Sometimes I still see job postings that are like “MUST KNOW OBJECT ORIENTED PROGRAMMING” and I’m wondering who in 2026 isn’t at least passably familiar with it.
But then again I also see job posts that are like “must know Java or JavaScript”
It’s not really that different from like
my_get_mock = Mock(side_effect=Some exception("oh no"))
result = some_func(http_getter=my_get_mock)
There’s many ways of writing bad code and tests, but mocks and patches aren’t always a bad tool. But sure, you can definitely fuck things up with them.
Javascript has mocking with jest: https://jestjs.io/docs/mock-functions
There’s an example there of mocking our axios (a common library for network requests, a la python requests)
It’s been a long time since I’ve used java, but mockito exists: https://site.mockito.org/javadoc/current/org/mockito/Mockito.html#2
(Usage note for anyone unfamiliar, but despite the name java and JavaScript are radically different languages.)
I vaguely remember Java also has mocking libraries, as does JavaScript. (Though JavaScript isn’t a language I’d hold up as the ideal.)
with patch("some_file.requests.get", side_effect=SomeException("oh no")):
result = func_using_requests()
Though not every language makes mocking as easy, and multiple responsibilities in a single function can quickly get messy.
I used to be better at math and coding. If I pulled up my old project euler solutions I’m not sure I’d understand them anymore.
Pretty much every time I go to one of the local grocery stores I see a crew of firefighters roll up in their truck buying food.
I just link people to good posts I find on here.
You’re not going to get a typical apathetic person to change anything.
Oof. I’ve had places that the pipeline was getting long. At one of my previous jobs I made it so all the tests could run locally, and we were keeping the full build as slow as possible.
We also didn’t do any browser tests (eg: selenium) because those tend to be slow and most people are bad at making them stable.
It’s important to know whats worth testing.
That’s the plan. Unfortunately the market is kind of meh. Lots of AI slop. Lots of getting ghosted.
There’s a lot of fear at my job about changing code. I’ve been trying to tell them to start writing automated tests. Or at least a linter to check for syntax errors. They’re all like “ooh that sounds hard maybe next quarter”
Meanwhile, a trivial change requires a whole day because the developer has to manually test everything.
I just unilaterally added checks to code I have ownership over, but anything shared I’m getting “maybe in two quarters we can prioritize this” from management.
My job has a “scrum master”. She’s nice, I guess, but as far as I can tell her entire job is sharing her screen so we can look at tickets. Then people tell her what to click on and what text to change. It’s excruciating because it would just be faster for the person talking to change it, instead of being like “remove the second bullet point. No, not that one”
On top of that they have all these tasks for “unit testing” but they don’t actually do unit testing. Someone just said, in the distant past, we should do testing so it’s there.
To many “smart” people have stood up and taken the credit for hundreds of others and generations of work.
Like CEOs taking credit for all the work their engineers did.
I guess I’m lucky almost no one I know is trying to side hustle slop their way into money. I don’t think I would put up with that happily.
People believe based on feelings, not facts. That’s all it is.
I feel like every retro I’ve attended has been a farce.
“What went bad? We said doing it this way would be harder and more risk prone. Management insisted we do it that way, and it took longer than and caused a site outage.”
"What should we do differently?’
“Listen to the team next time”
“That won’t happen”
One of the guys I worked with said be prefers the chatbot because stack overflow always made him feel stupid when he’d ask for help. The emotional dimension is big for some people.
I just recommend checking things from the live boot environment. I found out once that some things didn’t work (HDMI , Ethernet, Wi-Fi) only after installing, and it was a hassle. Ended up switching to a different distro that did work out of the box.
I don’t know if it’s favorite of all time but I thought of this one now:
haha and then what ;)byjawbreaker reunion. Probably gave some software nerds a headache trying to incorporate the semicolon and parenthesis. Points for a confusing band name, too.https://jawbreakerreunion.bandcamp.com/album/haha-and-then-what
“Patches” might be my favorite track on it.