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Ask HN: I am the dumbest person in the room. What should I do?

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Re: Ask HN: I am the dumbest person in the room. What should I do?

#21

Post by spacemanmatt »

cpfohl wrote: post #17

1. Act they way your Grandpa would have: with deference to their knowledge and a healthy dose of confidence (you did get hired by these people). There's a pecking order, and that's OK, but don't let the socially deficient define how you feel about yourself. 2. Sadly it's been the norm at both my jobs. It gets better after a while. 3. Yes and No. I've met some unbelievably smart people who are amazing teachers. "Rock…

My long view of every developer called a rock star, ninja, or other superlative around me: Burnouts, egotists, manic-depressives, except for a couple who healed and chilled out and became mature developers.

People who sign up for those roles get rode hard and put up wet.

Re: Ask HN: I am the dumbest person in the room. What should I do?

#22

Post by ebbv »

The way I see it there's two possibilities here, and really these are possibilities on a person by person basis, but we're mostly concerned about the majority of your coworkers/teammates:

1) Your coworkers really are douchebags. In which case, you should find another job. Working with douchebags is never worth it.

2) Your coworkers are OK people (I think it's safe to assume they're not nice), but afflicted with all too common terrible tech industry inter-personal skills. Being more experienced and knowledgeable than you, they recognized your over confidence right away and it turned them off of wanting to be too friendly with you. They assumed you are the douchebag, not entirely wrongly.

The second case might be fixable, if you talk to them honestly. Ask for some advice or help. I wouldn't just come to them teary eyed with your heart on your sleeve, but try being friendly. Most people will take it as a compliment if you ask them for help.

Of course if they react badly to your inquiry, then yeah, they really are awful turds and you should find a new job. This time try to find one with a better environment.

Re: Ask HN: I am the dumbest person in the room. What should I do?

#23

Post by drrob »

Typically I'd say give it at least 6 months before making a decision about whether you'd want to stay in the job. Obviously at 4 months in you've already given it some time, but a little longer won't hurt (well, clearly from what you've said it will hurt, but I'd hang on a little longer, just to see if things suddenly 'click').

On the other side of the spectrum; I began a contract job about this time last year...and I gave it 4 days before jacking it in. The job was just awful, but the people weren't the problem; it was the system we were working on (their revamped mobile website). It was already a year late (and still unreleased to do this very day) and architected from scratch by another contractor in a weird and unorthodox way. It was painful to work with, and as a contractor you feel like you should "know your shit"; it's embarrassing to have to keep asking the permies how the hell something works. Fortunately for me IT contract jobs are plentiful in the UK at the moment, but I'm guessing you're not in quite such a cushy situation.

Re: Ask HN: I am the dumbest person in the room. What should I do?

#24

Post by gdulli »

> Most of them have big egos and really rotten and bitter attitudes. They are stars, they know it, and treat people who are not at the same level like idiots (like idiot me).

This is not a place you want to work, these are not people you want to work with. Even if you are their equal. A truly desirable employee doesn't have these qualities, you can't use ability to make up for being a bad person.

Re: Ask HN: I am the dumbest person in the room. What should I do?

#26

Post by Practicality »

I doubt you are the dumbest. Probably just the least knowledgeable.

You landed the job you wanted! That's awesome. That's success. In all seriousness everyone has a lot of holes in their knowledge. Nobody knows all these things, we don't live long enough.

The youngest/newest person on the team always has the advantage when it comes to the newest technology. You don't have as much to unlearn, so you will pick it up faster.

If you can get yourself a niche, become the expert/specialist in a particular new technology that the team needs (or could use), but has little experience with you can suddenly make yourself very valuable.

Re: Ask HN: I am the dumbest person in the room. What should I do?

#27

Post by gesman »

1 month of hard learning should allow you to up your game pretty significantly.

6 month + hands-on experience should get you very close to level playing field.

It been said that 1 year is enough to become an expert in any field having enough focusing and persistence.

What important in this is not their attitudes. It's your attitude on stuff that surrounds you.

If you believe that you need to call yourself dumb and punish yourself with thoughts and feelings of guilt while being surrounded with people who has more experience in certain fields - that's your belief/attitude.

It does not need to be this way - but it's your decision whether it is something that you are benefiting from and whether it make sense to change your attitutes|belief|definitions toward certain things.

Re: Ask HN: I am the dumbest person in the room. What should I do?

#28

Post by dgomez1092 »

All I can say to that is that you modt likely do know. Given from persinal expeeience, not only has intelligence demonstrated itself to me in the form of concise communication but also at a level best expressed in high overview. And being able to bring up the details as you go from there. In essence I would be focused on refining a particular area of your intelligence that you'd want to focus on. And learn how to best iterate struggle and the understanding in the back of your mind.

Re: Ask HN: I am the dumbest person in the room. What should I do?

#30

Post by sbjustin »

I'd go work somewhere else and here is why:

You can learn anywhere, why work with a bunch of people who are not going to build you up and encourage you to improve yourself and by extension, the team/project. What are you really getting from these guys if it's "every man for himself" anyways?

1. Forget that, be confident. Just focus on improving yourself and on things that can make you better at your job.

2. No. I expect my junior guys to learn on their own but am always willing to step in and provide guidance.

3. There can be some rough people in IT. If they're rotten they are probably less confident than you think they are, probably more so than you, but don't want you to realize it.

Lastly, I can tell you from experience, if you don't think it's worth it, it's not. There are fun jobs out there, go and get one.

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