The software developers who write blog posts and are active on forums represent only a tiny fraction of all developers. Moreover, they are not representative of the industry. Self selection means that the "visible" software developers are using highly advanced tools, cutting edge technologies, and company and team structures to match.
Like the dark matter in outer space, we know there must be a large number of "invisible" software developers because there must be someone writing all the other software in the world. In contrast to the "tech bros", dark matter developers...
Do not write blogs
Are not active on tech websites
(Likely) use old, well tested, or even deprecated technology and tools
Questions
How do you develop software without using the latest "best practices"?
Does the calculus change for the cheap / fast / good trilemma for DMDs?
Do lessons learned by "Luminous matter developers" (as in The Mythical Man-Month) still apply?
... am I a dark matter developer?
I mean, I don't meet the first point because of this article, but my coworkers are dark matter developers. A bit about our team / tech stack
In a non-tech company with a few thousand employees
Making an internal web app, specialty software for a niche segment of the market
Code base is likely 25-30 years old, created in late 90's or early 2000's
Project has changed hands several times due to acquisitions and mergers
Current team has only had it since 2019, institutional knowledge only goes back to then
CRUD app with SQL server, Visual Basic backend, ASP front end
Using several libraries created by now defunct companies
Most programmers do not have formal (college) programming education
No code review, no style guidelines, shipping features ASAP is the top priority
No comments
We do have Scrum Masters and Business Analysts and Product Owners, thank God
Agile / Scrum seems pretty standard, nobody cares if we're doing it "right"