer working for a web agency for the past 3 years, my first job as a developer, and today I came home from work entirely depressed. My boss is forever stuck in the past, horribly afraid of anything new and different, and completely out of touch with changes and advances in the world of software development. He's a nice guy, and genuinely loves programming, but he just has no idea about what's been happening in the C#/.NET world for the past few years I've been working there. He is still completely unfamiliar with LINQ and the functional aspects of C#, knows nothing about MVC yet maintains it is no better than WebForms, refuses to let us developers try new things or change the way we build apps simply because it takes time to learn and the fear that other developers at work aren't familiar with such things. When I brought up SOLID in a discussion a while ago, I was laughed at and told to stop talking about such "wanky ideals" ... mentioning any kind of design pattern or best practice gets ignored or dismissed with a comment about it being irrelevant. MVC is still (to him) just "reinventing the wheel in a way that has no benefits over WebForms". Yesterday I had to explain to him what an Expression was. The list goes on and on. I've known this about him for quite some time, even as a new developer when I started there I was introducing him to concepts I thought were common knowledge such as LINQ, functional programming, ORMs, certainly things that a newbie shouldn't have to explain to his Technical Director. But today it hit home that this is not going to change. I was told we cannot use .NET MVC due to the learning and skill improvement required for developers at work to understand it (even though I've taught myself over the past few years on side projects, and other developers at work have done the same). So basically, our current skills determine what we're ever going to be allowed to do, no self-improvement or changing of methods to keep up with the industry. I've pretty much given up trying to suggest things or discuss how we could improve the way we work. I love my job, I am extremely passionate about development, and I have a strong need to be continuously learning and improving my skills as a developer. This seems to be the opposite of what my boss is encouranging. He is stuck in
My advice, having been through the same thing, is treat this like a job. If you like the people you work with, then stay there and use your free time for hobbies. It's all about the paycheck, after all. I did switch jobs. I like the place I work now, and it is better than where I worked before. Start looking for a great place while you work at this place. Don't move too quickly, make sure you get a plac eyou are really going to like.
If it moves, compile it
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I don't post on here at all really, I read a lot of articles and have learned a lot of awesome skills from the community here, but today I feel compelled to say what's on my mind and ask for help. I am a .NET app developer working for a web agency for the past 3 years, my first job as a developer, and today I came home from work entirely depressed. My boss is forever stuck in the past, horribly afraid of anything new and different, and completely out of touch with changes and advances in the world of software development. He's a nice guy, and genuinely loves programming, but he just has no idea about what's been happening in the C#/.NET world for the past few years I've been working there. He is still completely unfamiliar with LINQ and the functional aspects of C#, knows nothing about MVC yet maintains it is no better than WebForms, refuses to let us developers try new things or change the way we build apps simply because it takes time to learn and the fear that other developers at work aren't familiar with such things. When I brought up SOLID in a discussion a while ago, I was laughed at and told to stop talking about such "wanky ideals" ... mentioning any kind of design pattern or best practice gets ignored or dismissed with a comment about it being irrelevant. MVC is still (to him) just "reinventing the wheel in a way that has no benefits over WebForms". Yesterday I had to explain to him what an Expression was. The list goes on and on. I've known this about him for quite some time, even as a new developer when I started there I was introducing him to concepts I thought were common knowledge such as LINQ, functional programming, ORMs, certainly things that a newbie shouldn't have to explain to his Technical Director. But today it hit home that this is not going to change. I was told we cannot use .NET MVC due to the learning and skill improvement required for developers at work to understand it (even though I've taught myself over the past few years on side projects, and other developers at work have done the same). So basically, our current skills determine what we're ever going to be allowed to do, no self-improvement or changing of methods to keep up with the industry. I've pretty much given up trying to suggest things or discuss how we could improve the way we work. I love my job, I am extremely passionate about development, and I have a strong need to be continuously learning and improving my skills as a developer. This seems to be the opposite of what my boss is encouranging. He is stuck in
It cannot be overemphasized that your boss has different needs than you. Frankly, I agree with your boss. I've been around a long time and heard all the claims about how some technology is so much better only to see it crash and burn. One of my growing frustrations is modern developers' increased reliance on buzzwords and frameworks, which may help get initial development done faster, but which cause maintenance nightmares. To put this another way, when you say "we need to use SOLID and MVC", your boss is likely hearing "programming is so hard, we need a new shiny thing." And he knows two years from now, he'll hear "SOLID and MVC are so hard, we need XXXX and YYY and then things will be so much better." Incidentally, .NET MVC is already obsolete; MVVM is the "in" thing. Finally, I worked at a company where a team championed the latest greatest and were allowed to use it. Two years later, they spent months replacing it because it had turned into a maintenance nightmare. In a larger company, how long would that boss keep his job? ("You know that half a million we spent doing X, well we need another half a million to switch to Y since X isn't maintainable. Oh, and it will push out release of version 3 for six months.")
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I don't post on here at all really, I read a lot of articles and have learned a lot of awesome skills from the community here, but today I feel compelled to say what's on my mind and ask for help. I am a .NET app developer working for a web agency for the past 3 years, my first job as a developer, and today I came home from work entirely depressed. My boss is forever stuck in the past, horribly afraid of anything new and different, and completely out of touch with changes and advances in the world of software development. He's a nice guy, and genuinely loves programming, but he just has no idea about what's been happening in the C#/.NET world for the past few years I've been working there. He is still completely unfamiliar with LINQ and the functional aspects of C#, knows nothing about MVC yet maintains it is no better than WebForms, refuses to let us developers try new things or change the way we build apps simply because it takes time to learn and the fear that other developers at work aren't familiar with such things. When I brought up SOLID in a discussion a while ago, I was laughed at and told to stop talking about such "wanky ideals" ... mentioning any kind of design pattern or best practice gets ignored or dismissed with a comment about it being irrelevant. MVC is still (to him) just "reinventing the wheel in a way that has no benefits over WebForms". Yesterday I had to explain to him what an Expression was. The list goes on and on. I've known this about him for quite some time, even as a new developer when I started there I was introducing him to concepts I thought were common knowledge such as LINQ, functional programming, ORMs, certainly things that a newbie shouldn't have to explain to his Technical Director. But today it hit home that this is not going to change. I was told we cannot use .NET MVC due to the learning and skill improvement required for developers at work to understand it (even though I've taught myself over the past few years on side projects, and other developers at work have done the same). So basically, our current skills determine what we're ever going to be allowed to do, no self-improvement or changing of methods to keep up with the industry. I've pretty much given up trying to suggest things or discuss how we could improve the way we work. I love my job, I am extremely passionate about development, and I have a strong need to be continuously learning and improving my skills as a developer. This seems to be the opposite of what my boss is encouranging. He is stuck in
I was in the same position at my last job. We were using VB6 everywhere. My solution was to provide a clear upgrade path to Windows Forms (using interop techniques to incrementally upgrade). I didn't get approval to do that, so I found other ways to experiment with new technologies. For one, I built various utilities to make my life easier, and I built them all in newer technologies than VB6. In fact, I wrote every single tool currently on this page at my last job: http://aspdotnetdev.com/DevPortfolio/desktop_apps.htm. That worked for a while; however, it only lasted about a year and a half. Eventually, I had to move on to a new job (my current job is fantastic in that I'm pretty much constantly learning). In fact, I'm working with the technologies/techniques you mentioned... LINQ to Entities (ORM), MVC, Ninject, and we're even exploring our options for a new CMS. If I were you, I'd find a job more suited to my capabilities/desires. Let them stagnate on their own.
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I don't post on here at all really, I read a lot of articles and have learned a lot of awesome skills from the community here, but today I feel compelled to say what's on my mind and ask for help. I am a .NET app developer working for a web agency for the past 3 years, my first job as a developer, and today I came home from work entirely depressed. My boss is forever stuck in the past, horribly afraid of anything new and different, and completely out of touch with changes and advances in the world of software development. He's a nice guy, and genuinely loves programming, but he just has no idea about what's been happening in the C#/.NET world for the past few years I've been working there. He is still completely unfamiliar with LINQ and the functional aspects of C#, knows nothing about MVC yet maintains it is no better than WebForms, refuses to let us developers try new things or change the way we build apps simply because it takes time to learn and the fear that other developers at work aren't familiar with such things. When I brought up SOLID in a discussion a while ago, I was laughed at and told to stop talking about such "wanky ideals" ... mentioning any kind of design pattern or best practice gets ignored or dismissed with a comment about it being irrelevant. MVC is still (to him) just "reinventing the wheel in a way that has no benefits over WebForms". Yesterday I had to explain to him what an Expression was. The list goes on and on. I've known this about him for quite some time, even as a new developer when I started there I was introducing him to concepts I thought were common knowledge such as LINQ, functional programming, ORMs, certainly things that a newbie shouldn't have to explain to his Technical Director. But today it hit home that this is not going to change. I was told we cannot use .NET MVC due to the learning and skill improvement required for developers at work to understand it (even though I've taught myself over the past few years on side projects, and other developers at work have done the same). So basically, our current skills determine what we're ever going to be allowed to do, no self-improvement or changing of methods to keep up with the industry. I've pretty much given up trying to suggest things or discuss how we could improve the way we work. I love my job, I am extremely passionate about development, and I have a strong need to be continuously learning and improving my skills as a developer. This seems to be the opposite of what my boss is encouranging. He is stuck in
Ryan Criddle wrote:
I am a .NET app developer working for a web agency for the past 3 years, my first job as a developer, and today I came home from work entirely depressed. My boss is forever stuck in the past, horribly afraid of anything new and different, and completely out of touch with changes and advances in the world of software development.
Maybe you could learn something about how business works and not just technology?