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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

#411

First, a reality check - it’s great that you can ship defect-free code, but that’s table stakes for a good senior engineer. You’re locally a 10x engineer because you wrote most of the code, so you’re naturally going to be a lot more effective than the other people on your team. This probably won’t translate to new projects. If you joined a new project where someone else had written 80% of it, it would take you years…

> You’re locally a 10x engineer because you wrote most of the code, so you’re naturally going to be a lot more effective than the other people on your team. This probably won’t translate to new projects.

>

> If you joined a new project where someone else had written 80% of it, it would take you years to catch up to their productivity; if they were controlling and continued to write 80% of everything, it would be impossible.

So much this! I read the OP and thought that the dev should get out more. I'm 10x as productive on systems I built myself vs systems other people built.

That's (according to my rough estimates) one developer (me) being 10x better developer than the next developer (also me!).

Switch to an established team and see how long it takes you to get to your self-reported 23x developer status.

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

#412
I am trying not to be an 10x developer. I try to stay around whatever the number of story points is considered ok for my team. If if finish something in 2 hours instead of 5, that means I have more time to do other things. Try new approaches, make proof of concepts for myself, read something interesting, browse the web.

If I'd try to work as fast as possible, I feel I would burn out fast.

My advice would be to either get slower with the work (do only what needs to be done) and do other things in the time remaining or switch jobs for one that pays accordingly to the work you are capable of doing, open your own company.

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

#414
post #54

I am not a top developer or even close to it (I don't or want to have this trait of "relentless pursuit of self-improvement" ), but I have worked with a couple. It seems to me that being controlling is part of the problem. When I worked with a top developer, every and each code that I wrote they would have written it faster, more elegantly, more maintainable, and more bug-proof. But when they reviewed my PR, they wou…

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…

This. “The cemeteries of the world are full of indispensable men.”

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

#416
TL;DR: 1. no offense 2. mee too 3. join the elite club 4. pet projects 5. teach

1. First of all, don't take what I write as a personal attack; I am a bit aspie, and can't detect the fine distinction between being honest vs rude, I'm just unable to separate. Also, I don't speak English very well, so I may use phrases, which I think different that it sounds.

2. Sorry, dude, you're only an average programmer - as I am. I have 32 years of experience in software development, started at age 18, and I'm programming since I'm 13, but I would have started earlier if there had been computers (in a socialist/communist country, see COCOM list). I'm pretty good at setting up a moldel, a solution, choosing platform and tools, writing well-readable, fast and resilient code. My superpower is to cut out features, which looks necessary, but I know they aren't, and I'm always right. I am not too good at math, okay, bool algebra is my blood, and I can set up good KPIs, but other areas, e.g. trigonometry (not a random pick, see later) is not my table. Also, sometimes I create music, not the dumb write-one-pattern-then-switch-on-off-tracks style, but normal pop, smooth jazz, house, rock, punk etc. stuff. I love to make covers. Restricted platforms is my real home, writing music for C16/Plus4, ringtone, buzzer, bytebeat etc.

3. As I said, I'm pretty average. I'm not measuring myself to clerks, bus drivers and our PM, not even to usual programmers. There's a scene, where we count as "nice try" or "well, interesting". This arena is called demoscene (a good intro: https://www.wise-geek.com/what-is-a-demoscene.htm). I am a medium-low known member of this community. As I'm not too good in math (remember, 3D), which is recommended in this genre, and also I'm not 16 yo any more, so I have no time to release full demos requires months of work of more people, I found my way in the sizecoding category, I am releasing and contributing in 256-byte intros (and also musics, of course). As sizecoder, I still count below-average-talented, other dudes are writing raytracers and other jaw-dropping effects in 256 byte (usually we use 16-bit x86 code), so I'm trying to shine out doing funny or unusual things. For example, one of my latest intro plays a 549 notes piano piece on the MIDI interface (my friend helped to optimize it out, also there's a presentation about how it's made https://github.com/ern0/549notes/tree/master/prez).

So, if you feel yourself lonely because you're high above the average folks, come, join demoscene, and feel yourself lonely on the other end of the spectrum, above the average. Okay, it's not true, not every demoscener is pure genius, but they're way above average, so you'll enjoy. Sometimes these guys are weird, but this is a usual side effect. If they accept you (don't worry, we're not complete jerks), it will be a good feeling to belong to such smart people. Not least, it's a great _inspiration_!

4. You not mentioned, but I assume you have pet projects. It's a fatal mistake to not have pet projects. This is the difference between Real Programmers and this-is-my-job-meh. Even if you work as Universal Problem Solver, there will be several areas which you never deal with before, and some of these are too interesting to just ignore them.

I show you an example. Thanks God (despite I'm atheist/agnostic) that I don't have to deal with web dev, but I was curious what the heck WASM is (web without JavaScript, doesn't it sound good?!), and wanted to write just a plain helloworld C program for it to try it out... and there were no such, all examples were for Rust/Emscripten, so I made a small skeleton: https://linkbroker.hu/stuff/howto-wasm-minimal/ - it became somewhat famous, a bunch of folks thanked it, finally I felt that it wasn't complete waste the time spent with it (2-3 nights).

A special area of pet projects is, where not-too-complicated electronics plays role - keyword is: Arduino. It's a pure joy, even if only a small led blinks in your hand, driven by the program you wrote!

If you have such pet projects, sorry for the redundancy.

5. As I'm getting older, I'm creating presentations from my pet projects and other experiences more and more often. Remember your early career, it would be great if someone had explained clearly how things work: pullup resistor, abstract syntax tree (compiler tech.), version control, key-value databases, LaTeX, build systems, Unix pipes etc.

If you can suggest optimal solutions for a certain problem at work, you should not only justify why you chose that solution, but you should also teach how to do it.

Oh, needless to say: Maybe I'm Wrong. Your way might be complete different, I don't want to iterfere your life (as silly joke goes: - Have a good day! - Please, don't tell me how to life!).

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

#417
Since you seem to be the smartest person in the room, you are in the wrong room. Most probably you have a ton of $$$$ by this time, so leave that damn room (sabbatical, or simply quit), and use that money to do something which you maybe don't even know you like (sports, travels, hell, maybe an expensive car).

This is what I did when I was in your shoes[1]. Then I went to work for something quite different, and enjoyed NOT being the smartest in the room anymore, and not being responsible for 60%+ of commits, docs, etc.

[1]: one of the best times of my life, BTW. And I also like coding.

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

#418
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…

> I think you're an above average developer working at a below average company Nailed it

so true. for the self pumping developer

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

#419

Maybe try shifting to coding custom firmware for High Frequency Trading firms. The money is great and they need talent like you. If you can be a 10x developer in this field you will be worth millions.

This is.... oddly specific, but I verify it's true :-)

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

#420

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.

I mentioned in a top comment that is probably lost in the comments that I vouch for "if you're the smartest person in the room, find another room".

If you've got an suitably anonymous email address I can contact you on, I might be able to offer that other room. (Or you might think it's shite, which is fair).

But yeah, my current employer was my other room. Got to experience imposter syndrome again for the first time in a long while.

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