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Rules of thumb for a 1x developer

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Re: Rules of thumb for a 1x developer

#101

Post by ch4s3 »

ScottFree wrote: post #95
ptero wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my experience being under 40 is not a prerequisite for being hired in software. A suggestion: two of the biggest turnoffs that I personally see and would work hard to avoid (not saying you have either of those): 1. Sounding desperate. Do not cast a very wide net at one company -- you can apply to mid level and principal level positions at different companies, but do not blanket all job postings at one company. Cho…

> Sounding desperate. Why is that a negative signal? The company has the opportunity to get top talent temporarily down on his/her luck for a reduced rate.

I think mostly it just makes other people uncomfortable.

Re: Rules of thumb for a 1x developer

#102

Post by geocar »

MaxBarraclough wrote: post #8

This is poorly titled. A '1x developer' is by definition an average developer. The page is mostly listing basic knowledge that any developer, even a very junior one, should already have. If you aren't aware of the relative strengths and weaknesses of Java, C, and Python, you aren't a 1x developer, you're a trainee. Anyone know of any better articles truly targeted at '1x' developers? (This isn't snark, it's an invita…

> A '1x developer' is by definition an average developer. The page is mostly listing basic knowledge that any developer, even a very junior one, should already have

I'm not sure I agree with that. Why is a "10x programmer with 3 years experience" better/worth-more than a "1x programmer with forty years experience" if the output of the latter is higher?

Do I just not understand what you mean? This sounds too much like internet points or something.

I have always thought a "1x" or "10x" developer referred to their output of business features.

Or put simply, if all of your stories were scored equally, this is the number of stories your developer can do in some unit of time.

Now, I know there are probably problems with this, but it seems mostly right, and people who I can give bigger tasks to, are usually the programmers who have done more practice/had more experience.

This reminds me of something.

When I was in school, one of my best friends was good at drawing. People would ask him all the time, "How did you get so good at drawing?" and he would say "Practice!" and they would say, "No no no! You must get it from your Mother because she is good at drawing! You are so Gifted!"

I think it was the practice, and I think programming's the same thing: That practice makes you better.

> Anyone know of any better articles truly targeted at '1x' developers? (This isn't snark, it's an invitation.)

If you think you've just been so low-output for so long it's making you dissatisfied and you don't know how to study/practice anymore, getting a mentor can help you.

This can really help if you've had a nontraditional career, since popular articles are (get this) for the populous, so it can really be hard to figure out what to do without going backwards if you can't look outside and see someone like you but a little further along in the direction you'd like to grow.

Re: Rules of thumb for a 1x developer

#103

Post by cyrialize »

I've been a developer for about 3 years now.

This is probably my own fault, but I feel pressured to be constantly doing something towards programming. I feel like I should either be reading a book or starting a project.

I have 10+ programming books where I just finished reading one of them and I have way more unfinished projects than I could count.

It's reassuring to see the push-back against the 10x developer idea, I'm starting to feel less guilty now when I spend my free time NOT on programming.

Something that has also helped me out is picking a project to do, and ignoring everyone else's projects. I would always get pulled away with what I'm starting to work on because I see someone using a new technology or doing something unique. When I would see that I would change up my project because I felt it wasn't good enough or that it wouldn't make me a 10x developer. Now I'm just trying to focus on what makes me happy and what I find enjoyable to work on.

I want to ask though - the author works at Amazon and considers himself a 1x developer. What does that mean for everyone else who doesn't work at Amazon or a FAANG company? Is a 1x developer at a FAANG company a 10x developer elsewhere?

Re: Rules of thumb for a 1x developer

#104

Post by kumarvvr »

bzzzt wrote: post #91
The_Colonel wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Traditional (non-SPA) web apps is where PHP is quite strong. Also depends on the team, if you have a PHP team and it's a web project, you probably want to use PHP.

That's the problem right? Nobody starts new non-SPA web app projects anymore.

There are many new projects that involve Django / Drupal etc.

I myself have spent a lot of time weighing in the pro's and cons of SPA vs. Non-SPA for a recent project.

It's not like all new projects are SPAs.

Re: Rules of thumb for a 1x developer

#105

Post by wdroz »

MaxBarraclough wrote: post #8

This is poorly titled. A '1x developer' is by definition an average developer. The page is mostly listing basic knowledge that any developer, even a very junior one, should already have. If you aren't aware of the relative strengths and weaknesses of Java, C, and Python, you aren't a 1x developer, you're a trainee. Anyone know of any better articles truly targeted at '1x' developers? (This isn't snark, it's an invita…

In the study that lead to the "10x developers" term. 1x developer was not the average, but the least good (because they still were able finished the task). You can't measure against the "worst" because they aren't able to provide a deliverable.

Re: Rules of thumb for a 1x developer

#106

Post by JackFr »

Filligree wrote: post #31
vsareto wrote: post #17

>One great example of this is the debacle of the Amazon internal wiki migration. Back in 2015, the Amazon InfoSec team banned PHP at the company. Oof. To be fair, Java is probably way easier to code review.

Much depends on the Java. Having spent a lot of time on personal projects using the language, it doesn't deserve its reputation -- Java may 'require' an IDE to avoid spending too much time on boilerplate, but modern Java is a good language and the programming experience once you do have that IDE is one of the best, most effective I know. At the same time, it's absolutely possible for codebases to become "enterprisey"…

I just had an coding interview where the interviewer was guiding me to create a class called “ResponseBuilderVisitorBuilder”

Run away!!! (And I like Java!)

Re: Rules of thumb for a 1x developer

#107

Post by MattGaiser »

ScottFree wrote: post #95
ptero wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my experience being under 40 is not a prerequisite for being hired in software. A suggestion: two of the biggest turnoffs that I personally see and would work hard to avoid (not saying you have either of those): 1. Sounding desperate. Do not cast a very wide net at one company -- you can apply to mid level and principal level positions at different companies, but do not blanket all job postings at one company. Cho…

> Sounding desperate. Why is that a negative signal? The company has the opportunity to get top talent temporarily down on his/her luck for a reduced rate.

Companies don't see them as top talent on account of being unemployed.

Re: Rules of thumb for a 1x developer

#108

Post by AndrewUnmuted »

vsareto wrote: post #17

>One great example of this is the debacle of the Amazon internal wiki migration. Back in 2015, the Amazon InfoSec team banned PHP at the company. Oof. To be fair, Java is probably way easier to code review.

I remember thinking that the internal wiki at anzn was one of it's best workplace features. This was something used by just about every team and rarely needed intervention from internal developers to operate smoothly.

This was prior to the migration though. I can't imagine how much upheaval there was resulting from the migration, language considerations aside. This is probably one moment where tech concerns should have taken a back seat to company stability.

Re: Rules of thumb for a 1x developer

#109

Post by jki275 »

LargeWu wrote: post #89
swilliamsio wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even if the interviewers were concerned about your age, you'd never be asked how old you were in an interview. That's grounds for a discriminatory law suit basically anywhere in the world.

One can easily infer age based on career experience, college graduation date, etc.

Perhaps. It doesn't really matter though.

But my point was that there are market segments where age literally doesn't matter one bit.

I'm retired from my first career and writing code every day for a second career, well over 40. I've interviewed for five jobs in that time frame and been offered every single one -- and I don't interview for management roles because I hate managing (it's what I did for 20+ years in the Navy).

In my experience it's not about age. There are jobs, one just has to find what fits them.

Re: Rules of thumb for a 1x developer

#110

Post by zeroc8 »

codesections wrote: post #56

I was very surprised to read > 90%, of what I learn at one job is completely useless for the next one. That has not been my experience at all (and I've had some pretty major job changes, including lawyer -> software developmer). If I had to put a number on it, I'd say more like 50% of what I've learned at each job is transferable. How about everyone else? Closer to 10% or 50%?

Not true for me at all. The underlying patterns of basically everything are quite valuable, so I'd say it's closer to 90%.
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