http://steve-parker.org/articles/others/stephenson/holehawg.shtml

It’s from the 1999 book “In the beginning was the command line”. Among my old-time coder friends, when someone speaks of “hole hawg” trouble, everyone understands that it’s “a large problem due to a small error by an experienced person using powerful tools”. We use the term in the context of any technical environment, not just Unix.

I have never been in a work environment where the employees are always working, counting every minute. And that is okay because no one could work for long under such conditions. Computer running slow? Take a minute to chug that Coke or Pepsi or , take a minute to file away that paperwork that has been sprawled on the corner of your desk for a day or two.

It seems that we are just feeling “entitled” to the best when we can work with just as much efficiency having your average desktop/laptop/mac/what-have-you.

Is programming a profession?

Do you mean anything more by “professionals” than anyone who gets paid for their work?

I’m often consider myself lucky being able to telecommute for a larger part of my work schedule. This has allowed me to use my own hardware for to do a lot of work.

I have a home office where I have two stations, one for work and one for pleasure. Each station has a dual 27″ screens($800), Logitech G11 ($50) keyboard and MX 518 ($30) mouse running a Phenom X4 with 4GB ram ($500) and ATI 4900 HD($250). I don’t consider any of these an excessive use of money. In contrast to working from the office with obligatory 19″ monitor ($300) and a Lenovo laptop($1500).

I get much more utility and comfort from my home setup, than my mandatory work setup.

My previous company had really low cubicle walls and you could see everyone’s head even when you sat down. The argument is that they’re fostering an environment where you can communicate and collaborate w/ others without “barrier”. In my new job, we have large cubicles with tall walls and nice chairs and I find myself working much longer hours on a regular basis because I’m comfortable in my own space and don’t get visually distracted all the time by somebody walking down the hallway.

If you don’t recognize the differences between those specs you listed, you’re doing it wrong or just being a jerk. To be honest, it sounds like you are a lousy manager who thinks his developers just ‘want more’. I am guessing you have never tried to do a bug fix with 4 versions of visual studio open at once because policy dictates you cannot upgrade a project to the latest version of .NET, but you need all in debug to find the issue. Or a legacy project that has C++, Java, VB, and .NET that all needs to work together at the same time. Or on a project that spans multiple databases at once where you need to run multiple versions of MS SQL and and instance of Oracle for an app to run in development. *sigh* In any case I could go on and on on how your insight is misguided.

On another note, I think this article is very good. I am a technical lead for a fortune top 20 company and luckily my company has recognized *some* of these things. We have duo 2.6GHz with 4GB/32bit or 8GB/64bit systems with an extra monitor. Unfortunately we have to take a 1 hour ergonomic video course once a year, but aren’t allowed to get stands to bring our monitors to eye level (we all steal copy paper to stack up underneath), or ergonomic keyboards, proper lighting, keyboard trays, comfortable mice, etc. So, it is a good running joke around here. But at least they meet us 1/2 way. The developers only have to invest in the cheap stuff (like keyboards, mice, etc.) if they want the good ones. So, I can’t complain (except about the video!)

Second, even in software sector, we don’t need so great tools to work.

Show me the productivity increase of using a 30″ instead of a 24″ screen. Or even the difference of using a 24″ screen instead of a 22″ one…

is there a so big difference between a 2GHz Core 2 duo and a 4Ghz i7 for day to day work?

Show me the difference of having 8GB instead of 4GB or having 1TB instead of 200GB for your work machine…

I agree that an SSD can give a great increase in performance, but people tend to just “want more”.

@Dave K. I am a consultant and work onsite. I see people using substandard tools, myself included. Unfortunately individuals subsidize these companies by working 50 and 60+ hour work weeks. This too is a practice that needs to stop.