Friday, July 8, 2016

Heroic Programming/Engineering in Hollywood

Once in awhile when I'm watching a tv show that includes some programming/engineering, I am amazed by the level of "Heroic Programming" or "Heroic Engineering" capabilities of the characters.

The one I've noticed the most is Timothy McGee on NCIS.  At multiple points in time McGee is capable of engineering solutions to help solve a crime on the order of an afternoon.  These are feats that would take people days to months.  On a few occasions McGee single handedly developed data mining algorithms and capabilities that probably bordered on the capabilities of Palantir.

Keep in mind that McGee has mastered these heroic capabilities, despite the fact that he doesn't even program as his day job.  So he has seemingly developed all these abilities as a side-task and/or hobby.

Another one I saw recently was on the show Silicon Valley.  While the individuals on the show are atleast full time engineers, they seem to have epic capabilities.  A very small team of just three engineers seems capable to engineer everything, on every platform, in every domain, without flaw, and at lightning speed.


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