Get a job in a startup or in a big tech in a team where ppl care about the things they do.
Tell HN: The loneliness of a pretty good developer
421–430 of 519 posts
Re: Tell HN: The loneliness of a pretty good developer
#422It has to do more with being over 40. People respect age when there is a solid track record. I don't understand the anxiety about becoming complacent. Your age is the most frequent age at which people spin out their own startups
Re: Tell HN: The loneliness of a pretty good developer
#423I can kind of understand what you are saying. However some points I guess cant be true (at least I hope). In a company with around 350 devs I would say there should be at least one other dev who is "really good". In my experience there are devs like you, who just get a lot of work done in a good quality and there are other devs who enable others. They themselves dont commit that often or get a lot of stories done because they are a lot in pair programming sessions or otherwise connected with others. Maybe you can try and look if you find someone like this in your company.
Re: Tell HN: The loneliness of a pretty good developer
#424I was one of the top developers at my previous job and recently took an architecture role at a new company where I spend most of my days improving processes and mentoring other engineers. I guess you could say I'm pretty lonely here, but it really doesn't bothered me at all. Sharing knowledge and mentoring has really given me new a new insight into my career and I really love what I do here! So, become a mentor either at your current place or elsewhere. It might surprise you.
Re: Tell HN: The loneliness of a pretty good developer
#425You are taking it too seriously. You are allowed to make mistakes like everyone else.
Re: Tell HN: The loneliness of a pretty good developer
#426I can relate, not necessarily as a software developer, but as someone who recently completed a PhD in natural sciences.
When working on something niche for a couple of years, it is natural that you become a specialist of some sort in your daily environment. This why in academia there are conferences and workshops where such specialists can gather and exchange ideas. It seems to me like you are passing up on opportunities to socialize outside of your day-to-day. Why not look up an event that might challenge you and ask your boss if you can participate? There is always room for improvement and companies should support that.
Re: Tell HN: The loneliness of a pretty good developer
#427I was trying to figure out my multiplier the other day and came to 1.05x. I'm an average engineer who works longer hours - hence the 0.05 premium.
Re: Tell HN: The loneliness of a pretty good developer
#428I don't think you 'brag', and I can also understand how the situation is making you feel. I have known and met guys like you where I have worked, which had similar experiences. It's a bit like being the tallest in your class. It feels better than being the shortest, but it can feel very lonely just the same.
The normal advice is to search and find a group of peers to work with. The trouble is, if your skills are mostly technical, and not matched in social/networking skills.
Google the phrase 'never be the smartest person in the room' to see some perspective on your situation, you are not the first :-)
Re: Tell HN: The loneliness of a pretty good developer
#429Sounds like you are really good at coding and designing software!
But sadly, as you are finding, that this does not imply being good at "life".
Reading between the lines of your post, there might be a very deep rooted assumption that being amazingly well at something in life, would automatically lead to being good at life itself.
Chemically speaking "life" is just the ability to handle the naturally generated body chemistry well and cultivating it.
Remember that time you were so incredibly in love? How Happy and fulfilled you were?
Now, you did't take substances for that right? Just by accident you found some signal-patterns though your optical nerve, ears, smell and touch that allowed you to release all kinds of fancy chemicals into your bloodstream.
YOU FELT GREAT!
But now?
You are good at code, but that does not keep your body-chemistry high enough that you feel like flying. Ofc I know you feel it a little when you find a very nice solution, or when you finally fix that one thing that bothered your whole team for a week and so on...
But it is not enough or you wouldn't have made that post.
Now what if I told you, that people have found ways and means to cultivate and "train" those glands that make you feel high and ecstatic? We all know that diet and workout (and what people call a "healtyh" lifestyle) is exactly that. Enhancing the quality of your body chemistry. But is goes much further than that. Sadly these techniques have always been in the mystical and esoteric landscape which fu*ked it all up so badly.
But still the techniques work, I can confess that myself and science is also getting there more and more.
If such shit interests you at all, I recommend that you go straight to the secret techniques of the ancient yogis from high up in the Himalaya mountains. Get the real stuff and not that washed down, new-agy nonsense! I could recommend a few resources, but I trust you will also find some.
I wish you all the very best <3
Re: Tell HN: The loneliness of a pretty good developer
#430Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
> But what steps have OP taken to start decentralizing to mitigate those risks? You don't know they haven't already starting thinking/implementing ways to address those risks. And... it may also be that there's not enough political power to make changes substantive enough to address the systemic risk. OP mentioned 300+ developers on a team - that's a large place. There may simply not be the ability to wield enough in…
You’re correct, I don’t know they haven’t tried to mitigate the risks.
But post also points to being lonely of sorts and a sense of dispair. As your last paragraph describes, if OP pair programs, does some mentoring, etc, why would they feel lonely and post on the internet instead of chatting it through with the people at the company?
If so many people are coming to him/her for things, they def have some implicit power. Not knowing how to constructively use that power also lead to my support of the “don’t be a manager” post (yet). If OP figures out how to scale themself out, then by all means…