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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

#501

Post by leaflets2 »

d--b wrote: post #209

I don’t understand how you see any kind of causality between being good and being lonely. I worked with tons of people, some more talented, some less talented, I never felt like not connecting with people less able than me. And I don’t think people more talented than me felt lonely at all. Keep the coding going and work on being friendly and fun and helpful. That kind of stuff. Oh and please don’t call yourself 10x.…

If the difference is big enough, you'll start feeling lonely in a way. And/or frustrated and bored. When the others cannot truly understand you

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

#502

Post by lostlogin »

dosethree wrote: post #474
QuercusMax wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same with me. I was the most senior dev still writing code ~every day, and there was literally no place to grow. Moved to Google and learned a ton, now I'm one of a number of big fishes in my org, and I also feel like I can potentially move on more easily if I want to.

IMO people who describe themselves as big fish in a small pond come off as extremely arrogant

How about ‘largest fish in a small pond’?

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

#503

Post by hellohowareu »

rswail wrote: post #348
hellohowareu wrote: post #23

As a 35 year old developer who started at about age 32, just want to say: I am glad to see folks in their 40s doing well as a developer. sometimes i get burned out on it. but, ultimately i am still interested in programming and the creativity that comes with creating products. so, just glad that I can keep being one for at least 10, maybe 20 more years.

As a 58 year old developer that start at 18, it's about finding the right place to do stuff that is the right level of challenge for you. It's also about adopting the attitude that "I can always learn more". Just by reading HN that's a really good step, because there are smart people here and interesting posts. I started professionally as a Pascal programmer on an IBM PC/XT, now I architect OLTP systems and either sp…

Thanks a ton! I appreciate the encouragement! Great point on treating it as creativity rather than engineering. I totally agree-- makes it more fun and interesting for me.

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

#504

Post by hellohowareu »

mech422 wrote: post #50
hellohowareu wrote: post #23

As a 35 year old developer who started at about age 32, just want to say: I am glad to see folks in their 40s doing well as a developer. sometimes i get burned out on it. but, ultimately i am still interested in programming and the creativity that comes with creating products. so, just glad that I can keep being one for at least 10, maybe 20 more years.

It's up to you...I'm 55, and still going strong... Haven't had any trouble keeping up or finding jobs. Have Fun!

Thanks a ton! Good to hear-- that's something I sometimes worry about. But then I also think "Well, technology is more important than it used to be, so based on that, the future seems bright, career-wise." But great to hear, just to turn off any worrying voice in my head.

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

#505

Post by rsaarelm »

xpe wrote: post #496
User23 wrote: post #360

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Spoken like a true midwit. Having had the extreme privilege of actually working with some really exceptionally smart people I can assure you that intelligence is a general trait without any significant extradimensionality. The best possible outcome for any organization that has such a person is not the crab bucket ideology you propose, but rather celebrating that exceptional person and benefiting from that person.

Let's talk about this part: > Having had the extreme privilege of actually working with some really exceptionally smart people I can assure you that intelligence is a general trait without any significant extradimensionality. This claim is not persuasive. It also may contain various logical and statistical fallacies, depending on your word meanings. If you want to persuade, I suggest that you'll need to give more con…

> E. You are aware that there is considerable scientific writing arguing in support of many kinds of intelligence, no?

There's certainly considerable social demand for this to be true, and Howard Gardner is tirelessly promoting it, but the current expert consensus seems to be against it. Both Stuart Ritchie's _Intelligence: All That Matters_ (ch. 2) and Russell Warne's _In The Know_ (ch. 5) consider the multiple intelligences hypothesis false and have further citations.

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

#507

Post by skauffman76 »

If I can input anything, I would encourage to single someone out that shows real promise and invest in their skill level. Having a humble outlook and asking if they would be interested, would be key in starting. Review and ask their point of view often. Let it be their discovery, your just leading them. It will not be so lonely and You will find yourself again.

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

#510

Post by therealdrag0 »

comprev wrote: post #436
scintill76 wrote: post #386

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

If you make the statement that you're a "10x developer" then there's a high chance you're not really. It smacks of arrogance and lack of humility, as a "10x developer" is really a fantastic communicator and "people person" who can accelerate the entire team's productivity through improving business relationships. The type of person who could quickly unblock the team through one phone call or message.

Sounds like you’re just arguing the definition of 10x which is pretty irrelevant to OPs post.
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