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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

#381
In that situation most devs have evolved into a tech lead in their career, meaning that they have the mental responsibility for architectural decisions in software.

That also implies that the mental burden of responsibility won't allow you to stop, and you probably catch yourself trying to fix problems at night in bed that technically aren't your responsibility.

But at some point you have to reflect: is it worth it? And I mean worth in the sense of health, culture, stress and not money.

And is your team better off with the current situation or is your skill not better used in guidance and evolving team members so that they can help you more? Why not do paired coding days so that skills and knowledge can be shared? Why not hackathon days to inspire creativity for automating annoying tasks?

If I've learned any wisdom in agile teams over the years it's that a Lead also has the responsibility to lead...and not overworking themselves to death.

Giving away responsibility is very hard. I understand the reluctance to do so. But you should plan your life for a better future, and not a better present.

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

#382

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…

I agree with this. Worked with a guy who sounds exactly like OP. The official perception was that he was a smart 10x engineer. But off the record people actually hated working with him. He was a massive control freak and the only reason we bought anything up with him was so he didn't have a cry about it later.

Sometimes the "10x engineer" is just the one that's loudest and most persistent. Doesn't mean they're good. Just means no one else can be fucked dealing with them.

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

#383
My personal experience is that people who describe their abilities like you do are actually not very good at their job but think they are.

But, assuming, you're right, you should have switched jobs yesterday to somewhere where you can be challenged. How can you be sure? You can't. But making sure to utilise the interview process is a good starting point. If you walk out of an interview just as unsure that the place won't challenge you, then either you've not asked enough questions, or they gave very wooly answers (which is a pretty good sign that the place isn't right for you).

Good luck. Feeling lonely sucks.

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

#385
post #369

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is an underrated answer. When your colleagues start treating you as the "go-to guy", I think it's often holding back their own development. Why should they try harder when they know your code review will catch everything they missed? Why bother volunteering for challenging tasks when they know you will do it faster? Often when you are put in the position of being the "go-to guy" at a company, you start to imagin…

> They value you exactly as much as they're paying you, no more. Define "they". It is sometimes useful to think of an organization as one actor, but this simplification can break down. For example, a great developer may get noticed and recognized by her manager, but said manager may have a difficult time making the case to bump her pay due to organizational dynamics and policies. My point: different parts of the orga…

Oh this made me laugh. I worked at a startup for a year where Chris was actually a guy called Chris. Oj the stories

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

#386

My personal experience is that people who describe their abilities like you do are actually not very good at their job but think they are. But, assuming, you're right, you should have switched jobs yesterday to somewhere where you can be challenged. How can you be sure? You can't. But making sure to utilise the interview process is a good starting point. If you walk out of an interview just as unsure that the place w…

I’m curious what sort of key words you see that make you think the person is not actually very good.

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

#387

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…

That is spot on to what I was thinking. I have encountered a few of these guys in my career and ohhhh man do they ever think they're the absolute best.

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

#388
In 2 months I went from “hello world” to writing APIs, training neural nets, hacking video games and reversing android apps.

When I made a post on Reddit, I was viciously attacked and the post was deleted.

It’s 4 months now and I am finding faults in nearly everyone’s code, standard libraries, bloatware etc. Yes its lonely being at the top of the bell curve.

The majority of humanity will always be petty and stupid. A few of us with sound reasoning and high IQs excel at programming and it indeed leads to a very lonely path. For instance I am one of the few people I know who programs in C. Everyone else has succumbed to using that bloated extension-extension that shall not be named.

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

#389
post #7

Well, you're good at making the rest of us feel inferior - perhaps that's the problem? Why not move into a domain where you're a beginner again and feel what it's like to struggle to learn from scratch?

Sorry. I honestly think almost anyone can do what I do. I'm not the smartest developer by far. I think I have good systems in place that allow me to write code well. In terms of moving to a different domain I did about 4 years ago. It was a challenge in the beginning, but I have enough life experience to know how to handle adverse situations. Kind of like if you know 3 programming languages well, the 4th one is not v…

Then you haven't changed nearly enough obviously. What are we supposed to do in this situation - feel sorry for you?

Do a university course or move to a new country and learn a language, start a business. Apply your ability to handle adverse situations and think your way out of this.

If you are lonely then spend your time helping other people to solve their problems their own way rather than yours. Take up gardening and devote your ability to that. One can go on and on.

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

#390

Earlier quoted context omitted.

n terms of actual code reminders I try to make it work, make it right, make it fast. I also try to do always, then inhibit, then ignore cases that don't apply. Minimize if statements to have consistent execution. If a function is called from one place I will inline it. From multiple places I will try to see if I can have it happen in one place so I can inline it (plus it's an optimization thing). For complex calculat…

I primarily work with Java and Python.

>Java and Python

Just lost your credibility lol.

Python is alright but... seriously? Java?

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