Why You’re Failing to Realize Your Potential as a Developer • Hacker News Board

Re: Why You’re Failing to Realize Your Potential as a Developer

#21

Post by Aaronontheweb » Fri, Feb 08, 2013, 8:45 PM UTC

vosper wrote: post #7

It's not bad advice - and also nothing new - but it's very condescending: "I want to help average developers who want to improve by calling out 10 performance-killing behaviors that stagnate the careers of most developers". What makes this guy so great? He states that his product is "difficult even for large companies to master" so I'm inclined to think he's doing a few things wrong himself.

OP here. Our product is an analytics service and we manage large volumes of time-series and cohort data.

Every developer has lots of room for improvement. I'm no exception.

What I'm calling out is that there's a large cohort of developers, I've labeled them as "average developers," who completely stop growing intellectually and professional. They're technically passable but are stunted.

Strong developers, a small cohort of 10x developers (I'm a 10x developer) who I've labeled as "strong developers." The reason they are so productive is a strong focus on self improvement in areas that drive productivity.

For some really gifted developers this may come naturally / intuitively; for others like me it was more intentional / learned.

I wanted to share those learnings with average developers who are self-aware enough to realize that they're not growing and don't know how to fix it.

The condescending tone is intentional. Having a thick skin is a requirement to confront your own weakness. If the tone bothers you, you're probably a little too sensitive.

And in case you're curious: I would never talk down to an engineer on my team this way.

I can recognize the difference in writing a blog post intended for the anonymous Internet versus an intimate conversation with someone I work with 12 hours a day.

Re: Why You’re Failing to Realize Your Potential as a Developer

#22

Post by Aaronontheweb » Fri, Feb 08, 2013, 10:36 PM UTC

up_and_up wrote: post #12

"dude, stop Gandalfing the documentation and start coding something," You are a startup with documentation? Am I the only one that finds that funny?

OP here. We actually do have documentation, but that's because our product is an SDK + analytics service that requires developer integration: https://markedup.com/docs

However, what I was referring to in the article was third party documentation. MSDN docs.

Re: Why You’re Failing to Realize Your Potential as a Developer

#23

Post by Aaronontheweb » Fri, Feb 08, 2013, 10:38 PM UTC

freework wrote: post #15

I agree with most of these, excapt for the one that goes, "Strong developers accept that the business costs in a rewrite are usually unacceptable and should be avoided". What if the existing codebase is a rats-nest of complexity? WHat if the previous team were "bad developers" and they wrote code that was neck-high with technical debt? I think great developers are lazy, and not wanting to wade through a bad codebase…

OP here.

If you want to nitpick over word choice, I did include "usually" into the sentence.

But you're right - there are situations where a rewrite is called for. Just do it for the right reasons.

Re: Why You’re Failing to Realize Your Potential as a Developer

#24

Post by Aaronontheweb » Fri, Feb 08, 2013, 10:41 PM UTC

shousper wrote: post #18

I think the author was talking more about rockstar/genius developers with many years under their belt than simple "good" or even "great" developers. I also think the author fails to realise that a lot of what he recommends isn't easy to come by. Don't get me wrong, it all makes a lot of sense; every word. However I agree more with antoko in that perhaps the focus sometimes needs to be on increasing developer confiden…

OP here. No, we can't all be rockstars. I'm a productive developer and can own products, but I'm no Bill Joy.

However, we should always seek a means to improve. The items on this list are good set of guidelines to follow and I'm sure there are others I've overlooked.

Re: Why You’re Failing to Realize Your Potential as a Developer

#25

Post by rartichoke » Fri, Feb 08, 2013, 11:02 PM UTC

Solid article from top to bottom. My weakest link is Gandalfing like no other. I'm the moron who spends like 3 weeks eyeballing a new language or lib by consuming its spec, video presentations, tutorials and all of that but then produce 0 code in the entire time frame.

Then I'll take a break for like a week and when it comes time to coding something I'll forget most of what I read and then I use that as an excuse to read more.

It's the loop of death.

Re: Why You’re Failing to Realize Your Potential as a Developer

#26

Post by vosper » Sat, Feb 09, 2013, 6:11 AM UTC

Aaronontheweb wrote: post #21

vosper wrote: post #7

It's not bad advice - and also nothing new - but it's very condescending: "I want to help average developers who want to improve by calling out 10 performance-killing behaviors that stagnate the careers of most developers". What makes this guy so great? He states that his product is "difficult even for large companies to master" so I'm inclined to think he's doing a few things wrong himself.

OP here. Our product is an analytics service and we manage large volumes of time-series and cohort data. Every developer has lots of room for improvement. I'm no exception. What I'm calling out is that there's a large cohort of developers, I've labeled them as "average developers," who completely stop growing intellectually and professional. They're technically passable but are stunted. Strong developers, a small coh…

I am always concerned when I hear a developer self-identifying as a "10x developer" - you may well be right, but it smacks of arrogance as well.

Likewise, being intentionally condescending is an unusual approach to take at any time - even to the "anonymous internet". No-one likes to be condescended to (by definition) and so if you're attempting to promote your company and opinions I'd advise you to reconsider your tone.

Re: Why You’re Failing to Realize Your Potential as a Developer

#27

Post by general_failure » Sat, Feb 09, 2013, 9:28 PM UTC

vosper wrote: post #7

It's not bad advice - and also nothing new - but it's very condescending: "I want to help average developers who want to improve by calling out 10 performance-killing behaviors that stagnate the careers of most developers". What makes this guy so great? He states that his product is "difficult even for large companies to master" so I'm inclined to think he's doing a few things wrong himself.

Give it a rest already. Most advise is condescending. Including yours. If you haven't worked on a product that is 'difficult' for other to master, maybe it's because you just haven't solved any hard programs. Can you list all amazing programs that you have written?

Here is a dude who has started a company and he has something to say. He has written something nice and instead of appreciating what he has written and what he wants to convey, people go on and on nitpicking about irrelevant stuff.

Sorry, but yours is a terrible comment.

Re: Why You’re Failing to Realize Your Potential as a Developer

#28

Post by Aaronontheweb » Sat, Feb 09, 2013, 9:55 PM UTC

vosper wrote: post #26

Aaronontheweb wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OP here. Our product is an analytics service and we manage large volumes of time-series and cohort data. Every developer has lots of room for improvement. I'm no exception. What I'm calling out is that there's a large cohort of developers, I've labeled them as "average developers," who completely stop growing intellectually and professional. They're technically passable but are stunted. Strong developers, a small coh…

I am always concerned when I hear a developer self-identifying as a "10x developer" - you may well be right, but it smacks of arrogance as well. Likewise, being intentionally condescending is an unusual approach to take at any time - even to the "anonymous internet". No-one likes to be condescended to (by definition) and so if you're attempting to promote your company and opinions I'd advise you to reconsider your to…

I'm not the best developer in the world and probably won't be, but I'll freely admit that I'm excellent when it comes to productivity and iteration speed.

There's nothing "arrogant" about believing that you're good at something, particularly after spending many many years believing that you weren't and working really hard to improve. And there are many things I still do wrong and I'm working on improving those too.

Most of the feedback I've received on the article has been overwhelmingly positive, which leads me to believe that it's a small population of sensitive people who take issue with the tone.