Concrete and human-readable here, which is exactly what I expected to get coming from IT (where short job cycles, high turnover, comparatively low wages) where my guiding principle is not being a dick to the next person by making sure they understand why I did things a given way, and where time to learn new things is very much a “thrown in the fire” type scenario (e.g., learning Asterisk while your global support line is down and your contractor holds non-regional business hours for support).
Waterluvian · 5m ago
I tried to finish this quiz but just can’t. Every question I got was a very big, “it depends on context…”
“Do you prefer strong static or dynamic or a mix?” Well… are we teaching 9th graders, writing a quick script to answer a bespoke data question, or writing a data processing library?
“On algorithms I focus on…” Okay, well… do we care about performance? Where is it running? How often will it run? Will the code be disposed of soon or live a decade? Do we need it working today or next week?
I just don’t understand how to even begin formulating an opinion on any of these questions without any context.
To use the compass analogy: shouldn’t you want to best know how to use a compass? What value is there in saying, “my favourite bearing is east-northeast”? That is, the substance in any of this is the “it depends…” portion. Any answers to this quiz is really just a proxy for the kinds of contexts people are solving problems in.
josephg · 7m ago
I landed right in the middle - -1, -2. Which seems weird because I’m very opinionated about a lot of this stuff. I like a lot of the questions but a lot of my answers felt like I was arbitrarily picking something. That’s probably why.
Eg for testing, do I want “whatever finds bugs most effectively” or “property based testing”? Well, property based testing is usually the most time efficient way to find bugs. So, yes both of those. Debugging: do I use print statements, or a debugger, or logically think it through? Yes all of those. But if I arbitrarily said I use a debugger in a multiple choice test, I don’t think that tells you much about how I code!
I do - controversially - think some of the answers are naming bad practices. Like abstraction first is a bad idea - since you know the least about your problem before you start programming it up. Abstraction first inevitably bakes in whatever bad assumptions you walked in the door with into your code. Better to code something - anything - up and use what you learned in the process to iterate on your software architecture decisions. I also generally hate modern OO and these days I prefer static types over dynamic types.
But yeah. Interesting questions! Thanks for putting this together.
vjvjvjvjghv · 3m ago
[delayed]
foxbarrington · 4m ago
GPT-5’s results:
Your Programming Philosophy
You prefer elegant, high-level solutions that are intuitive and accessible to other developers. You likely favor functional programming, clear abstractions, and code that reads like prose.
Abstract ↔ Concrete:
+3 Abstract
Human ↔ Computer Friendly:
+11 Human-Friendly
joshdavham · 17m ago
This was fun!
Also, I'd recommend NOT telling the test taker which dimensions they're getting scored on as it will affect the responses. For example, if you gave me a test telling me that you're gonna score me on Introversion-Extraversion and Neuroticism-Emotional Stability, then I may be more biased to answer questions to score me as an emotionally stable introvert since that's what I identify as.
Oh, and
Abstract ↔ Concrete: 0 Neutral |
Human ↔ Computer Friendly: +11 Human-Friendly
jonathrg · 9m ago
Yes, it's so easy to tell which direction each question will push the result, that it kinda distracts from thinking about the question
thewebguyd · 18m ago
-11 concrete, +14 human friendly lol.
> "You value clarity and directness in code. You prefer explicit, step-by-step solutions that are easy to understand and debug, even if they require more lines of code"
Sounds about right.
corv · 32m ago
Seeing Treeform here immediately made me think of Nim, and lo-and behold that's what the Javascript is generated from, cool!
PeterWhittaker · 18m ago
-1 concrete, +16 human friendly.
Feels about right.
BarryMilo · 26m ago
+17 human+friendly, I guess I don't care what computers think lol.
“Do you prefer strong static or dynamic or a mix?” Well… are we teaching 9th graders, writing a quick script to answer a bespoke data question, or writing a data processing library?
“On algorithms I focus on…” Okay, well… do we care about performance? Where is it running? How often will it run? Will the code be disposed of soon or live a decade? Do we need it working today or next week?
I just don’t understand how to even begin formulating an opinion on any of these questions without any context.
To use the compass analogy: shouldn’t you want to best know how to use a compass? What value is there in saying, “my favourite bearing is east-northeast”? That is, the substance in any of this is the “it depends…” portion. Any answers to this quiz is really just a proxy for the kinds of contexts people are solving problems in.
Eg for testing, do I want “whatever finds bugs most effectively” or “property based testing”? Well, property based testing is usually the most time efficient way to find bugs. So, yes both of those. Debugging: do I use print statements, or a debugger, or logically think it through? Yes all of those. But if I arbitrarily said I use a debugger in a multiple choice test, I don’t think that tells you much about how I code!
I do - controversially - think some of the answers are naming bad practices. Like abstraction first is a bad idea - since you know the least about your problem before you start programming it up. Abstraction first inevitably bakes in whatever bad assumptions you walked in the door with into your code. Better to code something - anything - up and use what you learned in the process to iterate on your software architecture decisions. I also generally hate modern OO and these days I prefer static types over dynamic types.
But yeah. Interesting questions! Thanks for putting this together.
Your Programming Philosophy
You prefer elegant, high-level solutions that are intuitive and accessible to other developers. You likely favor functional programming, clear abstractions, and code that reads like prose.
Abstract ↔ Concrete: +3 Abstract
Human ↔ Computer Friendly: +11 Human-Friendly
Also, I'd recommend NOT telling the test taker which dimensions they're getting scored on as it will affect the responses. For example, if you gave me a test telling me that you're gonna score me on Introversion-Extraversion and Neuroticism-Emotional Stability, then I may be more biased to answer questions to score me as an emotionally stable introvert since that's what I identify as.
Oh, and Abstract ↔ Concrete: 0 Neutral | Human ↔ Computer Friendly: +11 Human-Friendly
> "You value clarity and directness in code. You prefer explicit, step-by-step solutions that are easy to understand and debug, even if they require more lines of code"
Sounds about right.
Feels about right.
Human ↔ Computer Friendly: -5 Computer-Friendly