The Worst Programmer I Know (2023)

People of a revolutionary (or "innovative") temperament are those who are going to say, "this system doesnt work, these processes are broken, the wrong outcomes arise" and ignore them. In doing so they just "do the right thing" in their judgement, and in so doing, develop the next iteration on the processes that others will follow.

If these innovators are operating in a niche where innovation is required, they are solving different problems than most others and have different self-defined standards ("narcissism"), and so on.

Probably many people who visit HN have this temperament, and a significant number are in niches which need to evolve this way (eg., this applies to all startups). HN is a small sample of engineers: most don't go to websites to conceptualise their own activity, reflect, etc. These are indications of people with a desire to innovate, or to solve novel problems in their profession.

If you are in a highly stable environment, with effective processes, etc. then people of this temperament can be trouble if left entirely to their own devices: good managmenet would place them in projects/areas where there is some unknown unknowns to figure out.

In many cases however, people without this temperament (say, "it works, dont break it, conservatives") find this behaviour unsettling, arrogant, disruptive, isolating -- because it is. There isn't any thing to "communicate" when you havent figured out what the solution is -- you can air your thought process every day, but that will just unsettle more people when they see how much it changes (in response to more thkning, information, etc.). And the values by which this change takes place are not conservative, they're radical and imposed by a person who sees a route out of a predicament and so on. It's quite arrogant to place yourself in that position, or think it's yours by some invisible duty that no one else has.

In any case, if you operate in this niche, esp. eg., if you're in a start up environment -- then you arent going to care a jot about this "real world". They are acting against the real world, to improve it.

Was Tim hired as a teacher or trainer? What I find strange is that it sounds like Tim was not doing any individual work.

As a very experienced programmer, I'm sure that I could increase the productivity of other programmers by pairing with them all day. However, is that actually the best and most productive use of my time? In my estimation, I think that overall team productivity would be maximized if I spent approximately 20% of my time pairing with others and 80% on individual contributions. (That's a rough estimate; it could be 25/75 or 30/70.) The article said that Tim was "patient", but perhaps he was too patient, wasting a lot of his time that could be spent accomplishing other things.

They even have a fancy title, "measurement dysfunction", and a smug "if you know you know" nickname, Goodhart's Law

> Was Tim hired as a teacher or trainer?

Do you think that's any relevant? Software development engineers in general are hired to work on projects as part of small teams, and their goal is to deliver projects. It's not story points, it's not burn down charts, it's not PRs, it's not LoCs touched. It's how many projects are delivered, and keep everything and everyone problem free. This means that if you are struggling, your team will struggle as well until you unblock yourself. If you can unblock yourself by having a team member sit besides you and walk through a problem, that team member will be helping the team.

and Campbells Law, and the CObra effect.

I had not come across "measurement dysfunction" before. Useful phrase.