Beefy Boxes and Bandwidth Generously Provided by pair Networks
No such thing as a small change
 
PerlMonks  

Re: Some recent DNA threads

by aaron_baugher (Curate)
on Apr 29, 2012 at 15:10 UTC ( [id://967939]=note: print w/replies, xml ) Need Help??


in reply to Some recent DNA threads

The poor English skills struck me too. Yes, there are surely non-native-English speakers in the field, but we're still talking about very educated people. When I deal with educated people in other fields who have learned English as a second language, they'll occasionally get tripped up by an odd preposition usage or something, but in general their grammar is solid. Their English will strike me as stilted, but never sloppy.

So my guess is that at least some of these questions come from contracted programmers who got stuck with a Perl task despite having little or no experience with the language. If the researchers are hiring large coding companies, the work may be farmed out to wherever they've been able to find the cheapest coders this week. Even a well-respected company like IBM is starting to develop a reputation for high turnover, under-qualified coders, and poor communication skills, because they've made earnings-per-share (and thus cost) their primary concern.

So that's my guess: some guy who hasn't had his job for long and is already looking for a better one gets passed a task because he mentioned Perl in his job interview, and now he's stuck. He doesn't have the time (or incentive) to spend a few weeks really learning the language. He doesn't even have a few days to try things and wait for the back-and-forth here as people help him fix his errors. He just needs the code.

Aaron B.
My Woefully Neglected Blog, where I occasionally mention Perl.

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re^2: Some recent DNA threads
by Jenda (Abbot) on May 06, 2012 at 21:00 UTC

    They can get some help even with a sloppy description of their needs, but they can't get the code if they are unable to explain what is it to do. If I would need help and would have to ask in a language I'm not fluent in I'd do my best to explain with examples what it is I need. Simple sentences, careful spelling (as far as I can) and never ever any "cool" l33t5p33k. And I would mention I'm struggling with the language.

    But then I come from a place where it's considered more acceptable to say "I don't know this" than to claim I'm an expert in a field I've hardly heard of and fail miserably to fulfill the promises.

    The person you mention in your guess deserves to fail and the manager that hires him or the "outsourcing" company AGAIN deserves to be fired.

    Jenda
    Enoch was right!
    Enjoy the last years of Rome.

Log In?
Username:
Password:

What's my password?
Create A New User
Domain Nodelet?
Node Status?
node history
Node Type: note [id://967939]
help
Chatterbox?
and the web crawler heard nothing...

How do I use this?Last hourOther CB clients
Other Users?
Others having an uproarious good time at the Monastery: (5)
As of 2024-03-28 20:43 GMT
Sections?
Information?
Find Nodes?
Leftovers?
    Voting Booth?

    No recent polls found