Tell HN: The loneliness of a pretty good developer

Thanks for the thoughtful post. It's full of good ideas.

> After onboarding someone to a new system, “what was the hardest part of this to wrap your head around, is there a way for us to make it easier?” Or, “genuine question, if I asked you to just clean up tech debt on this repository for a month, where would you start?” ESPECIALLY do this with newbies.

Is my favorite part. I tend to hold training sessions for various things, so I can use this idea frequently and it will help everyone involved.

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

> What can I do to change things?

Tell your higher ups to hire above your level.

Fully agree.

As an aside, you can be smartest in programming and even managing teams but you might still not be most sociable, strongest, most musical, richest, most charismatic, funniest, most attractive, person.

If the only measure you go by is IQ, you're childishly defining the game all other kids are supposed to play and then wonder why no one plays with you. That would definitely not be smart.

> Precisely; and that's a big reason I would disagree with the OP and say that the method of "do in 2 hours what takes someone else 8 then take the day off" is actually a bad strategy for managing stress.

I can see why you would think this, but I have made it work for me. If I put in enough work in two hours to be slightly ahead of colleagues who need the full eight hour day, I don't regard the other six hours as purely "me time". I regard it as standby/on call time. If a ping comes between 0900 and 1700, I'm there to answer it. That's actually part of the strategy. As long as I'm hitting my deadlines, doing a little better than the other guys, putting cover sheets on my TPS reports, and being responsive during working hours none of my eight different bosses know anything's amiss. They get what they want, and I get more time to exercise, read, play my violin, chat with my wife, tinker, etc.

I don't make anybody wait more than 15 minutes unless the only thing they say in chat is "hello"[0], because they're wasting their time and mine.

I don't mentally clock out at 1100 or 1200 and spend the rest of the day playing video games and resenting every ping. I sure as hell don't start drinking at 2pm. Hell, I don't even keep booze in the house; I only drink if I'm at somebody else's house and they offer me a drink. (I'll have one drink for politeness' sake, but that's it.)

> Maybe its guilt, I don't know. But if you're only on-on for two hours, then kinda-on for... how long? All day?

I feel no guilt whatsoever. I've rationalized the guilt away. If getting paid a salary means I get paid the same whether the work takes 40 hours a week or 80, then it ought to mean I get paid the same whether the work takes 10 hours a week or 40 because I think getting paid a salary rather than an hourly wage should imply that I'm being paid for results, not time spent.

The problem, at least in my situation, is that the company has me on a salary but bills their clients by the hour. This obliges them to track "utilization", so being your kind of honest and outright clocking out when I've finished a reasonable amount of work for the day would foul up my metrics. So I've unilaterally imposed a compromise that works for me: I get my work done in the morning, and spend the rest of the workday "on call" and responsive if something comes up. I make a point of participating in company tech/culture groups so that people see I'm not just focused entirely on client work.

I play the game, but I play it my way because playing it their way is playing to lose.

Remember: boss makes a dollar, you make a dime. That's why you shit on the company's time. I might not be a card-carrying IWW[1] member, but I come from a long line of Wobblies.

[0]: https://www.nohello.com/

[1]: https://www.iww.org/