I have to be honest; this path is laden with high expectations, stereotypes, and the constant pressure to prove oneself.

But it’s also a journey of resilience, empowerment, friendship, and breaking barriers.

So, you may ask, what does it feel like to be the only girl in a team or a company? In some cases, it’s not a good feeling.

Who’s going to organize a party?

Arriving at a site and noticing all eyes on you, simply because of your gender can be disconcerting.

Women in tech understand that it can take time to find friends, as there may not be many female peers who can relate to their experiences. You long for someone who can reassure you and help alleviate the stares. It often feels like a game of musical chairs in your mind, where you anticipate being the one left standing.

Therefore, women must exert additional effort, determination, and speed to establish their position in an environment where they are frequently perceived as outliers.

Also, day-to-day work life for female engineers can go beyond coding – it often entails being both voluntarily and involuntarily nominated as the diversity and non-technical-stuff champion.

In my previous jobs, I learned that being assigned certain tasks often reflects an underlying expectation for women to fulfill specific roles. Such tasks included organizing meetings and lunches, buying gifts for other employees on various holidays, arranging and preparing rooms for meetings and taking notes from them, or representing the company at external events to ensure ‘representation and diversity.’

For some reason, these requests were always the first to go to me or possibly another female colleague. It’s a delicate balance between embracing the role of a team player and ensuring I don’t inadvertently box myself into stereotypes.

But, while organizing team events and managing administrative tasks, I’ve learned the importance of volunteering for projects that push my limits, not just those that fit into stereotypical female roles.

Stand out but also fit in

The pressure to stand out while also fitting in is a constant companion for some of our colleagues.

Our actions, I’ve noticed, can be magnified – it is a double-edged sword that’s both a curse and a blessing. This means that every mistake I make can seem bigger, but it also means that my successes can be more visible.

By being “The Only One,” practically everyone around you associates your name and you alone. This makes people more likely to notice and remember your actions.

I used to feel reluctant to ask questions or clarify doubts, worrying that doing so might reinforce stereotypes about women’s technical abilities, even though seeking clarification is a normal part of the learning and development process.

This visibility has forced me to constantly confront imposter syndrome, undermining the feeling that I have to work twice as hard to be considered at least half as good. It’s a struggle in which I’ve had to learn that my worth is not diminished by my gender and that certain limitations can be created by me in my head.

My journey has been riddled with moments that remind me that I am navigating a space that was not originally designed for me. From the awkwardness some colleagues exhibited around women to being labeled as “too loud, too pushy” in discussions or conversations – whereas some male colleagues displaying similar behavior were described as “assertive” and “passionate.”

There were times when I presented some topic or joined a discussion, and I could feel the dynamics and energy change immediately – people were more skeptical, answered questions as if I had joined the team yesterday, or I got the feeling they were trying to disagree with me by force.

It’s like I was constantly being measured by a different standard that fluctuates between being too feminine and not feminine enough.

One of my biggest challenges has been integrating into teams, where I am the exception. While trying to adapt to such an environment, it can be tempting to “become one of the guys,” it’s the kind of survival tactic that, while effective, often makes you replicate these uncool behaviors rather than trying to change things for the better.

If I had to give any advice on how to find oneself in such a situation, it would be to communicate very directly with others and not be afraid to speak up for yourself. Don’t doubt yourself. If someone interrupts you or tries to take over what’s yours – speak up.

But if that doesn’t work, find a new team, the one that accepts you as a woman and as an engineer.

Embrace the uniqueness

Despite these challenges, I’ve discovered that my unique position as the only woman on the team can bring noteworthy perspectives.

My journey in navigating male-dominated spaces has honed my communication skills, enabling me to navigate and mediate complex discussions with various people quite easily. It can also positively influence team dynamics and help with conflict resolution and customer interactions.

My experiences have taught me the importance of empathy and emotional intelligence in tech – a field often criticized for its lack of understanding. These “soft skills,” which I bring to the table, partially complement the team’s technical expertise, driving us toward more nuanced and holistic solutions.

I have learned not to take failures, criticism, and differing opinions personally. In my opinion and experience, in male teams, everything is talked about much more straightforwardly, without being crude, and nobody has a problem with it. We discuss ideas and actions, not individuals. If someone says, “This idea is stupid because of …” – no harm, no foul.

Once you have experienced the situation of being “The Only One” and fully face it, you will forget that you are a “female engineer” and start to think that you are an individuated co-worker, equal to everyone else.

You will not be surprised by any similar situation in your life or future jobs. You will know your value, and you will always stick to it.

The woman who coined the term “software engineering”

Diversity and inclusion in tech require a collective effort, not an individual pursuit.

Looking ahead, I draw inspiration from pioneer women who have shattered ceilings and paved the way for others like me. Their stories are not just tales of personal achievement but beacons of what women can accomplish in the face of adversity.

If you’re not familiar with Margaret Hamilton, a name synonymous with the Apollo missions, led the software engineering division at MIT under NASA’s Project Apollo. Her groundbreaking work in developing the onboard flight software for the Apollo missions was critical to the success of landing astronauts on the Moon.

Hamilton dedicated herself to her work and innovatively approached software development, thereby coining the term “software engineering.” She pioneered this discipline at a time when the aerospace engineering community had yet to recognize the crucial role of software.

Her vision and tenacity in a field dominated by men during the 1960s demonstrate the profound impact one person can have on technology and space exploration. Hamilton’s legacy teaches me the power of perseverance and the importance of pioneering new frontiers, regardless of the obstacles.

On the other hand, Susan Wojcicki has revolutionized YouTube as CEO since 2014. Under her leadership, YouTube has not only grown into a global platform but has also become a critical space for voices from diverse backgrounds to be heard.

Her advocacy for gender equality and diversity in the tech industry is evident in her initiatives to promote female representation and inclusion. Her efforts to implement family-friendly policies at YouTube, including extended maternity leave, have set new standards for supporting women in the workplace.

These stories illuminate the path and assure me that the journey towards diversity and inclusion in tech is not a solitary one but a collective endeavor enriched by the contributions of those who dare to dream and break barriers.

I hope it continues to inspire the next generation of female developers. It’s a reminder that our differences are our strengths, and through embracing them, we can reshape the tech industry to be more inclusive, innovative, and reflective of the world it serves.

The post The journey of a lone female software developer appeared first on ShiftMag.

If you’ve ever published on Dev.to, built an audience there, or just scrolled through its feed looking for a useful tutorial, you probably had a few question marks over your head when news of the acquisition dropped.

Major League Hacking (MLH) has officially acquired Dev.to.

It sounds strategic. MLH runs hackathons, fellowships, and developer programs worldwide, and Dev.to is one of the most recognizable developer publishing platforms on the internet. Community meets talent pipeline. Content meets events. Growth meets distribution.

But if you’re a developer (especially one who’s spent years building a presence on Dev.to) the real challenge is figuring out how this shift will affect your work and your audience.

A new chapter for Dev.to?

MLH announced the acquisition as a step toward “building the largest community for software professionals.” They’ve also emphasized that Dev.to will remain community-first.

The open-source project that powers Dev.to will continue to exist.

Nothing radical, nothing alarming – at least based on what’s been shared so far. Still, developers naturally have questions. When platforms change ownership, people who’ve invested time and trust in them want to understand what the long-term impact might be.

The uncomfortable questions devs are asking

Five years ago, Lane Wagner argued in his post The Collapsing Quality of Dev.to that the platform’s overall content quality was declining, with repetitive, low-effort, and beginner-focused posts crowding out deeper, more insightful content – and that was long before the rise of the current AI-driven flood.

The author highlighted a lack of effective moderation tools and incentives that favor quantity over quality, making it difficult for higher-value content to stand out. As a result, Dev.to risks becoming less useful and less credible for experienced developers.

On the other hand, Samuel Zacharie raised the question on Dev.to itself: Has the platform become a victim of its own success? He argues that as Dev.to expanded, its content increasingly leaned toward beginner-focused, repetitive, and bootcamp-style posts, the kind that are easy to produce and tend to perform well in search rankings.

According to him, that shift makes it harder for more advanced perspectives to surface, ultimately diluting the diverse, high-quality developer voices that once defined the platform.

These aren’t just random opinions; they reflect a broader frustration with how developer publishing platforms scale. And that’s where the acquisition comes in.

Could quality drop further? Here’s what authors think

This is where the reactions start to split. 

To better understand how authors perceive the situation, we reached out to several developers who actively publish on Dev.to and asked them how they feel about the acquisition, and whether they are optimistic or concerned about what comes next. Jacob (northerndev) said:

My initial reaction to the MLH acquisition is a mix of optimism and caution. Dev.to is valuable because it is raw and community-driven. MLH has a great track record with hackathons and getting people to build things, which is fantastic for energy and momentum.

However, his main concern as an author is the signal-to-noise ratio. Hackathons naturally produce a lot of fast, chaotic output. Combined with the current wave of AI-generated content, there is a real risk that the platform could become flooded with low-effort posts.

If MLH uses their resources to filter out the noise and highlight genuine, hard-learned engineering experiences, this acquisition is a huge win. If it just becomes a marketing channel for hackathon projects, we lose the core value of the site. Signal needs to win over noise.

Hackathons spark momentum, experimentation, and projects, but they also produce rapid output. With today’s AI-assisted writing tools, the barrier to publishing is even lower.

That’s the context for this acquisition: not 2019, not pre-ChatGPT, but in the heart of what many developers call the AI slop era.

On the other hand, not everyone sees this as a threat.

Maame, other author at the platform, is optimistic:

As someone who writes about the student developer journey, Python, and Git on my Dev.to profile, I find this news very exciting. In my view, bringing together the community-driven storytelling of Dev.to with the hands-on energy of Major League Hacking (MLH) is the perfect combination. 

Hackathons are where much innovation begins, and Dev.to is where it’s documented and shared. Maame believes that closer ties between these collaboration-heavy events and the platform naturally benefit both authors and the wider developer ecosystem:

I’m optimistic that this will lead to more integrated ways for developers to showcase what they build.

Two very different outlooks. 

So, what does this mean for you?

Ultimately, what this acquisition means depends on which side of the platform you’re on and how it unfolds.

If you’re an author, now is the time to watch closely. Notice what gets promoted: thoughtful engineering deep-dives, or fast hackathon-style recaps and AI-assisted tutorials. Your reach, your positioning, and even your choice to keep publishing here could hinge on how incentives shift.

If you’re a reader, the question is simpler: does the content get better or noisier? Will you find real-world lessons from builders, or just surface-level posts optimized for speed and visibility? MLH could bring structure, resources, and stronger curation to Dev.to, but growth pressures might also amplify existing quality concerns.

For now, it’s too early to call it a win or a loss. The coming months will show whether this turns into a story of revitalization or dilution.

The post Dev.to Acquired. Is This the End of the Beloved Developer Blog Network? appeared first on ShiftMag.

Why on Earth would we make big career decisions based on anonymous tips?

The answer is – because it’s easy. Because it confirms what we already feel. Because they are pressing all the right buttons in our heads…

If I asked you: “Are you stupid?”, your answer, hopefully, would be – NO!

But what if you are? What if we all are? Not in the general sense but concerning how easily we get seduced by Jane and Joe Doe on the internet, especially on Reddit. In a sea of relatable posts and viral threads, even the smartest among us can get swept up.

And that raises a bigger question:

Are we really shaping our careers or is Reddit shaping them for us?

Something’s off

That was the wake-up call or rather, the wake-up question, behind the talk I Didn’t Want to Change My Job, but Reddit Made Me Do It, delivered by Mirna Horvat (co-founder and CEO, Leapwise and xolvi), at Shift Conference in Zadar.

In the last three years, she has read around a thousand CVs and interviewed roughly 200 people that wrote them. Something was off, she said.

Almost all of the CV’s had the same motivations for leaving their current jobs, they used the same phrases, had the same salary expectations, the same frustrations, the same anxieties.

Trying to figure out who was writing the script for what she was seeing in every job interview, she spent four months online, reading through Reddit, LinkedIn and various other online communities.

50 users shape communities of 20.000+ members

A handful of anonymous users, around fifty of them, are shaping community with 20.000 members or more. That might sound strange, but it’s actually not unusual.

There’s something called the 90-9-1 rule, or participation inequality, defined by Jakob Nielsen back in 2006. What does it mean? Basically, it says that 90% of people online are just consuming content, 9% occasionally comment, and only 1% actually create content.

On career-related subreddits, it’s even more extreme: 95% are silently reading, just 4% occasionally comment, and still, it’s the same 1% who are setting the tone – and the narrative – for everyone else.

But let’s return to our 50 “influencers”. Ninety-seven percent of them use so called throwaway accounts, but they also share some common characteristics:

They work remotely for well-known companies, but claim they only “sweat” for two hours a day. And they all seem to share the same attitude: No company is good. None.

That’s not all. They’re all earning €11,000 or more, at least, according to Croatian Reddit.

Science behind their impact

It’s clearly BS. So how come it works so well? It’s about being negative. Really, it is.

Mirna pointed out that negative comments trend 40% better and receive 40% more engagement. She even explained the science behind it.

A recent UCLA study scanned brains of people exposed to negative content. The amygdala, the brain’s fear center, activates in 180 ms, while the prefrontal cortex responds only after 500 ms. In other words, you feel fear before you can think logically about what you see.

Also, you have to take into consideration that the negative aspect of information, and the feelings you get from negative comments, stay in your mind five times stronger than the positive ones.

This isn’t about us as individuals, Mirna added, it’s about evolution. Our ancestors had to react quickly to negative circumstances in nature to survive. So our brains became wired to prioritize threats over feel-good moments.

She then brought up an MIT study which found that just being exposed to a negative comment makes you 25% more likely to think negatively about your own job, even if you were perfectly happy with it before.

People only share extreme emotions

Mirna shared another reason for the negativity bias. It’s the J-Curve effect from a study of 15 million Amazon reviews.

Most people leave either 1-star or 5-star ratings, while the indifferent majority stays silent. The same applies to how we talk about work, neutral days don’t make for engaging stories, so people share only strong positive or negative emotions.

This isn’t just Reddit. LinkedIn’s 2023 algorithm favors posts with emotional language like “I’m happy” or “I’m excited,” giving them three times more reach than neutral posts.

You probably shouldn’t blindly trust listen to online expert eather

We should stop listening to those flashy online voices who became “senior professionals” at 25 after just two years of work, living a dream life and getting paid astronomical amounts for their so-called brilliance.

A Harvard Business Review study even found that 73% of people giving online career advice have never actually hired anyone, and yet they’re out there, dishing out advice like experts.

But this is your career. You get to decide your next steps. As Mirna wisely reminded us, true growth takes time and patience, there are no shortcuts:

Every skill you have is built in layers. It takes up to 1.000 hours of dedicated work to acquire each layer, each step. And if you want to move forward, you cannot skip them. If you try to skip steps, you’ll have to make up for it later.

The very things you’re trying to avoid will come back to haunt you. Maybe not now, but eventually, in another job, another role, you’ll be forced to catch up.

Talk to real people when you want to change jobs

You really don’t have to be a victim of everything you read online. If you can’t stop yourself from diving into Reddit threads or doomscrolling posts about bad, bad IT companies, remember the 72-hour rule:

After an intense emotional experience, your feelings drop by 50% in the first 24 hours and usually fade by day three. Give yourself time before making big decisions.

The truth is, Reddit (or any online platform) can’t make you do anything.

“We allow ourselves to be influenced by the noise coming from outside,” says Mirna.

She concluded with a few grounded pieces of advice:

Talk to real people when you want to change jobs. Don’t just rely on the internet. No job is perfect. No company is perfect. Work with people you admire. When you stop admiring them, move on. Do something else. And stop doing anything that isn’t turning you into the person you want to become.

The post Who’s Really Shaping Our Careers – Us or Reddit? appeared first on ShiftMag.

Developers learn through various sources, from traditional books to informal online communities like subreddits. But with so much online content, how can you know what to focus on? To help you navigate this, we’ve curated a selection of evergreen books, blogs, and newsletters to help you enhance your skills and become an expert in your field.

Books as Essential Resources

Aware of the progress of technology, the expansion of AI tools, and other traps of “misinformation,” renowned experts have taken on the role of evangelists, generously sharing their knowledge with other members of the developer community.

Professional literature has become more accessible. We’ve selected ten evergreen books:

“Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship” by Robert C. Martin

As the title says – this book prepares you to write clean, readable, and maintainable code, which is crucial for long-term success in programming and a guarantee that no machine will replace you!

“The Pragmatic Programmer: Your Journey to Mastery” by Andrew Hunt and David Thomas

This book is rich with practical programming advice, career tips, and how to improve your problem-solving skills. It’s a must-have in every programmer’s library at the beginning of their career!

“Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software” by Erich Gamma, Richard Helm, Ralph Johnson, John Vlissides

It provides the foundation for understanding design patterns in object-oriented programming, helping developers create scalable and reusable solutions.

“Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code” by Martin Fowler

It is a book that explains how to refactor code to improve its structure and design without changing its functionality, making it indispensable for maintaining and improving existing codebases.

“The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering” by Frederick P. Brooks

A true classic of programming literature! It explores the human side of software development, focusing on the challenges of managing software projects and teams.

“Code Complete: A Practical Handbook of Software Construction” by Steve McConnell

As the ultimate guide to software construction, this book dives deep into best practices for writing high-quality code and provides comprehensive techniques.

“The Clean Coder: A Code of Conduct for Professional Programmers” by Robert C. Martin

If you’re wondering how to become a professional programmer – a true expert in your field – this book focuses on discipline, ethics, and attitude in software development.

“Working Effectively with Legacy Code” by Michael Feathers

The development of technologies constantly requires improvements to existing code. Therefore, this book is crucial. It focuses on working with legacy code and teaches strategies for managing and improving older code while ensuring it remains functional and maintainable.

“Introduction to Algorithms” by Thomas H. Cormen, Charles E. Leiserson, Ronald L. Rivest, Clifford Stein

Known as CLRS, this book is a comprehensive guide to algorithms and data structures, indispensable for developers who want to deepen their understanding of the core principles of computer science.

“Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs” by Harold Abelson, Gerald Jay Sussman

How can you think like a computer and use programming to solve complex problems? This approach will turn you into a human-machine. With this book, not only will you manage computers, but you’ll become one!

Blogs and Online Communities

Although books represent the best way to acquire knowledge, we cannot overlook that we live in an instant-online world, where people prefer to instantly get the information they need. They enjoy concise and summarized data, and when backed by personal experience, it creates a win-win situation!

While you probably already have accounts on many of these platforms, here’s a list of the most relevant online platforms, ranked by traffic and number of members.

Stack Overflow

Until recently the most popular platform for asking and answering technical questions, bringing together developers worldwide. This platform allows developers to ask questions, share their knowledge, and learn from other community members, making it an invaluable resource. Stack Overflow significance has been replaced by gen AI assistants for the most part, but sometimes there’s nothing like copying and pasting code form StackOverflow.!

GitHub

A community-driven platform where developers collaborate on open-source projects, share code, and contribute to various repositories. GitHub has become an indispensable place for collaborative work, innovation, and progress in software engineering.

dev.to

This community-driven platform allows developers to post articles and tutorials and discuss various programming-related topics. Dev.to is a rich source of knowledge and a space for creative idea exchange among developers.

Reddit

Subreddits like r/programming and r/learnprogramming provide a platform for discussing programming challenges, sharing advice and news, and exchanging experiences among developers. These communities allow for quick connection and real-time learning.

daily.dev

A mix of Reddit-like forums, a news feed of the best engineering content, and a developer community daily.dev was founded with the idea to bring scattered online source of knowledge for engineers to one place. Don’t forget to join ShiftMag Squad there to stay up to date!

Hacker News

This social news site is dedicated to technology and entrepreneurship, offering a space for sharing articles, asking questions, and discussing the latest developments in the tech world. Hacker News gathers enthusiasts who want to stay updated with all the important industry topics.

Medium (Programming section)

Medium is a platform that offers a dedicated section for programming. Developers can find articles, tutorials, personal experiences, and advice there. It is a space for a deeper understanding of new technologies and professional skill development.

CSS-Tricks

Specializing in CSS and web design, this blog covers front-end development and design topics, offering many resources, tips, and tutorials. CSS-Tricks has become a key tool for anyone involved in web design and looking to enhance their skills.

Code Project

Code Project is a community that provides free access to articles, tutorials, and code samples covering a wide range of topics related to software development and programming. It is a true haven for developers of all levels, offering resources for all technologies and platforms.

SitePoint

SitePoint is a comprehensive online resource offering tutorials, articles, and courses on web development, design, and programming technologies. It is an extremely valuable resource for any developer who wants to expand their knowledge and improve their skills in the industry.

Newsletters for Real Geeks

There are indispensable newsletters for those who don’t want to miss any important news and prefer to have the latest updates from the programming world delivered straight to their inbox.

We bring you a list of the most popular newsletters, perfect for all developers and those who want to stay up-to-date with the latest trends and knowledge in the industry.

JavaScript Weekly

JSW is a weekly roundup of news and articles about JavaScript, one of the most popular programming languages.

Smashing Newsletter

This newsletter offers bi-monthly web design and development updates featuring articles, resources, and tutorials.

Frontend Focus

Focused on HTML, CSS, and news related to browsers, providing essential information for frontend developers.

CSS-Tricks

It offers tips, tricks, and techniques for using CSS, making it a valuable resource for developers working with styles and layouts.

Python Weekly

Python Weekly is a newsletter that delivers news, articles, and tutorials specific to Python, one of the most widely used programming languages.

React Status

This newsletter provides updates and articles on React and related technologies, keeping developers up-to-date with the latest in the React ecosystem.

Golang Weekly

Golang Weekly brings the latest news from the Go programming language community. Go is popular among developers who focus on simplicity and performance.

Ruby Weekly

Ruby Weekly is a weekly digest of news and articles about Ruby, a dynamic, open-source programming language focused on simplicity.

Hacker Newsletter

It is a weekly newsletter curating the best articles about startups, technology, programming, and more for tech enthusiasts.

DevOps Weekly

This newsletter focuses on DevOps and infrastructure, offering insights into best practices, tools, and trends in modern software development.

New Ways of Learning: Gamification and AI-Powered Tools

In complement to conventional learning methods, developers today benefit from clever ways to enhance their skills. Platforms like CodinGame, Swift Playgrounds, and Codewars offer gamified learning, making problem-solving more interactive and fun.

These platforms simulate real-world scenarios, promoting critical thinking and strategy development. Moreover, AI-driven tools such as GitHub Copilot, ChatGPT, and Tabnine transform how developers write code. By providing real-time suggestions and automating repetitive tasks, these tools help developers focus on more complex challenges, streamlining the learning process and making it more efficient.

The post Where and how developers learn in 2025? appeared first on ShiftMag.

Infobip Shift 2024 is set to take place from September 16-17, 2024, at the Kresimir Cosic Hall in Zadar, Croatia.

This event gathers a global community of developers on the Croatian coastline, offering a mix of interactive sessions, live coding, and valuable networking opportunities.

The conference organizers have announced a last call for speakers, inviting innovative thinkers and experienced developers to share their insights. The call for speakers closes on June 1, 2024, and proposals will be reviewed by a committee from the Developer Ecosystem of Shift. Speakers will have the chance to present practical solutions, fresh coding techniques, and challenge the audience with new perspectives.

Participation is free for selected speakers, who will benefit from increased visibility and the opportunity to contribute to one of Europe’s largest developer events.

For more information and to submit a proposal, visit shift.infobip.com.

The post Want to speak at Infobip Shift 2024? Act fast – the clock is ticking! appeared first on ShiftMag.

StackOverflow considers it against the collective collaboration nature of their community and causing significant disruptions to the site.

The freshly announced StackOverflow and OpenAI partnership will allow the AI company to “improve its AI models using enhanced content and feedback from the Stack Overflow community and provide attribution to the Stack Overflow community within ChatGPT.”. 

Translated from corporate lingo – the partnership will allow OpenAI to access the years and years of StackOverflow’s community contributions to train its AI model. Many users are unhappy with their answers being used to train AI and have started deleting them.

Some users have shared emails they got from StackOverflow, which banned them from the site for seven days because deleting contributed content causes “a lot of disruption” and warns them against further deletion. As much as the users are angry about it and claim they have the right to manage the content they created, StackOverflow’s Terms of Service contain a clause that states they have irrevocable ownership of all content members provide. 

The public announcement of the partnership does mention that it will enable ChatGP to provide attribution to the Stack Overflow community. Still, long-time StackOverflow users doubt the developer community’s sincerity regarding AI, as they have already changed their minds. 

For the last two years, StackOverflow has been trying to downplay the significance of AI tools and prove their supremacy in providing knowledge to developers compared to ChatGPT – they have even launched their own AI product, OverflowAI, in an attempt to counteract developers flocking to get instant answers from ChatGPT instead of searching on StackOverflow.

They have started praising the power of AI tools lately and a new set of new integrations and capabilities between Stack Overflow and OpenAI have been announced as part of this partnership that will be available in the first half of 2024. 

The post Do not delete: StackOverflow bans users protesting their OpenAI partnership appeared first on ShiftMag.

If you have been in the open-source community lately, you know what I am talking about. The story goes something like this: There were loads of videos/blogs/events hyping up open-source contributions, mainly as a good gateway to land your dream software engineering job. And to some extent, it is true.

However, this trend has also brought a flood of pull requests (PRs) that contribute little to nothing or, worse, add clutter to the codebase.

And this is why, lately, you can find a wave of blogs and videos on why you should NOT contribute to Open-Source.

This article will show how bad it can get with the latest surge of unsavory PRs.

ExpressJS​

The latest drama has happened in the epxressjs GitHub repo. As you can see, there were loads of “Update Readme. md” pull requests.

This doesn’t immediately sound bad; perhaps the Readme was riddled with typos. It’s a long shot, but let’s investigate. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. Looking closely at some of these PRs, we will see the drama’s root cause.

So let us take a look… 

Maybe it’s just one bad apple? Well, let’s look at some others…  

As you can see, these PRs are not trying to improve the projects they contribute to. Although somewhat comedic, having lots and lots of such PRs is a nightmare for the project’s maintainers.

And the last one, I think, tells the bigger picture in this story. It seems that lots of these PRs were a learning experience (assuming “Collage” was a mistype of “College”). Although, that is an assumption made in good faith.

Some of them could have been done as a sort of shortcut for bolstering resumes, which is a far more alarming intent.

The missing puzzle piece​

Newcomers don’t understand that contributing is not all about the code. It is about investing your time in understanding the project and the issues it is trying to solve, being a part of the community and the discussion, and wanting to better the project because you want it to thrive.

And that is what is praised about open source contributions, the will to learn and the will to help. In the process, you demonstrate that you can be proactive and solve complex issues. That is what employers are really looking for.

One look at contributions like these, and you can be sure potential employers will ignore you.

Final thoughts​

Now, there were some external actors in the latest PR nightmare that I won’t be naming here because I doubt that they acted with ill intent. It’s the latest buzz, and I am sure that you can find them with a single Google search if you want to.

It’s important to mention that when considering contributing to open-source, start by looking at the projects you already use and are familiar with.

Alternatively, focus on projects where you have domain expertise, as sharing that knowledge can be a valuable resource for the maintainers.

Have you had any bad experiences contributing to open-source?

The post How promoting open-source can become problematic appeared first on ShiftMag.

I’ve always seen computers as a tool to do boring things for me as a human. In school, I wrote a program to solve my Math homework and donated it to the school library, says Christian Heilmann, director of Developer Relations at WeAreDevelopers.

Chris is a former developer evangelist at Microsoft, Mozilla, and Yahoo, and an author of a handbook on developer advocacy. He recently spoke at the CityJS conference on how good AI products need good UX, otherwise, they become more of a distraction than a solution. We caught Chris to find out more about the dos and don’ts of UX in AI products, his career in developer evangelism, and how being laid off from big tech changed his perspective on developer work and the tech industry at large.

We need more simplicity, and that’s not chat systems

Tell us more about the importance of UX when it comes to developing generative AI solutions.

Christian: Right now, we are in a space where ChatGPT has been a runaway overnight success. Business people are excited about those numbers – the fastest-growing app and all. The concept of ChatGPT displaying a big language model’s outcomes in a simulated conversation was brilliant.

It showed the “natural” part of language processing and proved to be highly engaging and addictive. But we shouldn’t just copy it and shove that concept into every product. On its own, this worked. But “having a conversation” also means being fully engaged and spending a lot of time.

Lots of people right now ask a system to refine an answer in a 10-minute chat that could be a one-second search result. People aren’t good at asking the right questions. They are great at filtering and dismissing things they don’t like, though. Right now, most AI systems don’t do much with that negative feedback.

That’s a shame, as it could help us rid the big data models of “hallucinations” and repetitive results. Sadly enough, the success of any software product right now is measured the wrong way. The more users and time spent on the product, the more successful it is.

I believe that the excitement about generative AI will fade, and people will prefer practical tools over “fake creative”.

When it comes to creating and searching for information, this isn’t right. I believe a product that quickly gives me the result I need is better than the one that keeps me engaged. Web search used to be like that. When I worked at Yahoo, we buried the search box in lots of paid content. Engaging content, but in essence, noise.

Google started out and stayed a simple search box for a long time. Do one thing well, give me the results for me to choose from. That’s why they ruled the search market for ages. These days, web search is dead, as 90% of the results are ads. Or content created to be found searching for one topic but trying to redirect you to another one.

We need more simplicity. And that’s not chat systems. These always have a short time where they rock the world and then vanish into obscurity. Remember when Siri, Cortana, Alexa, and Bixby were advertised as the only way to communicate with machines? They are still around, but we don’t wake up and call Alexa to plan our day for us. We call it to set a 10-minute alarm till the pasta is ready and that’s about it. 

AI is being shoe-horned into everything

How do you see the further development of solutions based on artificial intelligence?

Christian: AI is incredibly powerful and dangerous in the wrong hands. AI should be enhancing tasks we already do and making them smoother – not be the new Facebook or TikTok that keeps yelling at us to interact. I can predict that people will soon get sick of every tool telling them to create everything for them. If you think about it, we are in a pointless loop right now.

People use ChatGPT to turn three bullet points into a long, well-formed email. People receiving that email then use ChatGPT to get s summary.

If anything, these systems show us right now how redundant and formulaic some of our business communication has become. I hope that we learn from that and become more human in our conversations again. For the foreseeable future, I can see AI being shoe-horned into everything.

And many people who wrote a ChatGPT plugin call themselves a startup and product. I also see great work done, though. I have invested in a few companies, and I am a technical advisor. These are all companies that use AI under the hood to automate things people do anyway.

The biggest thing I want and work for is more transparency. Technology should be something we use and understand and not magic. That’s why there need to be a lot more open-source solutions in this space. Not easy, as AI is expensive when it comes to computational power. 

An AI opportunity for local players

What would you recommend to everyone involved in the development of AI solutions for different markets?

Christian: Don’t bet on only one player. Sadly enough, a lot of AI solutions will be available only in the US, and the reason isn’t technical; it is legal. European laws do protect privacy and demand transparency. Many fast-growing solutions don’t bother with privacy. Being obscure about what your product does is seen as a market advantage. Furthermore, many products in the AI market are incredibly English-centric.

Using most of these tools in, let’s say, Polish or Czech is a massive hit-and-miss – if it is even supported. I can see an opportunity here. US companies don’t want to put in much effort to fix that because the market is too small. A local player could be the market leader. The trick is to focus on quality rather than being faster and bigger than OpenAI.

When your name is on the wrong spreadsheet

You currently work as a Director of Developer Relations at WeAreDevelopers. How did you come to this position, and what does it entail?

Christian: I spent the last 18 years working in large corporations or big web players. Specifically Yahoo, Mozilla, and Microsoft. I also worked remotely from Europe with distributed teams, most of them on the West Coast of the US. This meant that I led teams, and ran products remotely, and focused on the US market. This was great, and during the pandemic, I trained a lot of people to work remotely and efficiently.

When the market dropped, and a lot of the big players laid off thousands of people, I was one of them. Over 20 years of experience and 8 years of in-depth company experience didn’t matter. I guess my name was on the wrong spreadsheet. I’ve already lived through one crash – the dot-com crash in 2000 – and looked for a change.

I wanted to find a place to make a difference in the job market, as searching for a job was frustrating. I joined WeAreDevelopers, a smaller, Europe-based organization that still has a significant impact. I am right now building up a Developer Relations program, which I’ve done in the past for Yahoo and Mozilla. I want the company to be a place for developers to find excellent information. I also want it to be a place where developers have a chance to change and accelerate their careers.

I wanted to take a look at the bigger market and not only introspectively try to have a career inside one big player.

The way all the big ones dealt with the decline of the stock market was discouraging. Laying off lots of people without much consideration made me realize that there is a lot to be fixed.

Companies falsely claim AI can replace developers

You also wrote a handbook on developer evangelism. Can you tell us more about how the handbook came about and what it offers?

Christian: When I was in Yahoo, I hit the career ceiling. I was as high as I could as an engineer, and I didn’t want to go into people or product management. That’s when I realized that there is a missing part in our job market. A technical person translates the wants and needs of developers inside and outside the company. So, I defined this role as “Developer Evangelist.” I wrote a handbook on what developers can do to get into this role and what it means.

To be successful, you need to write clear code documentation, articles, and give good presentations. You also need to know how to train others. I found it interesting because I could combine my love for writing and speaking with my technical job. The handbook has evolved with the needs of the market and allows you to plan your job as a technical person who’s also a voice for your company. 

What does developer evangelism mean from your perspective?

Christian: Over the years, the term evangelist got a bad reputation, as it smacks of religion and dogma. We use developer advocate instead now, as you are there to speak for the developers. In the past, this meant working with people inside to plan products better. You collaborate with external partners to attract developers to your company’s products.

This is still the case, but I think we are at an interesting turning point in the tech market. The time when developers were paid a lot for easy jobs is over. We’re as scrutinized as other workers, and it is time to take our jobs seriously. You can see unions for tech workers being formed. People must stand firm when companies falsely claim that AI can replace every developer.

And this is where developer advocacy also has some new and exciting challenges. Our job is not only to drive downloads and get lines of code created. We should be there for the developers to have a safe and sustainable career.

Tiring demand for explosive growth

What are your professional plans for the next period when we talk about an IT career?

Christian: Leaving Microsoft has put quite a spanner in the works for me. I’ve concentrated on a career in the place for decades to come as I thought it was big enough for that. It wasn’t. No big, publicly traded company is. I’m looking forward to what I can do here now. I love to work with a lot of other people who have been around for as long as I have to see what we can do to make our job market more mature. 

I’m very bored with the demand for continuous and explosive growth. I will give a few talks about sustainability and mental health, as I think we’ve been too rushed for too long. I also very much enjoy developing for fun again. Write something small, release it, and see what people think. Having to build for millions of people in a large corporation sounds amazing, but it can also be stifling.

The post On UX and AI, being laid off from big tech and developer evangelism with Christian Heilmann appeared first on ShiftMag.

Like most open-source enthusiasts, Eddie Jaoude got into the field completely by chance and as a hobby. Now, 15 years later, he first made open-source advocacy his full-time job and then scaled it to be his business as the founder of the open-source community Eddie Hub.

Jaoude’s motto is that there is a place in the open-source community for everyone so, as one of the keynote speakers at Infobip’s Shift conference in Zadar, he shared with developers his thoughts on why open-source is still relevant, how contributing to open-source can help them in their careers and what they (don’t) need to do become recognized and good contributors in the OS community.

Open-source helped me a lot to progress as an engineer, I believe it will help you too.

Collaboration, not code

However, Jaoude pointed out that not everything is about code but about collaboration. That’s why one person really can make a difference with their contribution, even though it often does not seem so from the start. He also stresses that the open-source community is full of amazing engineers, and that’s what meant a lot to him.

You have the opportunity to learn from great mentors and gain exceptional experience, he adds, explaining that the experience is all the richer because you get different perspectives from all over the world. Of course, it is also an opportunity to expand your network and accelerate your career.

Contributing to OSS is like brushing teeth

Eddie admits that onboarding is not the OS community’s strong point, but once you’ve done the basics, you can contribute – it doesn’t matter what level you are, because senior members will jump on board. The only thing important is that you start somewhere. 

That’s why Eddie can’t stress enough that the code is only part of the project and that the context of work and contribution is also very important. You can also make a difference by verifying existing bugs, reviewing pull requests, or opening questions when something is not working.

Jaoude is now a recognized and awarded OS contributor and advocate. Of course, the one question he always gets is how engaged one has to be to achieve that. Or how engaged a developer has to be in the OS to even be able to say they’re an OS contributor.

Eddie compares contributing to open-source to brushing teeth:

You don’t even think about brushing your teeth anymore, it’s become a habit. Although it is short-lived, it is very important and you do it every day…

It’s the same with open source – you participate little and often, but you have to be consistent.

How to choose a good project and start contributing?

Of course, there are challenges that need to be addressed, adds Eddie. He is aware that it is difficult for newcomers in the community to find projects that suit them – to develop at a speed that suits them, to use a tech stack that they know, and, after all, to be legitimate and active. 

Likewise, he notices that newcomers are often afraid of screwing something up, so he advises:

If you broke something in the code, congratulations, you probably found a bug and now someone will solve it.

How to be a good contributor to open source projects?

First and foremost, it is important to choose a good project. Eddie advises starting with projects and tools you have already used and are familiar with and looking for OSS initiatives related to them.
 Of course, GitHub search will be the main tool to do that, and as an additional piece of advice, he says that most first-issue projects are, in fact, not a good choice for a first project. Instead, refine your search and look for projects labeled as “good first issue”.

Getting involved in communities is also a good way to find a good project, be it related to a hobby, some idea, or technology. However, he notes, regardless of what you choose:

When you decide to become an active open-source contributor,  focus on one project and one community.

When deciding on a project, pay attention to several things.

First of all, is it contributor-friendly, or is the community generally friendly? Check if they have set guidelines for behavior and contribution to the project and how well they adhere to them.

A good trick for this is to check the pull requests and see the accepted and rejected ones. Those that are closed, and not accepted – open them and see why they are closed. You will learn a lot from the way someone was rejected: was it done correctly, politely, and with an explanation.

Browse, participate, automate 

There is always something that can be automated in the code, Eddie says. Plus, other project collaborators will love you even more if you get to grips with test automation.

When it comes to reviewing pull requests, Eddie warns against approving them blindly; that’s the fastest way to get you removed from the project. 

And when it comes to his advice on how to be a good and valued open-source contributor is the following:

1. Before you get involved, read the project’s contributor guide
2. Never use the main branch of the project, and do not make large pull requests 
3. Search for existing issues before posting new ones
4. No need to DM those who maintain the project as soon as you have made a pull request 
5. Don’t chase the green squares

The post How to contribute to open-source projects with Eddie Jaoude of EddieHub appeared first on ShiftMag.

Developer burnout is real; it’s not just you! Or a couple of loud, disillusioned developers on Twitter proclaiming they are fed up with tech and dream of quitting everything and starting a farm. According to data from a StackOverflow survey, 2 in 5 tech workers show a high risk of burnout.

We spoke to James Q Quick about what developer burnout actually means, how it does not necessarily correlate with long working hours and what can companies and individual developers do to prevent burnout.

James considers himself to be a JavaScript developer, a speaker, and a teacher and has done some combination of that professionally for 12 years. He also says he is a firm believer in work-life balance, the ongoing pursuit of personal happiness, and empowering others to take control of their career. After being a software developer and a developer advocate at several big companies, James is now a full-time content creator, impacting developer communities all over the world by creating YouTube videos and speaking at conferences.

Although working long hours is just one of the causes of burnout, as a believer in work-life balance, James says having a work schedule that leaves time for other joys in life is a must:

Working long hours

It’s really sad that a lot of companies have expectations of people working more and specifically in the context of how it is in America. The typical work week is ideally 40 hours a week but at a lot of companies, people are expected to work nights and weekends and they’re not compensated for that, it’s just looked at by their management as the requirement of the job.

That just makes me really sad. Work-life balance and working a limited number of work hours are really important. I enjoy my work, but I do so many things outside of work that I enjoy and it’s not healthy to have to sacrifice all the other things in life that I enjoy for work.

Working on non-exciting or unchallenging projects

You could be working a healthy amount of hours but still feel burned out. It happens when you work on projects that are not particularly exciting or challenging to you and do so for a longer period of time. What developers enjoy in their work is solving fun and challenging projects, and when you don’t do that, it can result in burnout manifested in a lack of motivation.

I have experienced this, but with content creation. When I start recording a video and realize I am not that excited about it, it’s so much harder for me to do it. I push it off, then things start to build up, and it becomes harder and harder. That’s one of the biggest indicators for me of potentially getting burned out, the stress of working on something I’m not 100% excited about, it takes a lot out of me.

If you find yourself in a similar situation as a developer, you can think of what you have in control and try to change it. You could either find another team or find another project or a different aspect of the project to do something new. If you typically do the front end and you’re looking for a challenge, you can try the back end or mobile or just something to kind of branch out a little bit and break up the monotony of the day. It’s really easy, especially at bigger companies, to work on one particular thing with one particular skill set and never really be challenged beyond.

Sometimes we just have to be intentional about actively looking for and pursuing either different aspects of what we’re doing or just something new to work on completely.

Why are developers so burned out?

I don’t have any research to support this but I think that the developer audience is just very loud and outspoken. Other industries probably suffer a similar amount of burnout potentially, but it’s just not as vocalized and addressed as much in other industries as it is in the developer communities.

The effect of estimates and arbitrary deadlines

It’s really easy for management to look at software as something that should have a finite timeline. When you’re not a developer and you ask a team to build something, and they say they think they’ll have it done by Friday, it’s really hard for someone who’s not a developer to understand why that may not happen.

That is one of my biggest pet peeves as a professional. Developers are held accountable for these arbitrary estimates as if it’s a do-or-die situation. And it’s really just never that serious.

Sometimes, things take longer. Ideally, they don’t, and ideally, we have a really good sense of how much work we can produce with X number of people hours, but it’s just not perfect. So often, developers are asked to work nights and weekends, and that’s because people have arbitrary deadlines in mind that they think are the most important thing, more important than the mental and physical health of the developer building the thing.

Being on-call

The other challenge is the idea of being on call. Yes, your company is probably losing money while that thing is broken, whatever it is, whether it’s physical or software, so you certainly want to have people who are available at any given time to be able to solve that problem. But that also then becomes this really big challenge, and I’ve done on-call rotations in my career, none of which were “that bad”. I didn’t get many calls, but if I got a call, it was in the middle of the night, which is a challenge because that means you’re never sleeping very well because you’re always a little bit on the edge if the phone rings that you have to be available to wake up.

But I’ve heard so many horror stories of people in worse situations where they were on call and they were getting called three, four, five times a week in the middle of the night and think about how disruptive that is for mental and physical health.

Depending on the company and the culture, sometimes they would not be compensated for that, not necessarily with dollars but with just the expectation that they don’t need to work the next day or they work half a day the next day. I’m extremely dependent upon getting a normal amount of sleep or I’m just not nearly as productive. Being disrupted by on-call can serve as a significant challenge for developer teams.

How to fix developer burnout

We should be talking about it, and we should be talking about it from a productivity standpoint of how do we get better and solve this thing. The first thing is to be accountable to yourself.

If you feel like you’re burned out, first of all, have a conversation with yourself and ask yourself – Am I as happy as I was a month ago or two months ago, do I enjoy what I’m doing, do I really enjoy the people that I’m working with.

If that answer changes, that’s a kind of a red flag. It’s at least something to sit and think about and ponder ways to potentially improve.

But I think that there should also be a transparent conversation with management as well, and this also varies with good and or bad management. A good manager or management should be receptive to the fact that you’re burnt out, they should be willing to listen to the reasons why and then consider and discuss opportunities to help fix that.

If, for example, you’re essentially burnt out because you only do front end and you’ve done as much as you want to and you want to learn something new and get a new challenge, that’s the conversation that you should be able to have with the manager.

That’s the first level of conversation with management, and again, this goes multiple different ways, depending on if you have good management that’s receptive to that and willing to work for you or if you have bad management who tells you this is the way it is and there’s no way around it.

Sometimes, you can’t just fix things overnight, but if you’re not working towards making changes and you feel like people around you, specifically management, aren’t working towards that may be the reason to go look for a different team or a different company that has a different culture.

Also, when you’re looking for a job, the ownership is on you to do your research as best as you can going into a job. To ask if you have on-call rotations, how often people are on call, how often people get called, or if you’re a junior, what sort of support system will you have, will you have a direct mentor, will you have a direct line of communication to one or multiple people that you can ask questions to and get feedback from.

Communicate to management

I see a lot of people complaining about stuff that they’ve never had a formal conversation with management to see if they’d give them the opportunity to make changes. A lot of people just think negatively about their job, but it is what it is, and they kind of accept it. You have to be able to communicate your concerns to the management. If they’re not receptive, then it’s somewhere for you to start considering other opportunities, but ideally, you’re in a situation where people are receptive, and maybe there are some small changes you can make to start getting a little bit more excitement and/or balance in what you’re doing on a day to day basis.

Be a part of the developer community

At a higher level, my biggest recommendation for developers is to just get involved in the community. It can be just going to a local meet-up or a virtual meet-up, joining a Slack community or a Discord community, or going to conferences and even speaking at some. Being involved in the community is an absolute game changer, from increasing your skill set as a developer to broadening your awareness of the industry and exposure to the industry to networking opportunities.

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