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Ask HN: What non-technical skills make a senior dev and how to develop them?

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Re: Ask HN: What non-technical skills make a senior dev and how to develop them?

#101

Post by xxr »

mknocker wrote: post #76
matwood wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Basically practice "How to Win Friends and Influence People."

Great book. Easy to read and full of examples.

One of my favorite tips from the book that's stuck with me in the 10+ years since I've read it is the immediate breakthrough you'll have with someone if you pronounce their name correctly when you meet them for the first time, particularly if their name is uncommon to your culture. In the author's case, I believe it was a Greek business partner whose name other English speakers had anglicized down to "Nick." When the author pronounced the other man's name fully, the other man welled up and replied that no one had tried that in decades. I haven't ever had a response quite so extremely positive, but I have experienced sparks of surprised excitement from new coworkers with, for example, Polish and Indian names when I've taken the time to think about or learn how their names are more accurately pronounced.

Re: Ask HN: What non-technical skills make a senior dev and how to develop them?

#102

Post by hkon »

Considering some people spend 1-2 years as "junior" and then 10-20 years as "senior", you will get very different answers from "seniors" as they have varying degree of seniority. Most points in this thread add value.

The one thing which in my mind make people juniors well into their 40's is the inability to take responsibility.

Re: Ask HN: What non-technical skills make a senior dev and how to develop them?

#104

Post by tcdent »

GrumpyYoungMan wrote: post #52
CiPHPerCoder wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People ask me that all the time and it's awkward. I very rarely do anything anyone else would consider "fun", even on weekends. Most of what I do can be classified as "work".

Being somewhat similar, I sympathize. I just tell them that I spent the time relaxing all weekend (regardless of what I actually did) and it seems to satisfy people. (In spite of the stereotype, I'm always surprised to see how few genuine "introverted coders" there actually are in the industry and how unsympathetic the rest are.)

More people than you think follow this advice, which just leaves us with misunderstood anonymous social interactions.

It's OK if you don't want to spend the time to explain the nuance of your personal existence, but do understand that there is nuance in everyones existence. Expecting that the other person you are talking to "won't get it" is just blatant egotism.

Taking time to express what's important to you, and why, can be a very constructive thing for those who want to listen. The OP advocates empathy, and this is where it comes from. In my personal pursuit of empathy, I've had to filter out responses from people like you, and try to see beyond the untruthful statements in an attempt to understand what they are really saying. Shyness is one thing, but a pattern of lies and deceit are indicative of fundamental imbalance.

If you're having a hard time expressing why it's important to you, consider introspection; is it really important to you? If you don't come away from a day, or week, or weekend with something to tout when prompted, I dare say "you're doing it wrong".

I'm certainly not saying that I have something to be proud of every day, but that I'm honest with myself when I don't, and will express to others that I likely accomplished less than them in a given period. No lies necessary, and the other humans around you are given an opportunity to see your similarities, instead of some false iron gate of awesomeness.

Re: Ask HN: What non-technical skills make a senior dev and how to develop them?

#105

Post by alistairSH »

rzzzt wrote: post #96
mooreds wrote: post #3

Depends on what kind of dev you are talking about. In a consulting shop (enterprise or web dev or advertising)? Big company (software, hardware or where software dev is an expense)? Game company? Silicon Valley startup? Senior devs in each of these types of companies have some skills in common and some that are particular. The common ones, in my opinion: * Ability to communicate with non technical folks * Ability to…

Do you have any suggestions for becoming more accurate when it comes to estimating effort? I find that my estimates are generally all over the place and multiple attempts at predicting how much time it will take to complete an assignment don't converge as time passes. Even though I had seen and been given diverse tasks over the course of my work, I can not really pick a previous item of similar magnitude for referenc…

I'm a chronic under-estimator. So, whenever we're in grooming or sprint planning, I make it a habit to ask the other members of the team if the size/hours make sense, or are straight out of "Al's world".

In those occasions where I'm asked to provide a WAG to an executive or salesperson, I always multiply my first thought by 150-200%. Maybe even 300% if there's an external stakeholder (3rd party integration, something for a specific client, etc).

Re: Ask HN: What non-technical skills make a senior dev and how to develop them?

#106

Post by jwoah12 »

* Ownership - being able to handle increasingly large tasks on your own with little to no involvement from your manager or lead.

* Search IQ - Nobody knows how to do everything in software development off the top of their head, but a major difference between a junior dev and a senior one is knowing what questions to ask and how to find the answers. I didn't used to have a name for this until one of my former mentees told me it's called "search IQ" in China.

* Understanding the big picture - At a junior level, you are generally able to understand your small task in the context of what behavior it should be producing. Senior devs should be able to grok development tasks in the context of the business use cases and within the wider system.

Re: Ask HN: What non-technical skills make a senior dev and how to develop them?

#108

Post by quickpost »

OliverJones wrote: post #10

Empathy is the key skill. Yes, it's learned. The ability to walk in somebody else's shoes for a while makes you a better developer. Why? * You acquire the habit of imagining what it's like to use the stuff you develop. * You have a feel for the daily experience of your colleagues, suppliers, executives and other stakeholders. These things give you the sort of spidey-sense that lets you function independently. They al…

Great great post. Thanks for summarizing that so eloquently - I'll be keeping a copy of this comment around as a list of things to practice and continue practicing.

Re: Ask HN: What non-technical skills make a senior dev and how to develop them?

#109

Post by iSnow »

tcdent wrote: post #104
GrumpyYoungMan wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being somewhat similar, I sympathize. I just tell them that I spent the time relaxing all weekend (regardless of what I actually did) and it seems to satisfy people. (In spite of the stereotype, I'm always surprised to see how few genuine "introverted coders" there actually are in the industry and how unsympathetic the rest are.)

More people than you think follow this advice, which just leaves us with misunderstood anonymous social interactions. It's OK if you don't want to spend the time to explain the nuance of your personal existence, but do understand that there is nuance in everyones existence. Expecting that the other person you are talking to "won't get it" is just blatant egotism. Taking time to express what's important to you, and wh…

I am not sure you have a lot of empathy if you automatically assume people want to be asked that question. I hate it if colleagues without kids ask me about my weekend because I believe that the joy of fatherhood breeds extremely boring stories for those who don't share it. I just don't want to feel lame telling you about how cute my daughters were.

Or if I am bustling with joy because the wife and I managed to sneak in an evening of kinky sex between bringing the kids to bed and work on monday. THAT's what I am thinking about and THAT's not what I want to tell you. So I invent some stupid story just so you are satisfied.

It's OK if colleagues which I know well and with whom I have a kind of bond ask things like that. But not as a conversation starter or to create such a bond.

And the list of people who cannot stand questions like that goes on: those with depression for whom every weekend is just a period of grayness, those with social anxiety...

Re: Ask HN: What non-technical skills make a senior dev and how to develop them?

#110

Post by fsloth »

Take ownership of all of your actions and take responsibility for all outcomes. If something did not work out do a root-cause analysis and try to do better next time. Read "The mythical man month" by Brooks to get some perspective to the daily problems.
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