Live data from Hacker News

Tell HN: The loneliness of a pretty good developer

news.ycombinator.com

301–310 of 519 posts

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

#301

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think you're an above average developer working at a below average company. This. I'd conjecture that this has led to OP becoming overconfident. I also think that OP should not be a manager. If one dev is doing 70% of the work then that's either bad hiring practices or micromanagement where other team members are not trusted to deliver complex projects.

Re: your second paragraph, what does that have to do with OPs ability (regardless of appropriateness to the firm, his career arch, or the story) to perform as a manager. He/she might be great, normal, or terrible. How can you tell apriori from what they wrote?

OP realizes they do a lot of work, and OP realizes they’re single point of failure/authority at the company. But what steps have OP taken to start decentralizing to mitigate those risks?

Someone with the management sense would’ve already started thinking and implementing that and not continue to code moar.

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

#305
I've been this in jobs, and am one of these people in my current job, so I can relate to what you wrote here.

There's a lot that goes into switching jobs, so it's hard to offer as general advice – it's much easier to do for some people than others. Switching into any new job is a reset switch for a lot of what you experience in your current role. You come in with no/minimal reputation, domain knowledge, relationships, knowledge of the code, etc, and you'll have to work to build all that – by itself, that's probably a refreshing change. If you switch into a company with a high talent bar, you'll get all that and also be nearly guaranteed of never being the smartest/most effective person in your area. This can be a big ego check, but also means that there's plenty of folks around to learn from.

I'm primarily a startup guy, and I'm good enough that I usually end up being a key person. I spent some time at a prestigious, trendy company filled with really smart people. I didn't like a lot of things about that place, but I _loved_ the caliber of my teammates. Everyone was above average, everyone pulled their weight, followed along in fast-moving discussions, politely/professionally challenged each other's ideas, etc. Definitely not lonely, and definitely a dynamic I miss in my current team.

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

#306
I can empathize with this, but I also have the problem that I'm nearing 60 and I'm working with guys in their 20s and 30s.

So now I'm trying to become more of a "mentor". Particularly now that everything is WFH and remote, a lot of the bullshit that people used to use in the office to promote themselves has been stripped away.

So it's easier to recognize actual talent, and when I do, I try to make sure that when I do something, I do everything I can to get people to understand what I did and, more importantly, why.

So now, I see my "output" as not necessarily my code (I still write it) but the people in the teams I work with.

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

#307
I think you’re learning that there is more to this career than just slinging commits. I can relate to the experience you are having.

At a certain point, the code just wasn’t enough for me. I still love code and systems, but it isn’t the only way I make impact anymore.

When I reached the point that I wanted something more rewarding, I started learning other skills. I have found business, sales engineering, delivery enablement, product development, and people management are really interesting.

I echo others who say to switch jobs. You’ve got to find a role that will let you branch out.

I’ve got a lot of those opportunities at a small tech company if anyone wants to chat btw…

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

#308
If 80% of the code is yours, of course you will be able to work with it faster than everyone else. It's easier to write code than read others' code; you already know how it all works, where the bodies are buried, etc.; and you probably know the other 20% pretty well too because the parts you aren't writing yourself you're reviewing and understanding in the "big picture" context better than anyone else. Not to mention getting pulled into meetings and hallway discussions that give you insights into what's coming next. Long story short: You've amassed company & product specific intellectual capital.

You're being challenged, it's just not a technical challenge. You need to define for yourself what you want out of this situation. You can of course go find another job as others have suggested; I'm sure that will feel new and technically challenging for a while at least!

Or you can accept that your challenge now is to figure out why you feel stressed and alone; why your team seems so slow; why your response is to be more controlling; why you don't trust them to get the job done; and why they just obey your edicts rather than arguing and sharing their own ideas. These are not technical problems, but they are common when engineers take on leadership roles. Is there camaraderie on the team? Can you gently suss out their thoughts on the matter? What are their goals? Try letting them solve the problem; resist urges to take control. Set limits on yourself so instead of taking over with coding, you start to learn why they're slow, and help them improve (are they over engineering? getting stuck and not asking for advice?). Allow them to make mistakes, and develop a culture of sharing in success and failure and learn from both. Recognize that they won't be as efficient given random tasks as you, since you know almost all of it; help them build up their own areas of expertise, and create a "map" of experts so they can help each other directly instead of working through you.

Most importantly, stop measuring your commit count, task count, etc., unless that's really what you want to maximize... in which case, yes, the rest of your team is going to be slower than you, depend on your understanding, and probably not have much hope of surpassing your performance. Instead, focus more on the team's performance, the project's success, etc.; find ways you can measure those if you must; and discuss with your boss so he sees your efforts, can give feedback & advice, and so you both know how you're valued.

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

#310
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…

This. I always had a rule: if I wasn’t learning at a company I either need to switch teams or change companies. It means I outgrew my position. I’ve continually felt challenged as a result with a side effect of lots of types of companies and teams in my background.
Post reply on HN