Comment On Classic WTF: The Brillant Paula Bean

I would post a comment, but I feel this one has been beaten to death over the past several years.

Shame on you for disclosing the application's full source code! Now competitors can copy all the features.

Brilliant!

This is probably the most oft-quoted WTF of all time, and for good reason. It just goes to show you (of course, all of us already know this) that highly paid contractor/consultant != GOOD contractor/consultant.

But, like the old saying goes: A fool and his money are soon parted. Especially when they get suckered by skilled bullshit artists who charge ludicrous rates and deliver garbage ;-)

It just goes to show you (of course, all of us already know this) that highly paid contractor/consultant != GOOD contractor/consultant.

And that managers should seek out regular updates and demos if they're not forthcoming. Most techs are very happy to show off their app's newest features and chat about the specifics of the hurdles they've overcome.

If they're not doing that, it's a warning sign.

German B.:

Shame on you for disclosing the application's full source code! Now competitors can copy all the features.

This quote pretty much encompasses all I could ever say about this article. I must say, Brilliant!

Lorenzo Church:

Brilliant!

Don't you mean "Brillant"?

This is an example of why companies should do TDD ;)

Now admittedly i have slow coded my way through a project or two in the past but i usually start cherry picking the easy code to rewrite or write in this case. Or at the very least make sure the I/O schema will work. This is just amazing only one word can sum it up, Brilliant!

Antónimo Covard:

Lorenzo Church:

Brilliant!

Don't you mean "Brillant"?

maybe if he was speaking French.

Read the code...

At last a JavaBean that makes sense!

As much as people knock the concept of being paid per line...

This is simply my favourite WTF of all time.

As someone posted a screenshot on the sidebar a while ago, it even made it on the wikipedia fundraising blog. :-D

I still think if she managed to keep this job for that long while doing that much work in total, she must have been doing something right. Or typing veeeeery slowly.

oh god and it remembered the last name I posted with...

wolf:

Antónimo Covard:

Lorenzo Church:

Brilliant!

Don't you mean "Brillant"?

maybe if he was speaking French.

It's "brillig", you slithy toves.

It's real WTF by Heidi S and Michael Hanson's

Don't check progress during work, especially new people.. how could they survive in the business world?

Paula Bean:

Brilliant!

'twas brillant, and the slithy codes
Did gyre and gimble on the Web...

operagost:

'twas brillant, and the slithy codes
Did gyre and gimble on the Web...

And hast thou hacked the Javascript?

ObiWayneKenobi:

This is probably the most oft-quoted WTF of all time, and for good reason. It just goes to show you (of course, all of us already know this) that highly paid contractor/consultant != GOOD contractor/consultant.

But, like the old saying goes: A fool and his money are soon parted. Especially when they get suckered by skilled bullshit artists who charge ludicrous rates and deliver garbage ;-)

What i find interesting is: There is an inverse correlation between your skill and your pay. The more skilled the lower your pay...
Sometimes it even applies to your length of employment. But if thats the case then you should be glad to leave that company.

The REAL WTF is that anyone would hire only one coder to do fill-in-the-gaps type work on any serious program.

Paula:

I still think if she managed to keep this job for that long while doing that much work in total, she must have been doing something right. Or typing veeeeery slowly.

Hey not bad, if she can get work with those kinds of skills, i think shes in the wrong profession. She should quit programming and start being a salesman for that same company, she would go far!

That's a really powerful bean !!!

dlikhten:

What i find interesting is: There is an inverse correlation between your skill and your pay. The more skilled the lower your pay...

Sad, isn't it?
I'm getting a total of under $20,000/year in my job... While at the same time, there's people "higher up" with less clue making really bad decisions, and getting $100,000+ for a similar type of job.

tin:

I'm getting a total of under $20,000/year in my job... While at the same time, there's people "higher up" with less clue making really bad decisions, and getting $100,000+ for a similar type of job.

Move. You will never go from -20,000 to +100,000 at the same place. Raises come incrementally. When I finally realized that at my first IT position, after five years of incremental 3% raises, I moved to a new location and immediately almost tripled my income.

FredSaw:

tin:

I'm getting a total of under $20,000/year in my job... While at the same time, there's people "higher up" with less clue making really bad decisions, and getting $100,000+ for a similar type of job.

Move. You will never go from -20,000 to +100,000 at the same place. Raises come incrementally. When I finally realized that at my first IT position, after five years of incremental 3% raises, I moved to a new location and immediately almost tripled my income.

-20,000? That's a mighty bad salery!

I still think if she managed to keep this job for that long while doing that much work in total, she must have been doing something right.

Indeed. I don't think it's possible in a modern open plan office environment for someone to sit on their hands doing absolutely nothing for months. People notice you're bored, they'll see you browsing the web or whatever.

What was actually occupying her time? Was she so drowned in 'firefighting tasks' or daily support she didn't have time to get any of her 'background programming task' out of the way?

dlikhten:

ObiWayneKenobi:

This is probably the most oft-quoted WTF of all time, and for good reason. It just goes to show you (of course, all of us already know this) that highly paid contractor/consultant != GOOD contractor/consultant.

But, like the old saying goes: A fool and his money are soon parted. Especially when they get suckered by skilled bullshit artists who charge ludicrous rates and deliver garbage ;-)

What i find interesting is: There is an inverse correlation between your skill and your pay. The more skilled the lower your pay...

This is often something people of low pay say to console themselves.

Silly:

dlikhten:

ObiWayneKenobi:

This is probably the most oft-quoted WTF of all time, and for good reason. It just goes to show you (of course, all of us already know this) that highly paid contractor/consultant != GOOD contractor/consultant.

But, like the old saying goes: A fool and his money are soon parted. Especially when they get suckered by skilled bullshit artists who charge ludicrous rates and deliver garbage ;-)

What i find interesting is: There is an inverse correlation between your skill and your pay. The more skilled the lower your pay...

This is often something people of low pay say to console themselves.

Yup, or those that don't understand there are other important qualities other than raw technical ability.

AC:

This is simply my favourite WTF of all time.

As someone posted a screenshot on the sidebar a while ago, it even made it on the wikipedia fundraising blog. :-D

Just stumbled upon this gem:

Brillant may refer to:
· Felix Brillant
· Dany Brillant
· Jean Brillant
· Paula Bean

...

Does anybody want to create the article? 9=]

I give her points for avoiding the temptation of using "my" as a prefix to everything. It could have easily been:

package test;

public class myBean {

private String myString = "Brillant";

public String getMyString() {
return myString;
}
}

Which gives me the shits to no end when I see it in production code :-)

Sums up a lot of what is wrong with IT.

* Too much emphasis of having the right buzzwords on your CV. As I used to put it "having played with the right toys". The number of jobs I couldn't get in the past because I'd played with the "wrong" toys.

* Bad management, particularly for starters. Where was the plan?

By the way, it is perfectly reasonable for a starter to having "nothing to show" after 2 weeks because they should be reading up on the specifications and the system, running demos of it, possibly tracing through, looking at code, looking at office procedures, etc. So the first few weeks are a learning process, no matter how experienced the person is.

I generally write this stuff up in a document as I observe it, partly because it's useful to have and partly because it's useful to show to others, partly with what you think you have learnt (they can verify it) and partly to show you haven't been doing absolutely nothing.

Looking at the original post in a different context, it could be that Paula simply was not used to the framework, i.e. was used to Eclipse and they were using Ant or whatever, and was trying to get a small compilable sample.

Also there are many out there who are fine at maintaining code in a language but would totally freak out about having to get started. I am different personally, I like to build everything up from scratch. (That doesn't mean I don't use libraries, I do, particularly the built-in language ones, but I'm referring to the application / the model, etc).

BillyBob:

I give her points for avoiding the temptation of using "my" as a prefix to everything.

Bah, prefixing everything with "my" is so amateurish. The project I've most recently inherited was written up to enterprise quality standards. Every name is instead prefixed with "some".

package test;

public class someBean{

    private String someString = "Brillant";

    private String getSomeString(){

        return someString;

    }

}

And yes, it is production code.

You should have seen it before it was refactored.

dlikhten:

ObiWayneKenobi:

This is probably the most oft-quoted WTF of all time, and for good reason. It just goes to show you (of course, all of us already know this) that highly paid contractor/consultant != GOOD contractor/consultant.

But, like the old saying goes: A fool and his money are soon parted. Especially when they get suckered by skilled bullshit artists who charge ludicrous rates and deliver garbage ;-)

What i find interesting is: There is an inverse correlation between your skill and your pay. The more skilled the lower your pay...
Sometimes it even applies to your length of employment. But if thats the case then you should be glad to leave that company.

Interesting that you can derive those propositions from a single instance of (presumably anonymised) cretinism.

Given the fact that YOU (well, you're prepared to lc the personal pronoun, so wtf) are hugely skilled and talented, and are therefore at a disadvantage ... have I got a deal for you!

Yes, YOU!

Toiling away with an IQ of 175 and an encyclopedic knowledge of all those ill-written and undocumented corners of the Java library landscape?

Paid a measly $5.50 an hour to write Paula^H^H^H^H^HJavaBean applications for unappreciative Corporate Sharks?

We here at Aardvark Enterprises are prepared to offer you a Full Frontal Lobotomy, performed with a Big Rusty Nail through the Eyeball (your choice), for only $9.95 (plus local tax where applicable).

Enhance your stupidity!

Remove those unsightly, grey, gooey bits that get in the way of your career!

And, most importantly of all, Stop Whining! (Well, with no frontal lobes, the best you can probably do is a Wheeze. Which isn't nearly as effective in an Interview Situation.)

Remember, Only $9.95! This Offer Can't Last Long! Oh, and by the way, what the fuck are you on about?

Greg D:

BillyBob:

I give her points for avoiding the temptation of using "my" as a prefix to everything.

Bah, prefixing everything with "my" is so amateurish. The project I've most recently inherited was written up to enterprise quality standards. Every name is instead prefixed with "some".

package test;

public class someBean{

    private String someString = "Brillant";

    private String getSomeString(){

        return someString;

    }

}

And yes, it is production code.

Exactly what does it "produce"?

One of my ex colleges was so busy reading specifications and writing test cases that he didn't have time to code at all during one project. He was a programmer in the project, though.

I kind of understand Paula's code, in case she worked hard in other areas of her project.

real_aardvark:

Greg D:

BillyBob:

I give her points for avoiding the temptation of using "my" as a prefix to everything.

Bah, prefixing everything with "my" is so amateurish. The project I've most recently inherited was written up to enterprise quality standards. Every name is instead prefixed with "some".

package test;

public class someBean{

    private String someString = "Brillant";

    private String getSomeString(){

        return someString;

    }

}

And yes, it is production code.

Exactly what does it "produce"?

Job security.

Neverhood:

FredSaw:

tin:

I'm getting a total of under $20,000/year in my job... While at the same time, there's people "higher up" with less clue making really bad decisions, and getting $100,000+ for a similar type of job.

Move. You will never go from -20,000 to +100,000 at the same place. Raises come incrementally. When I finally realized that at my first IT position, after five years of incremental 3% raises, I moved to a new location and immediately almost tripled my income.

-20,000? That's a mighty bad salery!

Yes, but you get 30% back in your income taxes.

At least that's how I think it works. Probably not.