Understanding How Opportunity Cost Affects Software Developers

What goes into making a great choice? How do I mitigate the negative impacts of the choices I make? These are the questions we will answer in today's episode of Dev Questions.
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[@commonstragedy]

"There are no solutions. There are only trade-offs." Thomas Sowell

[@IAmTimCorey]

Pretty accurate.

[@Veretax]

Here's one example I ran into recently. I'm working on code for a widget that interacts with a system that widget has two forms that Based on data passed to it conditionally hide certain fields. Now based on a feeling of need to be speedy I tried to be careful how much logic I create so as I create all the markup and code for those fields I look up and there's now multiple thousands of lines of code and easily a thousand of it just in the presentation part. Then I realized it's taking forever to debug I'm scrolling up and down when I'm debugging to see what values are at run time to see if they're correctly set to figure out what's missing in a conditional and then I get the idea well they're only really four types of elements on the page what if I create a function that generates them and I just create all of them dynamically and pass the date in. I don't know what the line number count is but I'm expecting to lose at least 500 lines of code and could lose even more if I get rid of a bunch of comments. So you might ask why didn't I start off that way and the answer is simple when you start off with a sample piece of code and you're going to modify it you just start putting things on the page and you often aren't thinking about the architecture or how that's going to look after you get everything done. You can get zoomed in on what you're doing and you decide to keep doing things that you're doing because you think changing it will take that much effort when it may turn out it doesn't take as much effort as you think. This is the kind of thing that causes us programmers to lose our hair. Because we know techniques we want to use techniques but we feel that we can't use them because we're worried it's going to add time to a task that doesn't have time allocated to it because of how work was planned. This is a sort of opportunity cost on the line not even on top of the other things that you're missing

[@IAmTimCorey]

Thanks for sharing!

[@ManInTheFridge]

College by far seems to be the most wasteful of time and learning (for a lot of majors).. granted college degrees are still pretty valuable, but if that dramatically declines I see no reason at that point to even consider it in today's open source based informational society. They will certainly need to better adapt to the times. I went to college for 7 yrs btw. For those that do go I'd encourage you to be proactive and make it to be largely beneficial for you to do so (what's your major, do you have scholarships/grants, are your parents funding, do you have financial aid, where can you save $$$, meet people, talk to teachers, join clubs, etc.). Sometimes you have to be creative and take the road less traveled.

[@commonstragedy]

That's especially true for high tech, where what is taught in college may be behind the times. I went to college in the 80s when C was emerging, but the computer science professors were teaching Pascal and COBOL (yikes!), because that's what they knew.

[@IAmTimCorey]

The biggest benefit for a lot of people is the structure it provides. You are "forced" to show up and put in the work in order to get the grade. For those who aren't well-motivated on their own, this can be the best way to learn and grow, especially in the early years after high school. However, I agree that college is a lot less relevant than it used to be and the value isn't typically there compared to the money you pay for it.

[@ManInTheFridge]

@@IAmTimCorey Great point!

[@chrisl8292]

I would suggest very targeted 4 year major. For viewers of this channel, I'd suggest a Computer Information Systems degree. It's more business IT focused and generally classes constantly try to keep up with the current core IT tech being used in the industry. Computer Science is of course always valuable, but that is more hard core...like write a compiler in C++. But that degree is for die hard Microsoft OS, Server, and AI jobs. Or just any science focused type of work. Like at 3m, Boston Scientific, JPL, etc. Then there is Computer Engineering, where you're REALLY low level, close to the hardware. Assembly, programming boards, etc. I wouldn't recommend anything higher than a masters if Computer Info Sys focused. I get the masters reason for non us citizens, and student visa aspect. But masters makes more sense for the computer science, engineering, AI level stuff. Or if you just want too I guess, but for an IT consulting gig, not needed. 2 yrs of extra college you didn't need. 4 yrs also tends to produce more well rounded candidates. A lot more business classes, communication classes, psych classes (dealing with interpersonal conflict, etc), organizational leadership course, etc. To be fair, 2 yr associates in IT Info Sys/tech, is prob fine. That's just all tech, less of the other "round the student out" courses.

[@commonstragedy]

@@chrisl8292 I don't disagree with most of those points except the 4-year well-rounded argument. I used to agree about that, but now I'm more skeptical and suspect it's more of a rationalization by "big education."

[@quicktastic]

About 10 years ago, I noticed that some new hires (4 year degree minimum) from reputable colleges could not write a sensible paragraph. At the end of a shift, you had to send out a summary for the next shift. What they would write was nearly useless. It made me wonder (and still does) how they got a 4 year degree without being able to write. I went to a technical college and had to write many papers that would be graded for both content and grammar. So, these people are spending huge money on 4 year degrees that are almost useless. The company would have to let them go. I understand now why it so difficult for companies to find competent help.

[@IAmTimCorey]

It does feel like some degrees don't really impart a lot of life skills.

[@dracocendrillion9963]

Very nice intro. Also thanks for the video

[@IAmTimCorey]

Thanks!

[@faisalalhoqani6151]

Great episode dear Tim thank you dear and keep it up.

[@IAmTimCorey]

You are welcome.

[@Ricebow11]

Hey Tim! bit off topic to this video but I've commented on your videos before, and I just wanted to say great job on everything you do. Quick question: If I learn C#, can that help me get into DevOps with Azure or AWS? Do you have any courses that cover this? Also, I've noticed a lot of people prefer AWS over Azure, but my company mainly uses Azure. I want to make sure I'm not limiting myself if most big companies use AWS. Thanks for your help!

[@simonverwaltungsrat5445]

New Intro is lit 🔥

[@IAmTimCorey]

Thanks!

[@dracocendrillion9963]

I feel like I have jumped around too much. I did not finish your course but it helped me make 3 applications to help at work but then I got a heads first c# book. I don't know if I should apply for a job.or first finish the course or the book. 😅 my head hurts already.

[@AldoInza]

Apply for jobs while you learn. If you do nothing, those jobs will get filled. If you apply and don't get it, you lose time on applying but you may practice interviews and understand the market better. So I guess weigh how much time you lose, but it's not a bad idea.

[@dracocendrillion9963]

@AldoInza thanks for the advice what you say makes alot of sense.i should start building my portfolio

[@IAmTimCorey]

Why not both? Finish the course while applying for jobs. As @Aldolnza said, it will give you interview experience and it will give a better chance of getting a job than not applying does.

[@dracocendrillion9963]

@IAmTimCorey first thank you very much tim for taking time from your busy schedule to reply. Yes I will be using both. I reapplied for the program and am excited to continue down this awesome path. 😊 👍

[@user-bb3um9kr5i]

Short note, great video, but not a great fan of the new and loud (too loud) intro. Also its a simple filler, thus unneeded. That's just my opinion.

[@IAmTimCorey]

Thanks for sharing.