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Tell HN: The loneliness of a pretty good developer

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Re: Tell HN: The loneliness of a pretty good developer

#241

Post by cushychicken »

somenewaccount1 wrote: post #44

- Become a serious mentor. Not just in passing code review, but actually spend time teaching. - Try documenting your processes and thinking to get to the right code answer. Like a company coding manual. This way it scales your knowledge rather than being stuck as the 'doer'. - Consider taking on different challenges, like management, either at your company or another company. - Reflect on what it would be like to rea…

Being a mentor is fucking awesome.

I'm a great fucking electrical engineer, but there's no project I've enjoyed like watching the junior people I work with start to apply what I've taught them.

They're now more valuable, and so is the company, because we can do more, better, and faster.

Re: Tell HN: The loneliness of a pretty good developer

#242

Post by donbrae »

angarg12 wrote: post #233

It sounds like you need a bigger pond. I'd recommend either a high performing big tech or a fast growing startup. Each will challenge you in a different way. On the other hand, it might be risky changing jobs now so take it with a pinch of salt.

Risky in terms of them being 42, or due to the economy maybe not looking too great right now?

Re: Tell HN: The loneliness of a pretty good developer

#243

Post by redleggedfrog »

I've been programming for almost 30 years, 15 of it on essentially the same code-base, and 5 years ago I could have written something similar to what you posted.

The part of being over-protective of the code-base particularly resonated.

In the end, it's not worth it. Yeah, you might do a lot of the work, yeah, it's good stuff, but that just means your good at your job. Help others up to your level, be patient, slow down, and make friends of your co-workers.

And then go ahead and learn something hard - that always does great for knocking me down a few pegs and remembering I'm not all that. I'm just a medium sized fish in a small company pond and there are people out there doing really significant work and you can learn from them. Hell, just switch JS frameworks, that's enough for a year's worth of feeling lost.

Re: Tell HN: The loneliness of a pretty good developer

#244

Post by gamblor956 »

TBH, the last time someone told me they were a 10x developer, I asked his co-workers what he was like when he left the room and everyone said that the 10x was all in his head and he was pretty close to being the worst performer in the group. He just had an inflated sense of his own skills. Despite getting fired from multiple jobs (including that one) for performance reasons, he continued to exist he was a "10x" programmer and he was just getting fired because the managers and CTOs were jealous of his leet skills and didn't want to spend their all their time looking over their shoulders.

I'm not saying that you're this guy, but this weird humble-brag post doesn't come across as sincere, and it's the kind of post I frequently see in reddit.

If you really are a 10x, then share the wealth by mentoring other programmers. A true 10x isn't measured by the amount of code they output, they are measured by their multiplicative effect on the productivity of their team.

Re: Tell HN: The loneliness of a pretty good developer

#246

Post by gamblor956 »

Andrew_nenakhov wrote: post #211
phphphphp wrote: post #24

I’ve worked with people who could have written this post with the stats and how they consider themselves, but they were awful to work with. People didn’t challenge them because it was exhausting, because they knew best, despite their constant churning out of garbage code that the business didn’t have the guts to address. That’s not to say you’re bad or your code is bad, but it’s definitely worth considering whether t…

From my experience, a person claiming to be a 10x developer probably isn't one. All real performers I knew were pretty humble people.

To second that, the best programmers I know are quite upfront about how much they don't know.

This can have the paradoxical effect of people relying on them less in situations where they should, because they think the 10x doesn't know anything, and instead they turn to the braggart 1/10x programmer who claims he knows everything. (Not meaning the OP on this; I just know a guy IRL who is exactly this.)

Re: Tell HN: The loneliness of a pretty good developer

#247

Post by wvenable »

dvt wrote: post #237
wvenable wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anyone with that many extracurricular activities almost definition can't be a 10x developer. Producing books, papers, open source contributions, conference talks, contributing massively to Stack Overflow is doing a lot of things that aren't software development. As they say, those that can't do teach -- and you're describing the latter.

Hard disagree, as we have plenty of counter-examples here: from John Skeet, to John Carmack, to Max Howell, to Vitalik Buterin.

John Carmack? He's got one answer on stack overflow, limited open source contributions, a few conference talks, no books, no papers. He's known for producing actual results and not for any of the things you ascribe as 10x required.

Re: Tell HN: The loneliness of a pretty good developer

#248

Post by megous »

cableshaft wrote: post #19
mooreds wrote: post #2

> I worry that by not being challenged I will become complacent. Fair worry. > What can I do to change things? You should switch jobs. I've been the top technical person at a couple of companies (not the size of your company, however). It can be exhilarating to be "the person". You get a lot of respect and autonomy. But it can be easy to fall into the curse of the expert beginner: https://daedtech.com/how-developers-…

I concur, switch jobs. It may just be that you've become the big fish in a small pond (or even a large pond, but just at that company). No better way to make you realize what all you don't know except by switching jobs. I've been "the goto guy" at a few places, usually just ended up that way over time, and when I switched jobs, suddenly it felt like I didn't know anything, or at least had a lot of catching up to do.…

Will the "getting busy/challenged learning new things at new job" resolve the loneliness feeling though?

Re: Tell HN: The loneliness of a pretty good developer

#249

Post by dvt »

wvenable wrote: post #247
dvt wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hard disagree, as we have plenty of counter-examples here: from John Skeet, to John Carmack, to Max Howell, to Vitalik Buterin.

John Carmack? He's got one answer on stack overflow, limited open source contributions, a few conference talks, no books, no papers. He's known for producing actual results and not for any of the things you ascribe as 10x required.

> limited open source contributions

Sure, if literally porting the entire X Windows System[1] to OSX is "limited." Or basically paving the way for Linux gaming/3D development because of his work on OpenGL. Let alone his entrepreneurial/seed efforts w.r.t. Oculus, etc. Also, he spoke at Facebook's 2021 Keynote. C'mon, man.

[1] https://github.com/timon37/xwayland/blob/master/hw/xquartz/m...

Re: Tell HN: The loneliness of a pretty good developer

#250

Post by icedchai »

100011_100001 wrote: post #40
ctvo wrote: post #16

I think you're an above average developer working at a below average company. This could be the root of all your problems. Nothing is more frustrating than working with peers you know aren't carrying their weight. Do you want to be an engineering leader? This is what you are, regardless of your official title at your company. Engineering leaders are judged by how much better they make everyone else. You may hear the…

The pivot I have been debating is to become a Lead Development Manager with the express purpose of enabling everyone else, removing obstacles, creating better processes etc. My problem is that I love code much more than talking to people all day. I have been mentoring Jr Devs for a while now in an official capacity which helps. I like the idea of "make systemic changes to help your peers become more effective". So th…

If you do that, you may never write another line of code again (especially in a large organization.)

I like mentorship, helping people figure stuff out, giving technical advice etc. I don't like going to zoom meetings all day, which is what "leadership" in today's modern world has become.

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