[HN Gopher] Tell HN: The loneliness of a pretty good developer
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Tell HN: The loneliness of a pretty good developer
I'm a 10x developer and I hate it. If you consider yourself a "top"
developer I would appreciate your perspective. It didn't start
this way. I became a Jr Dev at 33 years old, people consistently
assumed I was more experienced than I was. I'm not sure if it was
my life experience or my relentless pursuit of self-improvement but
I have been continuously improving my capabilities. Around the
time I turned 38 years old I felt competent. My code started to
become defect proof. The drawback was it took me an extra 20% more
time to complete. The Product Owner used to say to me, "I know it
will take you an extra two days to a week to complete something,
but then I never have to worry about it again". So, solid code, but
kind of slow in comparison. I'm now 42 years old, my code
continues to have minimal amount of defects, but I complete stories
fast, and I'm not working crazy hours, just the standard 8-5. Of
course I'm involved in a lot more meetings nowadays, architectural
discussions, bleeding edge Proof of Concepts etc, however that has
not slowed me down. It has made me faster. I never set out to
become some kind of uber developer, but in the last couple of years
I have noticed a shift in behaviors around me. It started with
little things. Tech Leads inviting me into meetings to express my
perspective on things. Developers pinging me when I have never
worked with them, because "you probably know the answer". Being
asked to weigh in specific Code Reviews outside my department.
Lately if I join a meeting with people I haven't talked to before
they already know who I am. Even my manager has started introducing
me by just saying "This is X, you've probably heard of him".
Someone run a query to see the number of git commits by user for
the application group I am in, about 350 developers. A script I
wrote that performs various automation tasks was number 1, I was
number 2. This surprised me, and it was an event that brought some
of my thoughts and feelings into focus, thus this lengthy post. I
don't think that the number of git commits actually proves
anything, other than I commit, code review, and merge code
frequently. I wanted a better metric to quantify my feelings of
alienation. I looked at Jira stories and story points. In my direct
team of 10 people, myself included, I have completed 71% of all
story points in 2022, the other 9 are responsible for the other
29%. That jives with my number of git commits compared to others as
well. So what's the point of this thread? It's not to brag, if I
came across that way, I apologize. The problem I'm having is it's
lonely and stressful. This feeling of loneliness got quantified
when the commit number came up. The problem is people just accept
whatever I say. I used to get challenged in some of my decisions,
which I always appreciated since I could create better solutions.
Nowadays people just accept whatever I say as the best way. It
feels like I don't have peers. I'm solely dragging my entire team
and everyone else around me with me for the ride. This leads to
stress, it feels that if I am not working on the "thing" it won't
get completed. I worry that by not being challenged I will become
complacent. I catch myself becoming more controlling because at
this point about 80% of the code base is my code for the
applications my team is responsible for. I don't think that's a
good thing, at the same time what I find plainly obvious is not to
others. The worst part is I am sensing within myself this
frustration that everyone else appears to move so slowly. The
thought of "great, one more thing I got to fix" is coming up too
frequently. To summarize, I'm a pretty good developer. I love
writing code. However I feel alone, and I'm afraid I will become
conceited of my own abilities. If you can empathize with this I
would appreciate your perspective. Am I the only person feeling
this way? What can I do to change things?
Author : 100011_100001
Score : 217 points
Date : 2022-05-19 18:39 UTC (4 hours ago)
| iandanforth wrote:
| As an alternative to looking for a new company (which is not a
| bad idea) I can suggest a path taken by a peer of mine in a
| similar boat. They and another go-to engineer petitioned to start
| a 'new projects' division and basically work on an internal
| spinoff. Two people with the backing of the company, a decent
| amount of freedom, and a mandate to build something that
| customers will love and buy. They had an exec sponsor and good
| relations with much of the e-staff. They got to experience all
| the "fun" of a startup with more of a safety net.
|
| This way you pick those people who you think can help you grow
| and put a clear and hard challenge in front of yourself.
| tuckerpo wrote:
| If you're as good as you say, you can easily swing to a team at a
| different company full of engineers better than you. It'd be a
| nice humbling experience.
| EddieDante wrote:
| I can't help you with the loneliness part, because I'm just a
| married, middle-aged techie with no friends of his own. I don't
| claim to be a 10x developer either, but I tend to deliver cleaner
| code faster than many of my colleagues and have been roped into
| many of the same discussions/meetings as you.
|
| It seems to be a situation where there are a surfeit of
| apprentices and a plenitude of journeymen, but a relative dearth
| of actual masters. I could be wrong, but I'm a journeyman myself
| -- one who can see mastery glittering on the horizon.
|
| The hard part is when people start treating you like the Smartest
| Person in the Room (SPITR). Keep hearing that often enough, and
| you'll start to believe it. You'll lose the growth mindset that
| had gotten you this far and start thinking that it was your
| intelligence that made you and not your effort. This will
| righteously fuck you over when you eventually _do_ foul up,
| because you won 't see it coming even if somebody rubs your nose
| in the bug you committed because you'll be busy thinking, "I
| can't have introduced such a bug to the codebase. I'm _smart_. "
|
| I can't tell you how to counter this. I once lost a job after
| being introduced to a bunch of executives as the SPITR and
| saying, "If I'm the smartest person in the room, the rest of you
| are fucked." That's what I get for misreading the room and
| actually thinking that maybe I _was_ the smartest guy there,
| smart enough to get away with mocking a bunch of execs capable of
| spending on Sunday brunch what I pay in monthly rent without a
| second thought.
|
| It's the same trap that a shitload of kids get shoved into once
| their teachers figure out that they're reading beyond their grade
| level and must therefore be GIFTED AND TALENTED. They keep
| hearing from the adults around them that they're _so smart_ and
| eventually they start to believe it. How could they not; they 're
| often too young to have figured out that the adults around them
| are only human and all have pre-paid annual passes on the
| Dunning-Kruger Express. And when these GIFTED AND TALENTED kids
| finally fail, it feels like their entire world has come to an end
| because they've leaned so hard on their "intelligence" that they
| never learned any other way of dealing with the world around
| them.
|
| I know this from personal experience. I got labeled as "gifted"
| in the 1980s because I didn't have the sense to hide my
| hyperlexia from the adults around me.
|
| Getting back to your concerns: I can't help with the loneliness.
| I've dealt with the stress by discreetly working _less_. I can
| see the other developers ' velocity, and rather than outshining
| them by a substantial margin I pace myself so that my metrics are
| only _slightly_ better than theirs. Work that takes them a solid
| eight-hour day only takes me two, so I quietly take the rest of
| the day for myself.
|
| Rather than rail against the fact that I've become Peter Gibbons
| and only do eight hours of "real work" per week, I'm learning to
| take advantage of it.
| 100011_100001 wrote:
| > I've dealt with the stress by discreetly working less.
|
| I have debated this myself. Some other replies said the same
| thing. It would definitely help me in other parts of my life.
| How do you handle people messaging you over slack / teams and
| not responding for hours?
| vowelless wrote:
| Well, how much do you make? Compare your comp with the numbers on
| levels.fyi to see if you fit in the expected band.
| [deleted]
| anton_ai wrote:
| Change company, felt this way three times already and I started
| to learn again after changing job for three times. Now I am in
| like a sort of bridge between code and business so it's more
| challenging and I actually enjoy to step down, code and solve
| things that other are not able to ;)
| throwaway_dcnt wrote:
| I used to be in a similar situation (smartest, most innovative
| person in a team of nearly 2000 developers), then I jumped ship
| to a smaller but way more competent team. One one hand, now I
| occasionally get schooled by some of the smartest people around
| and love it, on the other, I (very rarely) miss being the king of
| the hill. I have since come to the conclusion that happiness is
| not (and should not be) tied to your work identity, what matters
| is people, friends, family and how one contributes to increasing
| the beauty of the universe. Sounds lofty and a little vague but
| that is by design, you have to find what motivates and excites
| you.
| bobkazamakis wrote:
| No amount of xing is going to make you less lonely.
|
| Happy to knock you down a peg though: You've written code, but
| what does it do? It's easy to be a big fish in a small pond. If
| you're that a code you shouldn't even have to be on a team
| anymore. Why aren't you capturing the value of your work
| efficiently?
| gammabetadelta wrote:
| start going to the gym during work hours
|
| you mentioned its an area you haven't focused on
|
| i don't know your fitness level, but anything that makes you huff
| and puff a little sure feels nice
| stiggasaurusrex wrote:
| Take a sabbatical, give your team the opportunity to work without
| you. You might be surprised to see them step up.
| bluedevilzn wrote:
| This is a 42 year old with an emotional maturity of a 22 year
| old.
| isoprophlex wrote:
| Could it be that you're at the point in your career where you've
| hit the limits of your own scalability?
|
| No matter how well you perform, you're always you. The single one
| of you. Carrying the burden of excellence, knowing people depend
| on you to know the answer can wear you out, i empathize with
| that.
|
| Maybe try finding a role where you aren't contributing
| individually, but where you are helping others become their own
| little centres of excellence. Find a new way to scale your
| abilities, beyond coding yourself. This might mean mentoring,
| leading a team, if you're up for it. This could be something
| novel and fresh to do, without entirely abandoning software.
| emuneee wrote:
| I feel the same way. I wouldn't classify myself as a 10x
| developer, but I'm the most experienced and most senior developer
| at a smaller company and I have no peers, technically. It's good
| in some aspects because I get to work on secondary skills like
| mentoring/coaching and such, but it's a step back, technical
| experience-wise. I consume a lot of technical content like blogs,
| books, conference records, meetups, and podcasts so I can
| continue to get the learning I'd normally get from a peer. Side
| projects also help to a certain extent.
|
| It is lonely because I have no one on my team to go to for
| different views on most technical or software decisions I make in
| my everyday work. I like being challenged because that's where a
| lot of my learning happens.
|
| I'm currently contemplating moving to a larger company (or a more
| mature software org) where I can have some peers to lean on.
| birkey wrote:
| Thanks for the post. I can related to what you posted and would
| like to offer few perspectives that might help you.
|
| 1. Start with accepting the fact that you are the lead developer
| who is responsible for the long term success of the project thus
| the team. This is really important in that it puts the project
| and team as the same level.
|
| 2. Start mentoring and delegating more core pieces to others in
| the team. Allow them to make mistakes of their own so they can
| see the bad and appreciate the good. As long as their work is
| good enough, let them take more ownership so they can grow be the
| lead developer if you are ever to move on.
|
| 3. The last point is to always remind yourself of the fact that
| the project will eventually continue regardless of you being
| there or not. As a lead, it is your responsibility that it will
| continue smoothly after you move on to other things. As long as
| you keep doing "one more thing you got to fix", you will
| accumulate more responsibilities that will eventually burn you
| out. So for the good of the project, the team and yourself, you
| should start working towards a scenario where either the project
| or the team does not need to depend on you to be able to move
| forward, which will eventually happen whether you like it or not.
| dools wrote:
| Maybe you should quit and freelance for a while, and offer to
| help your company fix their problems as a contractor every now
| and again for 3x your current hourly rate.
|
| Whenever I feel dissatisfied more money for less time usually
| fixes it.
| prh8 wrote:
| Is it bad I just want to say come join me? I am approximately at
| 3x ticket count of anyone else in my company for this calendar
| year while having taken about 15 days PTO so far. We could race,
| it would be fun. And it's super chill here.
| nicesatirebro wrote:
| draw_down wrote:
| zmxz wrote:
| IT is full of impostors. You're surrounded by them. You like
| writing code and solving problems. Your coworkers want to get by.
| Many people working in IT are like that, that's just how it is -
| it's a field that pays well and it's hard to catch an impostor.
| Entry barrier is easy.
|
| However, why do you want peers? Why don't you make the most out
| of the situation? If you're pulling such weight, you're worth a
| nice sum of money. Use it, create stable life, start something as
| a side-gig, OSS project or anything that can attract likely-
| minded individuals you'd like to spend your time with.
|
| The situation you're in is not grim, it's the opposite. You're
| the one who gives praise, not the one who gets it. You grant
| approval, you don't receive it. You're the one who is relied
| upon, and you yourself don't have a "safety net". It's not bad,
| it's good.
|
| The hard part is realizing how old we are and what our roles
| became with the passing of time.
| dgb23 wrote:
| From the looks of it you _are_ being challenged, just not in the
| way you expected.
|
| > The worst part is I am sensing within myself this frustration
| that everyone else appears to move so slowly. The thought of
| "great, one more thing I got to fix" is coming up too frequently.
|
| I find it very respectable that you are so self-aware. In my
| worldview, stronger shoulders should carry more weight, but that
| also means that you have leverage to make things better around
| you, for yourself and others. You obviously don't want to become
| grumpy or arrogant. I get that, it feels terrible. But there is a
| way, possibly outside of the well trodden paths.
| 100011_100001 wrote:
| A very interesting point of view.
|
| A theme in replies is that I should be teaching / helping
| others. I do that in terms of advice, but I am starting to
| realize that I need to focus more on not giving the right
| answer, but explaining how I go to it, and ideally solve the
| problem for everyone if I can.
| dgb23 wrote:
| Have you read How to Solve It (Polya)? It's a short read and
| has great advice in terms of problem solving and teaching. If
| not: Maybe you get some inspiration from there, seems you
| will like it.
| 908B64B197 wrote:
| > I never set out to become some kind of uber developer, but in
| the last couple of years I have noticed a shift in behaviors
| around me. It started with little things. Tech Leads inviting me
| into meetings to express my perspective on things. Developers
| pinging me when I have never worked with them, because "you
| probably know the answer". Being asked to weigh in specific Code
| Reviews outside my department. Lately if I join a meeting with
| people I haven't talked to before they already know who I am.
| Even my manager has started introducing me by just saying "This
| is X, you've probably heard of him".
|
| Sounds like you have ownership of most of your company's
| engineering. What's your personal ownership in said company?
| biomcgary wrote:
| I haven't experienced being a 10x developer (biologist first,
| coder second), but I have found myself in the position of being
| at the top of my game (problem solving and innovation more than
| LOC), while also being frustrated by the limitations of the
| company I was at. So, I switched jobs. Everyone at the new
| startup is equally or more competent than me (in their own
| domains, which overlap, but not too much). I'm inherently
| involved in more exploratory work and definitely less
| "productive" and "in control". I feel like I'm leveling up in a
| new way. It brings a different kind of stress, but one I'm glad
| to have.
| jarenmf wrote:
| That's how I feel now at my first post doc. I feel frustrated
| and bored already with no real mentorship or any prospect of
| growth. I'm really eager to be in a place where people love
| what they do and continuously be challenged. That's why I'm
| seriously considering leaving academia
| omgJustTest wrote:
| I hear you.
|
| The one problem with being so useful is that all problems slide
| your way.
|
| While it is hard to hear, you might be enabling the problem. If
| everyone believes you know the best way or are the most efficient
| problem solver, they will default to you. There's long
| maintenance tails in certain problems... so even if you are great
| at what you do it can quickly become overwhelming.
|
| Making opportunities for others will improve your peer group,
| improve your life and reduce your stress.
|
| Loneliness is not going to be fixed overnight, and certainly is
| not "one more thing I got to fix". Give people space, time and
| mentorship to grow. If you don't see progress after doing this,
| move on. Perhaps you've been too long in your role.
| ipaddr wrote:
| Remember a 10x developer means 10 times better than the worst.
| Which makes you a 2x developer compared to the average.
|
| You've reached the top at your company. You work harder and care
| more than most. But you haven't reached senior dev status until
| you realize your extra work and spotlight puts a target on your
| back. You are a natural target now: management shifts, technology
| changes, projects fail and the same people patting you on the
| back in management will be blaming you when things go wrong. You
| won't be in the room either. You are one political issue away
| from doom.
|
| Some developers around you see you as smarter and will lean in
| for advice. Help them because another group exists who dislike
| your pace and how it reflects badly on them and are hoping to see
| you fail. Try to keep the first group large and the second group
| smaller.
|
| But what are you doing this for? You would make more friends by
| being a friend and doing less under your name and more under
| others. You have the extra time you spend on your tickets but can
| you take the ego hit and give credit to others. If everyone is
| praising you, you really should use that moment to praise others.
| You need to include others into your moment because it becomes
| other people's moment too.
|
| Use your 10x power wisely.
| immigrantheart wrote:
| Try teaching. This world needs more of competent developers to
| teach. It could also help with your loneliness, and people will
| appreciate it. Win win situation.
|
| FWIW, one of my friend is the maintainer of one of the most
| popular FOSS. He doesn't code as much anymore, but instead
| focusing on building relationships with people, like a dev
| evangelist. He seems really happy doing it.
| jerkstate wrote:
| Yeah, in particular, try teaching and motivating your
| colleagues. Programming computers is easy, programming people
| is a lot harder.
|
| "If you wish to build a ship, do not divide the men into teams
| and send them to the forest to cut wood. Instead, teach them to
| long for the vast and endless sea." -Attributed to Antoine de
| Saint-Exupery
|
| I often feel like I'm working more efficiently towards a goal
| than colleagues (and I work with others who make me feel
| inefficient, too), but that's my opportunity as a tech lead.
| Help them figure out how to unblock themselves and motivate
| them towards the vision.
| immigrantheart wrote:
| Yeah. And it is easier to do this in a smaller company.
| 100011_100001 wrote:
| As in teaching college courses or other developers?
|
| Currently I train new developers with all the tools we are
| using, and our CI/CD process. I mentor one new hire in six
| month cycles, and yesterday I got an intern mentee.
|
| I also write a lot of technical docs mainly as a way to explain
| to others how different parts of the system function. As I make
| code changes, I update the docs as my own personal definition
| of done.
|
| In terms of a college career, I'm not sure a college could pay
| me as well.
| immigrantheart wrote:
| Teaching other developers. Maybe open a youtube channel for
| teaching programming, but for more senior techniques, i.e,
| how to build a robust software, approach to testing, error
| handling, logging, etc.
| 100011_100001 wrote:
| I debated starting a Youtube channel. I don't think I'm
| that special. I truly believe that what sets me apart is
| that I have good processes to get me working, asked a lot
| of questions to developers I admired as I was learning and
| read a lot of code to figure out how things work.
|
| It would probably be cool to explain that to others. I
| enjoy talking about the developer mindset I possess when
| mentoring Jr Devs that cycle through with me.
| immigrantheart wrote:
| I for one would want to have more senior devs mentor me.
| I'm sure a lot of devs would appreciate the content.
| ftomassetti wrote:
| If you are the smartest person in the room and you do not like
| it, change room
| togaen wrote:
| Quit your job. Go somewhere else. There are always challenges to
| take on and learn from if you just go look for them.
| repomies69 wrote:
| Change job.
| amelius wrote:
| Nah, just tune down your performance. Work on a side-project
| you like to work on for 50% of the time. You can do so without
| guilt because you'll still outperform 90% of your peers.
| uhhhhuhyes wrote:
| Re-balance your priorities, cut back in areas that stress you
| out, and evaluate frequently to see where you are trying too hard
| and where you are not.
| frontman1988 wrote:
| Maybe try shifting to coding custom firmware for High Frequency
| Trading firms. The money is great and they need talent like you.
| If you can be a 10x developer in this field you will be worth
| millions.
| ravedave5 wrote:
| You should consider stepping back and spending 25 or 50% time
| mentoring instead of coding. But what I've found is that it's
| REALLY hard to do something 20% without doing it 100%, so perhaps
| a few weeks (months) of NO coding, then starting to code again.
| tmaly wrote:
| Have you considered teaching people in your org how to become
| like you, how to take over your code?
| pictur wrote:
| I think the problem is the gap in your social life. most people
| are good at their job the way you describe it. and they think
| about the business as much as they should. You think you're an
| artist, but you're not sorry. I understand you well since we have
| similar thoughts and I think the main problem is loneliness.
| t43562 wrote:
| Well, you're good at making the rest of us feel inferior -
| perhaps that's the problem?
|
| Why not move into a domain where you're a beginner again and feel
| what it's like to struggle to learn from scratch?
| 100011_100001 wrote:
| Sorry. I honestly think almost anyone can do what I do. I'm not
| the smartest developer by far. I think I have good systems in
| place that allow me to write code well.
|
| In terms of moving to a different domain I did about 4 years
| ago. It was a challenge in the beginning, but I have enough
| life experience to know how to handle adverse situations.
|
| Kind of like if you know 3 programming languages well, the 4th
| one is not very hard. It becomes a "what keyword do I use" to
| do the thing.
| gorbachev wrote:
| Have you talked to your manager about all of this?
| throwanem wrote:
| You're not a 10x engineer. You're a 2x who hasn't figured out yet
| how to teach other engineers what you know. It sounds like it's
| past time you got started, for your own sake as much as that of
| those around you.
| mathgladiator wrote:
| There is truth in trying to uplevel people, but first it feels
| like dialing in on oneself within the global market.
| throwanem wrote:
| Only till you think it through. What hiring manager _doesn
| 't_ want someone who can demonstrate a track record of
| leveling up the people around them?
| fightme wrote:
| Yeah hiring managers love simps.
| throwanem wrote:
| More than that one guy we all had to work with one time
| and wished we didn't? The one who bigs himself up over
| how much he knows, insists on making himself a constant
| obstacle to gratify his fragile ego, and that's why
| nobody actually wants to work with him?
|
| Yeah, I don't know why it should come as a surprise that
| hiring managers don't especially like that guy. No one
| else does either.
| fightme wrote:
| Did you know it's possible to be a team player without
| having to worry about other peoples' career development?
| Sounds more like the manager is being an obstacle if the
| direct reports have to do that kind of legwork.
| throwanem wrote:
| I was more thinking about the kind of guys I've known
| who've liked throwing around nonsense like "simps". But
| if it hasn't yet occurred to you that helping other
| people develop their careers is also a great way to
| develop your own, I don't suppose I'm all that likely to
| disabuse you of the oversight.
| fightme wrote:
| In my experience, it doesn't help at all. Move to SV and
| you'll understand.
| mathgladiator wrote:
| I did my big tech tour of duty, and most of my later
| years were all about helping people. Even now, as a
| retiree, I help people.
| throwanem wrote:
| I looked at it early on, right when I was starting out.
| That was a little before the dotcom crash, enough that
| only the really smart people were starting to think it
| was coming. Everything there looked amazing, and everyone
| I knew there was miserable every day, and I couldn't
| spend _all_ my time in the Castro. So I took a powder and
| ended up in Baltimore.
|
| I wasn't sure I'd made the right call till a few years
| later, when I heard one of the guys I'd stayed with then
| had killed himself. Sure, so maybe I missed out on a shot
| at some lottery tickets. So I'll never have fuck-you
| money, so what? Neither will almost everyone else - we
| call them "lottery tickets" for a reason, and that's
| _before_ we get to the shitshow the next five years are
| going to be.
|
| With the time I didn't waste chasing after them, I've
| managed to build a hell of a good life for myself, work
| included. I sit every day in an office full of windows
| and surrounded by trees, and I'm even still able to enjoy
| the birdsong once in a while. I don't have to look very
| hard for good jobs by now; mostly these days they come
| and find me. I don't want for a thing in this world that
| money can buy. And it's been a very long time since I had
| to work with anyone I couldn't find a way to like.
|
| So yeah, the choices I've made have been more than worth
| what they cost me. Can you say the same?
| fightme wrote:
| Who's gratifying his ego now?
| throwanem wrote:
| I dunno, man. You came right out throwing shade and your
| username is "fightme". What were you expecting?
| fightme wrote:
| Expecting to expose you as a projecting hypocrite. Thanks
| for playing. I win.
| throwanem wrote:
| Okay. I wish you joy of it, I suppose. You seem like you
| could use some.
| mathgladiator wrote:
| One dimension of this is that if you invent something, then
| you must uplevel people around you.
| 100011_100001 wrote:
| I actually try to help others. Though I admit that I should be
| doing it more.
| dfcowell wrote:
| It might be helpful to think about what you mean by "help."
| It sounds like people fairly frequently come to you for your
| opinion, to get an answer to a question or to solve a
| problem. It is extremely easy to give them what they're
| asking for (the answer, a solution,) and it even feels
| helpful in the moment.
|
| This doesn't help people grow in the long term, though. It
| builds dependence on you and your skills. You can quickly
| become the bottleneck (unintentionally!) and the "smartest
| guy in the room" by virtue of handing out answers and
| hoarding domain knowledge instead of developing the people
| around you.
|
| I don't know you, so I don't know if this is what's going on.
| If it sounds familiar though, I have two suggestions. First,
| read The Phoenix Project and pay attention to the character
| arc of Brent and see if his journey rings any bells. Second,
| next time someone comes to you for help, or asks for your
| opinion, instead of giving them the answer directly, coach
| them through the problem solving process by asking questions
| until they arrive at the answer themselves. This will help
| develop that problem solving muscle that they need and help
| them to level up.
| throwanem wrote:
| It's its own kind of skill, and takes deliberate effort to
| develop just as with any other. Being a great engineer, as
| you evidently are, is no guarantee of being a good mentor,
| any more than of being a good pilot. You should expect and
| intend to work hard at it.
|
| It's reasonable to expect it to feel weird at first,
| especially if you're not used to or comfortable with working
| closely with others. The good news there is that that gets
| much easier with effort and practice, too.
|
| It can be easy at first to want to just do stuff while people
| look on. You want to watch out for that; it can be
| gratifying, but doesn't much help anyone learn.
|
| The key, I think, is instead to find the right balance
| between talking through your analysis of a problem and how
| you work through it, and giving whoever you're working with
| opportunities to practice doing the same with you as a
| sounding board and counselor.
|
| It sounds basic, maybe, put like that. But it isn't;
| "problem" here can mean anything from "implement a function
| to add two numbers" to something that extends across an
| entire software stack and touches every level of
| infrastructure. It can be building an MVP from scratch. The
| point is that it's what your current mentee is ready for, or
| maybe just a little past that if you think they've got a
| habit of undervaluing themselves and could use a chance to
| build some confidence.
|
| Above all else remember that your essential purpose as a
| mentor is to make yourself no longer necessary to the person
| you're mentoring. You are _trying_ to engineer yourself out
| of this job, because to have done so means you 've succeeded.
|
| You needn't worry too hard about what comes next, I think. A
| good mentor never wants for work, and it's a surprisingly
| good way to keep your own skills sharp, because you can't
| teach like this unless you _really_ understand what it is you
| 're teaching.
|
| Too, demonstrating you can work well with other people this
| way makes it very easy to continue into management, if that's
| what you want - and it is worth thinking about that, at our
| age. Some folks stay great engineers all their lives, but not
| all. And hell, after a few decades doing the same kind of
| work, some folks just find they want a change.
| PaulStatezny wrote:
| > You're not a 10x engineer. You're a 2x
|
| That's not a fair characterization. Did you read his post? He
| said,
|
| > In my direct team of 10 people, myself included, I have
| completed 71% of all story points in 2022
|
| So on average, the other team members complete about 3.2% of
| the work, and he does 71%. At least in relation to his team,
| he's ~20x in output.
| zimpenfish wrote:
| > So on average, the other team members complete about 3.2%
| of the work, and he does 71%.
|
| Without further context, though, those numbers are
| meaningless. There's been spans in my career where those
| sorts of numbers would apply to me but not because I'm an nX
| developer but because, e.g., a lot of the stories were
| related and it made sense for me to do them as part of an
| ongoing sequence whilst the others handled, e.g., bug fixes
| in other areas.
| mathgladiator wrote:
| Switch jobs. I felt similar until I went to Amazon and met some
| principal engineers. You need to be humbled, and then your real
| growth can begin.
| dvt wrote:
| Imo you can't be a 10x+ developer without extracurricular
| activities. That is: writing books, academic papers, OSS
| contributions, GitHub projects with 100+ stars, blogging,
| conference talks, being in the top ~5% of Stack Overflow, etc.
| Merely "being good at your job" is just the baseline (and often
| not even an important one; rockstar engineers get fired often;
| Max Howell was famously not hired by Google; etc.). Not trying to
| be a jerk, I just think you're seriously overvaluing your
| ability.
|
| Sounds like you hate your job though, so I'd probably quit/take a
| break and re-evaluate what you want out of life.
| pg_bot wrote:
| This is a pretty weird standard that I don't think any other
| professional would be held to. You can be one of the best
| programmers in the world and be completely anonymous.
| dvt wrote:
| I disagree. Like all disciplines, programming/software
| engineering at its apex is fundamentally a collaborative one.
| There are no "hermit" mathematicians or physicists. Ideas
| necessarily must be bounced around and refined.
| pg_bot wrote:
| Ramanujan, Perelman, Grothendieck, Godel, Nakamoto,
| Heaviside...
| dvt wrote:
| Don't confuse "formal training" with working in a vacuum
| (re: Ramanujan, Heaviside, etc.), all others are
| basically world-famous academics that went through
| typical doctoral programs and were in constant
| communication with their fellow academics; I mean,
| Godel's correspondence with von Neumann is extremely
| famous, and the same goes for Ramanujan's correspondence
| with Hardy.
|
| The age of the hermit polymath has been over for half a
| millennium.
| wvenable wrote:
| Anyone with that many extracurricular activities almost
| definition can't be a 10x developer. Producing books, papers,
| open source contributions, conference talks, contributing
| massively to Stack Overflow is doing _a lot_ of things that
| aren 't software development. As they say, those that can't do
| teach -- and you're describing the latter.
| dvt wrote:
| Hard disagree, as we have plenty of counter-examples here:
| from John Skeet, to John Carmack, to Max Howell, to Vitalik
| Buterin.
| 100011_100001 wrote:
| Actually, I really enjoy what I do and my team. I just dislike
| the weird sense of responsibility.
|
| Your perspective on extracurricular activities is interesting.
| I'm at the top 17% of Stack Overflow, does that count :)
| 015a wrote:
| I would describe myself having been that person in my previous
| role (of six years). Started as dev#2, grew to ~100 people, you
| grow along with the company, having seen everything, had a hand
| in making most of it, it'd make anyone an expert.
|
| Eventually it got to the point where our engineering manager
| would assign maybe 10% of my sprint capacity. 40% of it; I
| already knew what to work on. Stuff my manager, and the manager's
| manager, had no clue how to plan for. I was rarely included in
| product planning because "we need you to focus on the work".
| Literally none of them seemed to care that they didn't have
| visibility into what I do. Whatever; I'll just create the tickets
| myself, basically manage the sprint planning for a team of one
| (me). That worked well. Actually pretty nice. The other 40% was
| just Slack. Messages all day. "Ramp up meetings" with new hires.
| "Hey man can you document this thing" (no one ever reads it)
| (three months later 'hey man can we meet for two hours to talk
| about this thing I'm not understanding it') "Can you hop on this
| customer call in two hours, we need someone to talk about single
| sign on" (sure man, I'll recite the same script I've used for the
| last fifty meetings, and that I posted in our internal help
| database, that your team has somehow spent three years NOT
| learning)
|
| Oh, I'm missing 10%. That was Overwatch. Maybe more like 30%.
| Because it turns out, you get to a position like this, and short
| of a company failure, you're set. I once had a project go maybe
| 3-4 weeks past when it was planned to be done, partly because I
| took an impromptu week-long trip in-country with a friend,
| telling no one. I could have taken PTO. We had unlimited PTO. And
| not fake-unlimited PTO that no one ever takes; real actual
| unlimited PTO. But that's a process, gotta fill out a form, tell
| people, and I was in my "fuck process" phase. Spend an hour a day
| in meetings from the hotel room hungover with a virtual
| background, respond to Slack messages as they come through.
| During a retrospective or something my manager commented that
| "product really screwed up planning how long this would take". I
| planned it! I gave the timeline! I screwed it up! Absolutely
| wild.
|
| > I used to get challenged in some of my decisions, which I
| always appreciated since I could create better solutions.
| Nowadays people just accept whatever I say as the best way.
|
| The best days of my role at this company were when we hired on a
| former senior engineer from Google, of all places. I don't know
| how we got him or why he joined on, except that he really wanted
| to try a (no-name, small) startup. It was the first time, ever,
| that I felt like there'd be someone else with the knowledge and
| confidence to challenge me. He did. Then he left a year later.
| Probably for the same reasons I eventually left (if you haven't
| caught on yet; the management were amazing people; and absolutely
| horrible managers).
|
| > I worry that by not being challenged I will become complacent.
|
| You don't have to become complacent on the tech. The thing I miss
| most about this role was; if there was some tech I wanted to play
| around with, I'd just do it. There was no one to question me. I'd
| deploy it all the way to production. I'd maintain it; grow it;
| mold it to whatever the business needed. You learn a lot doing
| that; probably more than being a cog in the Big Tech machine,
| though its a "different" but still extremely valuable kind of
| knowledge. A year later that tech is in job descriptions for the
| new hires and I'm helping them learn it.
|
| But, what I found myself becoming complacent in was (you guessed
| it): work ethic. Everything was so easy, and the expectations
| were so low, that a typical day quickly became... 11 to noon,
| then an hour lunch, then an hour digesting that lunch, then maybe
| 2 to 4, then a friend just texted he's at the brewery across the
| street, lets roll out.
|
| > What can I do to change things?
|
| Leave. Everyone wants to be the smartest person in the room.
| Actually being the smartest person in the room: sucks. There are
| two ways to fix it; find a smarter person to bring into the room,
| or find another room. Hire, or Switch Jobs. Hiring the smartest
| person in the room is, probably, a predominate focus of someone,
| somewhere, in your company; as it is in every company, and
| they've failed. Who can blame them; hiring engineers SUCKS. So,
| find another room.
|
| I've never made a better decision than leaving that role. In
| literally the first WEEK of onboarding at my new role, I learned
| five things about how they architect things, plan work, design
| systems, that induced the autonomic thought "shit let me write
| that down, this is fantastic and would work great in
| {SystemXFromOldCompany}", before having to realize I don't work
| there anymore lol (not to mention, you know, intellectual
| property, autonomic and such). When I put in two weeks, the old
| company offered to beat the offer at the new one by 10% (it was
| already an... 80% increase in TC). Nah, see ya.
|
| That's the thing. You may be the most capable engineer at that
| company. You spend long enough in isolation there and you may
| just start convincing yourself you're god's gift from heaven.
| This isn't personal: you're not, because no one is. But, you're
| probably pretty good, and you're at a plateau because there's no
| diversity of thought in your environment. So, you gotta find it.
| Ten-x engineers are relative. The creator of homebrew couldn't
| get a job at google.
|
| The alternate option is to find happiness where you're at (or,
| similarly; don't go big tech, find somewhere else you can be the
| smartest person in the room). It doesn't sound like that's a good
| solution for you, so I present it last, but it really is a fine
| road. There will always be many people smarter than you, and many
| people not-smarter. It sucks to be the smartest person in the
| room; but if you can go on impromptu trips with friends, spend
| time with your family, explore hobbies; hard to call that a bad
| hand. Work/life dissociation is actually healthy.
| smsm42 wrote:
| Maybe you need a change of a team. Or of an area of application -
| try to find something you might be interested in, but never
| really did before. Different language, different area
| (backend/frontend/data/UX, etc.), different tasks. It will be
| frustrating and even maybe overwhelming at first, but if you're
| as good as you feel to be, you can take it, and you will enrich
| your knowledge and your abilities on the way. And sometimes you'd
| also get to know how it feels when others pick you slack instead
| of you doing it, which would be helpful too.
|
| Also, I'd try to seek out professional orgs and groups where you
| could be among people smarter than you - there's always people
| smarter than you, and even more knowing more than you in certain
| areas. Find the areas that could interest you - and seek out to
| meet people that know a lot, and learn from them. Bonus if it's
| really hard for you - you probably can use some stretching, in
| the intellectual sense. If you have some failures on the way -
| it's ok, as long as you learned something, even if it's your own
| boundaries and weaknesses.
|
| On the other hand, try to delegate more. I know it would feel
| like you could do it better, try to ignore that and let others do
| it anyway. If they do it slightly wrong, try to just wait and see
| if they can figure out why it's wrong and learn from it. If they
| do it absolutely horribly wrong, try to suggest them better ways,
| but do not be overly pushy. Instead, try to figure out, as a
| personal task for yourself, why they are doing it wrong - do they
| just don't know a better way? Teach it to them then. Do they
| disagree with you on which way is better? Ask them to argue it
| and see if you can learn anything from their argument - even if
| it's only about whether they have different priorities and
| preferences. Try to encourage them to step up, even if initially
| it means sacrificing some efficiency.
| pg_bot wrote:
| As someone who has experienced similar feelings. (I average about
| 250k-300k lines of code a year)[Yes I know lines of code is a
| terrible measure of productivity, you don't need to @ me]
|
| Take 1-2 months off to travel. If your management team isn't run
| by a bunch of morons this shouldn't be a big deal. You probably
| want to go somewhere and you should do it while you're still
| young. During this time, your team will probably get a bit
| better. The other plants can't grow if one is taking all the
| sunshine.
|
| My other piece of advice is to find a new challenge. Start a new
| hobby and get the feeling of sucking at something again. If you
| want to stick to computers, there are a boundless number of
| topics that you can dig into. Only start a company if you feel
| like you can't imagine doing anything else with your time.
| martin1975 wrote:
| Sounds like you aren't being properly motivated and your talents
| not used. Sign up to a project which is guaranteed to fail if you
| were the only person working on it. Then you will very quickly
| find out how your conceit dissolves, once you realize there's
| very little any one of us can do individually that is of great
| significance and why building software, like any other large
| effort, is necessarily a team effort.
| somenewaccount1 wrote:
| - Become a serious mentor. Not just in passing code review, but
| actually spend time teaching.
|
| - Try documenting your processes and thinking to get to the right
| code answer. Like a company coding manual. This way it scales
| your knowledge rather than being stuck as the 'doer'.
|
| - Consider taking on different challenges, like management,
| either at your company or another company.
|
| - Reflect on what it would be like to really be in a room with
| other 10x developers - you will all think you have the right
| answer which is different from each other. Does that really sound
| like fun to work through on the daily? It was fun when you
| weren't so sure you were right, it gets less fun the more sure
| you are.
|
| - Most round B/C startups have ~50 developers. If you have 350,
| you're in a massive machine. You may think your 10x everywhere,
| but it's possible your only 10x in your locality, where you know
| the entire code base. It may simply be time for new challenges at
| a new company.
|
| - Ask if you can start writing for some open source project you
| like (new or existing) as "developer relations" for the company
| in some way. Yes, you will need to reduce your in house tickets -
| but it will keep you happy and working and contributing and still
| probably doing 50% of the work. And the company gets other
| benefits from it.
|
| - Along the same lines, you can start writing technical articles
| to publish as dev relations/marketing. Theres a lot of value in
| those seo posts for a lot of companies.
|
| Theres like a million ways to go with this, but hopefully these
| ideas help a bit. Best of luck and I hope you find some
| meaningful company to hang out with.
| cushychicken wrote:
| Being a mentor is fucking awesome.
|
| I'm a great fucking electrical engineer, but there's no project
| I've enjoyed like watching the junior people I work with start
| to apply what I've taught them.
|
| They're now more valuable, and so is the company, because we
| can do more, better, and faster.
| prlambert wrote:
| You're at the wrong company. I've worked at a startup, at
| Twitter, and at Google and each time there was notable "raising
| of the bar" in the talent I was around. I know there's a lot of
| Google hate on HN, and it's such a big company it is true not
| every team is mind blowing, but... I've been there 5 years and I
| still have serious imposter syndrome and am constantly amazed by
| my colleagues. I get to work with some crazy smart and productive
| people. The suggestion isn't "go work for Google" (but maybe you
| should) but find a group of people that push you and amaze you
| and make you want to improve. They definitely are out there.
| beauzero wrote:
| Try to find another job where people work at the same level you
| do so that you are challenged.
| whiddershins wrote:
| Some heuristics:
|
| 20% of a team usually does 80% of the work.
|
| The square root of team members or employees generally produce
| around 50% of the work.
|
| You are 10% if your team producing 80% of the work?
|
| Seems like you are in an outlier situation, maybe you do need to
| seek out peers that challenge you more, even if that is moving
| teams or moving jobs.
| stutsmansoft wrote:
| I understand your frustration.
|
| It becomes hard to find a job you can live with.
| pjmorris wrote:
| Congratulations on your progress. Guitarist Pat Metheny has
| suggested one approach to growth is to "Be the worst guy in every
| band you're in." Dave Hoover applied that to his own learning in
| software development and wrote it up, first as a blog post [0]
| and later, with Adewale Oshineye, as part of a book,
| 'Apprenticeship Patterns.' [1]
|
| The implication is that you could consider finding a stronger
| team to work with, which might involve a job switch. There are
| much larger issues there, involving salary, benefits, commute,
| effects on family and friends, and only you know the the full
| picture of the effects of those things on your own happiness. I
| can say there's a place for keeping an imperfect job as part of a
| pleasant overall picture. Good luck as you explore your options.
|
| [0]
| https://redsquirrel.com/dave/work/a2j/patterns/BeTheWorst.ht...
|
| [1] https://learning.oreilly.com/library/view/apprenticeship-
| pat...
| gabereiser wrote:
| I think it's time to find an environment where you'll be
| challenged. You currently aren't even though you're exceptional
| at what you do. If you're still hungry for more, it's time to
| move on and challenge yourself somewhere new. If you're currently
| a 10x dev at SpaceX or something then I'm afraid you've hit the
| stratosphere of mere mortals and have graduated to iddqd land.
| (Shout out to the SpaceX team killing it).
| redleggedfrog wrote:
| I've been programming for almost 30 years, 15 of it on
| essentially the same code-base, and 5 years ago I could have
| written sometime similar to what you posted.
|
| The part of being over-protective of the code-base particularly
| resonated.
|
| In the end, it's not worth it. Yeah, you might do a lot of the
| work, yeah, it's good stuff, but that just means your good at
| your job. Help others up to your level, be patient, slow down,
| and make friends of your co-workers.
|
| And then go ahead and learn something hard - that always does
| great for knocking me down a few pegs and remembering I'm not all
| that. I'm just a medium sized fish in a small company pond and
| there are people out there doing _really_ significant work and
| you can learn from them. Hell, just switch JS frameworks, that 's
| enough for a year's worth of feeling lost.
| jdeaton wrote:
| Perhaps the root of your loneliness comes not from the flaws of
| others but from within. Have you considered that it's source is
| actually your feeling of superiority to everyone around you, not
| their lack of (what you perceive as) ability?
| st-keller wrote:
| I can empathize. And Bbecause you asked: Don't worry. Stay Self-
| critical. Excel at being an informavore - learn, learn, learn,
| and be patient. Not long and coding will start to bore you. Then
| you can leave it behind.
| [deleted]
| gamblor956 wrote:
| TBH, the last time someone told me they were a 10x developer, I
| asked his co-workers what he was like when he left the room and
| everyone said that the 10x was all in his head and he was pretty
| close to being the worst performer in the group. He just had an
| inflated sense of his own skills. Despite getting fired from
| multiple jobs (including that one) for performance reasons, he
| continued to exist he was a "10x" programmer and he was just
| getting fired because the managers and CTOs were jealous of his
| leet skills and didn't want to spend their all their time looking
| over their shoulders.
|
| I'm not saying that you're this guy, but this weird humble-brag
| post doesn't come across as sincere, and it's the kind of post I
| frequently see in reddit.
| symby wrote:
| Tldr; Start coding less. Start teaching more.
|
| It is super fantastic that you have been able to learn, grow, and
| achieve so much. You do sound like a super star. It also sounds
| like you have reached a point where transition is required.
|
| I respectfully disagree with those who say "get a new job". This
| may be a good idea, but it is certainly not a solution to your
| issues which are very likely to come with you wherever you go.
|
| I suggest that you stop contributing so much under your own name,
| and start helping others contribute under their names. "Not much
| grows under a great oak". You may be casting a shadow that makes
| it hard for your colleagues to grow?
|
| 10x developers are awesome, but very hard to scale. Far more
| powerful are the "super colleagues" who make everyone around them
| 5x better. Add a 10x developer to a team of 10 and you 2x the
| team's output. Add a super colleague to the same team and output
| rises by 5x.
| 100011_100001 wrote:
| This mirrors others replies. I think you have all collectively
| convinced me that I need to focus more on helping others.
|
| I do like your phrasing a lot though. I wish I could mirror
| your communication skills. Your flow from complement to
| expressing your opinion is stellar. You used the word "I" twice
| in your reply, I've used it six times in this reply alone.
| floorescent wrote:
| Thank you. A last thought... yours is a most excellent
| problem to have!
| Sirikon wrote:
| I feel so identified with your feelings and came up with the
| same plan: Focus on helping others grow. Next year I'm moving
| on my company to a new team which is focused on improving
| tools, processes and the developer experience overall. Time
| will tell if the plan turns into a solution.
|
| Hope the best for you and your mental health in all of this
| :)
| dsr_ wrote:
| "This feeling of loneliness got quantified when the commit number
| came up. The problem is people just accept whatever I say. I used
| to get challenged in some of my decisions, which I always
| appreciated since I could create better solutions. Nowadays
| people just accept whatever I say as the best way.
|
| It feels like I don't have peers."
|
| This chunk here is consistent across fields. It means that you
| are the big fish in this pond.
|
| Some people like that. Some people hate it. It looks like you're
| in the latter camp, and that means that you want to look for a
| job elsewhere, in an organization which is bigger in one specific
| metric: the number of people who can teach and mentor you.
|
| Ascertaining that metric is very difficult.
|
| You should also be aware that if you find such a group, you may
| not like it as much as you think you will. Humans have a lot
| invested in status, and your status will decrease significantly
| if you move to a group where you are merely better than average,
| or perhaps a little below average. New job energy may mask that
| for some months.
| aaronbrethorst wrote:
| Demand a 25% raise, hire a great therapist, and take an extra
| vacation to somewhere sunny.
| lomereiter wrote:
| You can shift your focus to mentoring your teammates and
| presenting at developer meetups / conferences. Simply tell your
| manager that you are greatly concerned about the bus factor (cite
| the 71% figure), and hopefully you two will figure out how to
| proceed.
| m463 wrote:
| > I worry that by not being challenged I will become complacent.
|
| I'm reminded of the movie Bohemian Rhapsody about the band Queen.
|
| Freddie Mercury had gone solo from the rest of the group, then
| realized they were his proper peers. So he was apologizing and
| asking for forgiveness... FREDDIE: What's it
| gonna take for you all to forgive me? Is that what you
| want, Freddie? I forgive you. Is that it? Can
| we go now? FREDDIE: No. I went to Munich.
| I hired a bunch of guys. I told them exactly what I
| wanted them to do... and the problem was... they did
| it. No pushback from Roger. None of your rewrites.
| None of his funny looks. I need you. And you need me.
| UncleOxidant wrote:
| Put a "10x developer" bullet point near the top of your resume
| and look for another gig?
| geraldwhen wrote:
| Why are you working 8-5?
|
| Work 9-3 and pick up a hobby. You only need to outperform your
| peers, or train them up if that's possible. Beyond that you owe
| the company you work for nothing.
|
| Why work harder, when working harder provides you no benefit
| whatsoever?
| 100011_100001 wrote:
| I've had the same debate myself. Honestly, not counting crazy
| hectic meeting days I could work 9-3 and still produce more
| than others. The only thing stopping me is the feeling that if
| I'm getting paid I should be working.
|
| However, I know that if I worked 9-3 my personal well-being
| would improve.
| abledon wrote:
| you need to see a therapist about feeling guilty about
| overworking.
|
| You only need to work as much as whats required, nothing
| more. If you can close off your assigned 'tickets' etc, given
| each sprint, do so, then rest. Your personal well-being is
| #1.
| id wrote:
| It's kinda weird watching team members finish two tickets
| per week when you know they could finish two _per day_. I
| know I should probably relax like them but it feels too
| much like cheating (and let 's be honest, it is).
| drc500free wrote:
| A team of 10 devs costs $2-$3M a year. If you are providing
| 70% of the value, you should be pulling in more than $1M a
| year - even accounting for the overhead of having someone
| else code review and QA.
|
| Are you making 7 figures? If not, you shouldn't feel guilty
| about how much you're working. It sounds like you could lean
| on your employer for a six figure raise which can pay for
| things like a personal trainer.
| gorbachev wrote:
| > The problem is people just accept whatever I say. I used to get
| challenged in some of my decisions, which I always appreciated
| since I could create better solutions. Nowadays people just
| accept whatever I say as the best way.
|
| This struck to me as familiar. Not because I'm anywhere near as
| uber, so to speak, as you seem to be, but because I've noticed
| the pattern with junior developers, especially people new to the
| company/team and myself.
|
| What I've tried to very consciously do is to make sure I ask
| other people about their opinion. I also sometimes deliberately
| add stuff like "not sure if I'm correct, correct me if you think
| I'm not, but..."
|
| That usually makes these type situations a bit more interactive
| and probably less lonely. Also great opportunities to really have
| conversations about technology choices. I often learn new things
| along the way as well.
| lordnacho wrote:
| Clearly you should change jobs to a place with more devs,
| hopefully you will find some peers there.
|
| Don't be frustrated with slower people. Part of it is the
| cannibalization effect. If a team has a dominant striker, some of
| the others will be scoring fewer goals than their potential. You
| might actually be doing them a favor by moving on. The other
| thing to remember is that great players still need water
| carriers, or they'll be wasting their time carrying water
| themselves. Lastly, if you don't have some 1X people around you,
| nobody will know you're a 10X. So be happy that you are so good
| and so influential.
| 100011_100001 wrote:
| Cannibalization effect. You are probably right.
|
| I think one of the things I need to do more of is listen more,
| talk less.
| KerrAvon wrote:
| I don't know if the strict definition of a 10x developer is
| relative to other people surrounding you; a lot of us could claim
| to be 10x situationally.
|
| I didn't mind being the smartest person around, but I did find it
| a relief to be surrounded by other people at or greater than my
| level when I switched to a different team.
| lodovic wrote:
| If you're the smartest one in the room, you're probably in the
| wrong room..
|
| I mean, if I would perform so much better than my coworkers, in
| the end that would lead to me doing all the work for basically
| the same pay. So it would be an opportunity to find a more
| challenging gig.
| oh_sigh wrote:
| How much do you get paid? If it is less than $300k/yr (assuming
| you're in America), then you're just in a company that doesn't
| apparently value tech.
|
| Go get a job at a FANG, and I guarantee you you will be pushed to
| your limits, and a number of staff/senior engineers there will
| make you feel like a little baby developer.
| edmcnulty101 wrote:
| Get a job at a FAMGAN and capitalize on that talent.
| alexashka wrote:
| This post reminds me of the 'nice guy' asking why girls only seem
| to love jerks and how he can't get a date.
|
| Except this is 'nice guy', workplace edition.
|
| Just like you don't win at dating by being nice, you don't win at
| corporate wage slavery by being a hard working slave.
|
| You _lose_ by being a 'nice guy', you _lose_ by 'working hard'.
| Get it? Because you'd be trying to do the wrong thing? Figure out
| what the right thing is, but you'll have to let go of your slave
| morality to get there - as long as you think lying is bad, while
| working hard to make someone else rich is good, you will be
| stuck.
| ctvo wrote:
| I think you're an above average developer working at a below
| average company. This could be the root of all your problems.
| Nothing is more frustrating than working with peers you know
| aren't carrying their weight.
|
| Do you want to be an engineering leader? This is what you are,
| regardless of your official title at your company. Engineering
| leaders are judged by how much better they make everyone else.
| You may hear the term force multiplier used. Say you are really a
| 10x engineer, how much more effective are you if you could
| improve the efficiency of 350 developers by 10%? Mentor, teach,
| help establish culture, make systemic changes to help your peers
| become more effective.
|
| Regardless, I think you're a bad fit for your current company and
| its culture. And yes, many of us have worked in environments,
| like a startup, where we knew we were critical to success. Fail
| to deliver and a funding round wouldn't go through and people
| would lose their jobs. It's stressful, but I hope you're
| adequately compensated.
| rco8786 wrote:
| > I think you're an above average developer working at a below
| average company
|
| Nailed it
| tsss wrote:
| Or he just bangs out a ton of crappy code in the name of
| "pragmatism", while everyone else has to clean up after him and
| thus takes longer. I've seen this many times.
| 100011_100001 wrote:
| Eh, that is exactly what I don't want. Pretending I am this
| amazingly productive developer and my code is just trash.
|
| I just checked. In 2021, only two defects were created
| against my specific code changes. If I had to home into a
| weakness of mine is that sometimes I solve today's problem
| well, but don't think extensively about how tomorrow's
| problem in that space might look like.
|
| The struggle is between creating simple solutions vs over-
| engineering for future proofing. I'm pretty sure I'm biased
| towards simple solutions.
| beardedetim wrote:
| > The struggle is between creating simple solutions vs
| over-engineering for future proofing. I'm pretty sure I'm
| biased towards simple solutions.
|
| I want to encourage you to keep learning about your own
| biases here but to continue to have that bias as much as
| possible.
|
| I like the term "throw away code" here but I think another
| way to say it would be that most of the code I write is
| like a jig for woodworking. I don't need it at the end of
| the day, it looks like shit, and holds up the real Things
| while I figure out how those things actually work.
|
| Sometimes in code though, I find, that the jig _is good
| enough for now_ and it's super easy to replace the three
| that break instead of all 20 I needed to build it.
| tsss wrote:
| It's not about behavioural defects. It's that the _code_ is
| trash. It is unmaintainable and slows down all future
| changes, exactly because the person who wrote it didn't
| take the time to think about the future or even good
| architecture in the present. Every time I touch their code
| I have to almost redo their work because:
|
| - It's impossible to understand what is going on (For
| example when people load huge json or sql files into a
| single test and you don't know what scenarios it covers
| because they are too lazy to write dedicated minimal test
| cases. Another common offense is a not well-defined data
| model that gets mutated everywhere in dynamic languages
| like Python or JavaScript where you never know what shape
| an object has or where it comes from)
|
| - Their code allows so little extensibility that following
| the same "pragmatism" as they did and just hacking it in
| would exponentially increase the complexity
|
| - There are no abstraction boundaries which almost surely
| means insufficient test coverage (which I have to amend
| before I can even start with my own work so that I don't
| introduce regressions) or the tests are coupled so closely
| to implementation details that any change necessary for my
| own work will require me to rewrite all the existing tests
|
| You are fast because you pawn off your design work to
| whoever comes after you. Of course you have fewer defects:
| your colleagues have to put in more time to maintain the
| same level of correctness or else risk introducing bugs.
| That's the cost of bad maintainability. It's well known
| that changing existing code is harder than writing new
| code, double so if it is not written with care. Someone has
| to be the janitor to keep the cruft from accumulating and
| if it's not you, then everyone else has to pick up your
| slack. Ideally, every person in the team would continually
| clean up and always leave a code base better than they
| found it.
|
| Lastly, I want to say that there is very important
| difference between simple and easy and simple doesn't come
| for free.
| 100011_100001 wrote:
| It sounds like you have personal experience in this. I
| hear you. From what I have observed through code reviews
| that I, or others, have looked at that doesn't happen
| with my code unless there is a very fundamental shift.
| Even then I try to keep my inputs and outputs clean so
| that pieces can be removed if need be. Of course I am not
| always as successful as I would like to be.
|
| Now my first 2-4 years, that happened a lot, and I am not
| going to claim that I was fast. I was slow and either the
| code review would point something out that I would
| literary have to start from scratch or the next person
| that touched it would have to. This was actually the
| driver for me to focus more on simplicity. I basically
| discovered a direct correlation between complexity and
| how bad my code was.
|
| To this day, if I catch myself doing something overtly
| complex it's a sign that my solution to the current
| problem is inadequate.
|
| Ironically, my response would be the same if my code was
| trash. So I won't be able to convince you regardless.
| ptr wrote:
| You can be fast while also writing great code.
| andrewmcwatters wrote:
| This could be the case, but we don't know, and it's also
| helpful to think about this from a charitable perspective.
| 100011_100001 wrote:
| I prefer this perspective :)
|
| Honestly, I have no need for validation. I've just started
| to feel angst and figured if there is a place where I can
| get good advice, even if it hurts, it would be HN.
|
| From that perspective I have gotten enough good input to
| make this thread worth it to me.
| 100011_100001 wrote:
| The pivot I have been debating is to become a Lead Development
| Manager with the express purpose of enabling everyone else,
| removing obstacles, creating better processes etc.
|
| My problem is that I love code much more than talking to people
| all day. I have been mentoring Jr Devs for a while now in an
| official capacity which helps.
|
| I like the idea of "make systemic changes to help your peers
| become more effective". So that's something I will have to
| think about.
| thisisbrians wrote:
| Maybe consider a Staff Engineer type role at an established
| and well-respected firm? Still mostly IC if you can land the
| right role, I think, but more focused on the meta stuff that
| enabled the whole team like tools and automation. Would love
| input from others as I've not actually worked in such a role
| before.
| omarhaneef wrote:
| If you want to just code, just code.
|
| I accept you're a gifted coder, and that you're better than
| your peers. Good, then do exactly that.
|
| Being good at mentoring people is only vaguely correlated
| with being good at code. IMHO, the main factor that will make
| you good at something is caring about it, and if you don't
| want to talk to people you'll waste your skills.
|
| There is someone out there who would love to talk to people,
| worry about their development, figure out how to best use
| your skills and so forth. Let them do it.
| leaflets2 wrote:
| > There is someone out there who would love to ... Let them
| do it
|
| It seems to me, though, that OP vastly much better at that,
| than the others available. And that his co-workers have
| noticed this too.
| phkahler wrote:
| Get involved in the hiring process. You should be able to
| screen candidates well and if the company really is full of
| sub-par developers (doubt it but maybe) you will bring that
| up a bit. If you need tips on interviewing shoot me an email
| (same ID at g mail) it's easy for a good engineer once you
| know what to look for and how.
|
| BTW that's not isolation you're feeling. It's responsibility,
| respect, and frustration. You didn't ask for the first two,
| you earned them.
| spullara wrote:
| Don't do it.
| e40 wrote:
| Honestly, your impact will be greater if you become a
| development lead.
|
| I know this because I've watched it happen many times, not
| because I'm one. I've had lead developers report to me and
| good ones can really have a great impact. The tooling,
| procedures, technical debt, etc. All will be positively
| impacted by someone like you.
| netghost wrote:
| Having been at times a manager and other times and IC, there
| are some great opportunities in each role, and it really
| depends on your organization.
|
| If you haven't read it, "Staff Engineer" outlines some of the
| ways more experienced engineers continue to grow and provide
| value without becoming managers. I'd say the first half of it
| is worth a read to see if it sparks anything for you.
|
| I will say that it gets lonelier as you go along either
| track. Reach out to peers if you have any. If not, try to
| reach out to folks outside of engineering.
|
| It's a tricky path, and I wish you the best.
| twelve40 wrote:
| Just move to a more intense company, or internal group, or a
| startup. I'm not familiar with how good you are, or your
| company, but I can almost guarantee there is a lot of stuff
| out there much more intense than the current place. And you
| can totally remain an IC if that's what you like.
| nrmitchi wrote:
| This is also a common theme in a lot of "Platform
| Engineering" style roles (but not all of them, because it's
| an overloaded term). The output of your actual code is
| systems to empower others, and paving the "clean path".
| Support and education is also a very common piece of success.
| omegalulw wrote:
| > I think you're an above average developer working at a below
| average company.
|
| This. I'd conjecture that this has led to OP becoming
| overconfident.
|
| I also think that OP should not be a manager. If one dev is
| doing 70% of the work then that's either bad hiring practices
| or micromanagement where other team members are not trusted to
| deliver complex projects.
| texasbigdata wrote:
| Re: your second paragraph, what does that have to do with OPs
| ability (regardless of appropriateness to the firm, his
| career arch, or the story) to perform as a manager. He/she
| might be great, normal, or terrible. How can you tell apriori
| from what they wrote?
| sam1r wrote:
| Why not take your skills and professionally contract with
| yourself. You mention..
|
| >> This feeling of loneliness got quantified when the commit
| number came up.
|
| What if instead of commits, it was the # of external contracts
| you are able to maintain per week.
|
| If that doesn't make you feel better, then maybe you need to
| invest into building a portfolio that people can contact you
| externally, while you are still managing/maintaining more
| internally.
|
| Additionally, when you work for yourself, you have the ability to
| set the terms upfront, to minimize meetings/back+forth
| communication, and you send one-way updates with progress
| updates..
|
| My two cents. I've self-contracted for myself the past couple of
| years and I feel much better about myself.
| dang wrote:
| "10x" is too linkbaity for an HN title so, in keeping with the
| site guidelines (no link, sorry - I'm on my phone) I've replaced
| it with one of the OP's other self-descriptions.
|
| (Considering how linkbaity it was, the thread is surprisingly
| good. I guess sometimes people do read the article?)
| 100011_100001 wrote:
| Thanks. I dislike the term as well, I like your edited title
| much more.
| gboone wrote:
| >The worst part is I am sensing within myself this frustration
| that everyone else appears to move so slowly. The thought of
| "great, one more thing I got to fix" is coming up too frequently.
|
| I see this as a point of opportunity for you because you have
| some part in this and just need to figure out what it is. Based
| on what you are saying, the key might be found somewhere between
| when you do what comes easy for you in terms of getting work done
| - and - doing what is very hard/unpleasant for you but would
| produce more work in others. You are exercising control with a
| high level of expertise and this could be exercised differently.
|
| An example I could give is the case of a tech help forum I co-
| moderate. If I want more help from the community and to see
| increased participation with ideas and suggestions, I have to let
| the unanswered question just sit there. If another moderator
| takes it upon themselves to efficiently get things solved and
| jumps in and answers it, then others don't see a need.
|
| I'm not sure how this translates, but it might mean that the next
| big challenge for you is found in choosing to NOT doing something
| rather than doing it. Like, being available to others during that
| time, rather than actually doing it, could be a strategic step.
| This would increase interaction, help you see the effort made by
| others regardless of their productivity, and man - we all benefit
| when someone competent is not constantly busy. I love asking
| questions but hate to interrupt others. Open office hours the way
| professors do it, or something like that.
| exdsq wrote:
| Is this satire?
|
| The comments section has brought out the absolute Reddit of HN
| hahaha
| nathan_phoenix wrote:
| Was wondering the same. Best of all are these "Totally
| relatable, I feel the same" comments. So many x10 devs that
| soon one gotta be a x100 dev to be above average lol
| soneca wrote:
| I am not a top developer or even close to it (I don't or want to
| have this trait of _" relentless pursuit of self-improvement"_),
| but I have worked with a couple.
|
| It seems to me that being controlling is part of the problem.
| When I worked with a top developer, every and each code that I
| wrote they would have written it faster, more elegantly, more
| maintainable, and more bug-proof. But when they reviewed my PR,
| they would approve it if it was good enough. They would point out
| possible improvements, but once they were done, they would
| approve and go on. If they used their skill level as the bar to
| accepting other people's code, they would be doing 80% of the
| work and writing 80% of the code. In that case, I would be very
| comfortable just doing much less work than I could for some time
| until eventually I would get bored and leave.
|
| Still, this top developer eventually changed areas completely (in
| the same company). From web development, which they mastered to
| cyber security, where they could start again their relentless
| pursuit for self-improvement, working with people that knew more
| than them.
|
| That would be my suggestion. Just change areas, inside software
| development (inside the same company, if you like there, would be
| easier, as you already have the respect from people and they know
| your potential). Go learn something that you are not a top
| developer. But this is just me, a very regular developer, looking
| from outside what I saw people more similar to you doing.
| alisonatwork wrote:
| This is an underrated answer.
|
| When your colleagues start treating you as the "go-to guy", I
| think it's often holding back their own development. Why should
| they try harder when they know your code review will catch
| everything they missed? Why bother volunteering for challenging
| tasks when they know you will do it faster?
|
| Often when you are put in the position of being the "go-to guy"
| at a company, you start to imagine that the company will fall
| apart without you. But it turns out that when you leave... the
| company just keeps going. And sometimes those developers you
| worked with that you might have seen as mediocre or unmotivated
| now grasp the opportunity to step up and grow into something
| better.
|
| I think if you feel like all the pressure is on your shoulders
| and the company would fail without you, you have a bad
| relationship with your job. Your work is where you go to get
| paid. The end. Unless you are literally being paid 10x what
| your colleagues are being paid, from the company's perspective
| you are not a 10x developer. The truth is, in most cases, the
| company doesn't care all that much whether they have in you a
| 1.5x developer or a 10x developer. They value you exactly as
| much as they're paying you, no more. So don't feel
| irreplaceable. The world will keep on spinning long after you
| are gone.
| 11235813213455 wrote:
| I'm 37 and probably have a solid xp, 'probably' because I'll
| never call myself a 10x or senior, just by some sort of personal
| modesty. And maybe that helps me to stay motivated, to stay
| ground to earth, just my 2cents, no criticism, just some relief
| on the situation, best continuation!
| stuckinhell wrote:
| You need a hobby to keep you grounded. Work isn't your life, it's
| just work. Remind yourself for many people work is just work too.
|
| Try writing code, something wildly out of your specialty.
| Example: if you are good at crud code, try writing game code.
|
| If you want to level up code wise, then you need to connect with
| people at meetups or conventions.
|
| You have to keep perspective on life and work.
| __derek__ wrote:
| If this is earnest, I don't mean to minimize your angst, but I
| thought this was satire. Measuring by number of commits or story
| points completed is bureaucratic nonsense. What you're describing
| is not a 10x developer, but a really good bureaucrat, like Hermes
| Conrad.
|
| As others have said, get a new job. Prioritize finding colleagues
| that are better than you are.
| nathan_phoenix wrote:
| Thia post is kinda the epitome of HN being humble. Especially
| when each second comment is of the form "Totally relatable, I
| feel the same". So many x10 devs that soon one gotta be a x100
| dev to be above average, yikes...
| marcodiego wrote:
| Are you Fabrice Bellard?
| markmiro wrote:
| Change jobs, but not because of others moving slowly.
|
| It's amazing that people trust you, but you're worried you'll let
| your team down. One of the biggest reasons why people leave jobs
| is because of a lack of growth opportunities, and the longer you
| stay in your position, the more likely it's going to beat the
| ambition out of others on the team.
|
| And if most of the code is written by you, this doesn't make you
| bad for leaving. The easiest code to maintain is code that's
| written by one person. Sure, some people might get mad and try to
| shame you, for leaving them to maintain all your code. However,
| this might be a result of people not believing in themselves.
| They need encouragement, and some nurturing.
|
| So I don't think the problem is whether you're a 10x developer or
| not. If you're good, it's like a white tablecloth at a
| restaurant. The cloth isn't bad just because it got stained. The
| problem is you're lonely, increasingly resentful, increasingly
| complacent, and it's not going to be good for those around you.
|
| If you leave the company and it goes well for you, it's also
| motivating for others since they know the company won't try to
| sabotage them on their way up. If the company does sabotage you,
| then this is also good since it'll help you determine the
| difference between a team that has your back vs a team that wants
| to use you. Either way, it's important to appreciate them
| regardless.
|
| So you got to your position because a you cared about others.
| It's important to not let your accomplishments blind you and
| overshadow just how much of your success comes from your care for
| others.
| coip wrote:
| As someone far younger than you, yet at times infinitely jaded,
| through what have >0% odds of being at least related
| circumstance:
|
| If you haven't come across DFWs This is Water, I'd highly
| recommend you give it a sincere listen:
| https://youtu.be/PhhC_N6Bm_s
|
| What is your goal? Have to make hay while the sun shines, if you
| perform so we'll see if you can find another opportunity to
| realize that gap you're in? If that's not fruitful, try and try
| again and at the end of the day, find resolve in knowing you're
| doing what you can and, while you have that going wrt
| opportunities, give your thoughts and time to things around you
| that do inspire you and provide some degree of fulfillment. As
| someone in the field as a moderately tenured, and currently
| unemployed, "software engineer": it is hard to unplug but god is
| it so necessary for being present and being able to see what else
| is going on you can nurture&enjoy. I'm a bit scared, given the
| macro picture rn, about being unemployed. But, at the end of the
| day, we are all in this ocean of chaos with 86400 seconds to
| allocate everyday however we choose. Bit of a lengthy rant, but
| feels good to capture some thoughts I've been having honestly,
| and hope you are most excellent!!! At least it's almost the
| weekend haha.
| UmbertoNoEco wrote:
| If you are a truly a 10X developer(TM pending) and this is not
| one of those copy-paste kids love these days, you could found
| your own company or consulting agency.With the huge competitive
| advantage you have (probably unique in the world ) : a 10-men-
| strength worth development capability that only have to maintain
| 1 family. If mere mortals have founded companies solo or in
| pairs, imagine what you could do with 5-10X the productivity and
| brain power.
| jv22222 wrote:
| It doesn't really matter how good or fast you are at
| developing, starting a company is a whole different ball game.
| The overhead of winning and retaining clients will very quickly
| ruin any 10x advantage you have.
|
| Side note: Judging from the story points it looks like this is
| a 23x developer not 10x ;)
| mberning wrote:
| The fact that they haven't realized story points are like the
| score in "who's line is it anyway" is a major red flag that
| they probably are not a 10x developer. Such a person would
| surely have ascertained the reality of the situation. The
| truth is that this person probably is above average in some
| aspects, but has a gross deficit in understanding the more
| nuanced aspects of the software business.
| pawelmurias wrote:
| A 10x difference in productivity between super efficient
| developers and shitty ones isn't as rare as you think.
| UmbertoNoEco wrote:
| Probably, who knows? But a "shitty" developer is not "1X"
| ziddoap wrote:
| "If you're the smartest person in the room, you're in the wrong
| room."
|
| I know saying this is easier than doing it, but; seek upward
| movement until you no longer feel like you're the smartest person
| in the room.
|
| I would also add, although it's purely personal opinion, that
| seeking a solution to loneliness through work is a surefire way
| to feel more lonely. You say you're big on self-improvement, but
| are you only focused on improving your work-related skills? All
| areas of life need attention, and it sounds like you've only been
| focusing on the work part of work/life balance (work/life balance
| is _so_ much more than just what hours you work).
| 100011_100001 wrote:
| I've thought about this. I actually do not think I'm the
| smartest person in the room, hell two of the people in my
| direct team are definitely smarter than me. I think I have
| really good systems that allow me to consistently solve
| problems and write code.
|
| On the loneliness front, I meant in the scope of working. I
| have four kids, I am everything BUT lonely with them.
|
| However, I do agree that aside from work and one of my hobbies
| I have neglected my health, specifically I need to eat
| healthier, exercise more and lose some weight. I've debated
| working one hour less than I'm supposed to just so that I can
| exercise daily, but I find myself worrying that without me
| things will fall apart.
|
| Logically, I know that's not true. If I died today, the company
| or my team would not collapse. Nevertheless I feel that if I'm
| supposed to be working from 8-5 (which 1 hour lunch), I need to
| actually be working.
| rootingforyou20 wrote:
| OP, don't know you but rooting for you
|
| Re eating/getting healthier,
|
| 1) food: this guy Rip is truly a lifechanger (esp if since
| you're in the zone when it would be smart to look after your
| heart: https://mealplanner.plantstrong.com/
|
| 2) Lose weight (this approach might be appealing to your
| engineer'y instinct): https://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/
|
| 3) Exercise:
|
| - Warm up (DO THESE):
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QWyyHfARNI
|
| - Try to get through a round of this w/ good form + then try
| to do 2, 3, etc:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTSIqbuZC0Y&t=369s
|
| I don't have any career advice for you, leaving is one option
| but consider that it would great for you to "skill-up" the
| people around you so when you leave it isn't like they lost
| their Golden-Boii, but rather bow out like a Bob Iger at
| Disney & leave them with a glorious future blah blah
| inglor_cz wrote:
| A tip from me... Try intermittent fasting and spend the 1
| hour allotted for lunch on a brisk walk or a short (30-40
| minutes) exercise if you have a nearby gym.
|
| I think you will feel better. I certainly do, on a similar
| regime.
| 100011_100001 wrote:
| Good ideas. Put them in my list.
| ziddoap wrote:
| > _two of the people in my direct team are definitely smarter
| than me_
|
| How often are you actively learning from and engaging with
| them on exciting new tech (or the systems you've designed and
| how they can be further improved, etc.), compared to water-
| cooler talk?
| 100011_100001 wrote:
| Probably 2-3 times a week actually. My team is specifically
| the spear point of new tech and integrating it for the
| company to use.
|
| From a point of self-evaluation I think it would help if I
| tried to listen more than talk.
| ziddoap wrote:
| From what I've seen here: you have a family life you
| enjoy, at least a few competent coworkers that you are
| actively engaging with and learning from, you're
| successful and sought-after at your place of work in a
| field you seem to enjoy, you have a hobby that you're
| consistent with, you have consistent and not overly-
| demanding work hours, you've tried challenging yourself
| by changing sectors, etc.
|
| You're hitting all of the points many people are still
| striving for.
|
| Perhaps it may be worthwhile seeking a professional's
| opinion, as the problem may be deeper-rooted than can be
| explored via forum.
| 100011_100001 wrote:
| Thanks for your perspective, and taking the time to
| express it.
|
| I truly appreciate it.
| Ehh_01 wrote:
| Yo man. It's not a secret that you feel loneliness at the
| top. But if that's bothering you and on top of that you
| are saying most if not all areas of your life are good
| then I have some news for you. So in general humans as a
| species is destined to suffering. Makin the long
| philosophy short, humans need to suffer to be able to
| enjoy happiness. From what you are sayin you live a
| decent life but in the back of your head there's
| something missing or lacking. And that's the suffering
| calling you to remind you that "you cant be high all the
| time". To help you with that personally as I've done it
| myself , would recommend you to go to an animal shelter
| as a volunteer and help one day a week. Try a homeless
| shelter and do the same. Try some empathy with total
| strangers you won't ever meet, quick example: I was
| waiting in the line for a cashier and had some items and
| saw the guy behind me had like tw or 3, probably stuff
| for his breakfast for work. So I said, go ahead Infront
| of me you'll go quicker and the guy was like if he hit
| the lottery that day, said thank you so many times like
| if I gave him a gold ounce coin or such. Makes you wonder
| what he's been throu. Try some martial arts but maybe not
| to get serious hurt but to remind yourself that you are a
| simple mortal being. I recently try humility with
| strangers, kinda like one year ago or more I was angry at
| myself and everyone else, now I do a step back and do
| stuff more calmly,say more times a day, thank you, sorry,
| please. Etc. Hope I don't wrote too much and you get the
| point I'm trying to say. Be gratefull for what you have
| and try experience some suffering from various sources to
| remind yourself that you are just a collection of a few
| atoms and a few lucky situations in the vast galaxy. Did
| you see the butterfly effect movie? Cheers take care.
| smsm42 wrote:
| You may want to really go to a gym (meaning broadly, any type
| of physical activity, if it's not a gym but running or biking
| or anything else for you, it's fine) more. It's amazing how
| getting regular exercise (and I don't mean just walking
| around the block, something that really makes you sweat and
| pushes you to your limits) has positive influence on your
| mental health - yes, including the work stuff. It's hard to
| believe until you really experience it, but I can tell you
| from my experience, if you feel frustrated after a bad work
| day, there's nothing like putting your big brain on neutral
| for a while and do some physical exercise, and then you'd be
| surprised how much better you feel. Do take that hour - it
| will pay for itself, you'd get much more back in better
| productivity and better mental (and physical, obviously)
| health.
| wreath wrote:
| > I've debated working one hour less than I'm supposed to
| just so that I can exercise daily, but I find myself worrying
| that without me things will fall apart.
|
| So be it. This may be harmful to your team/company in the
| short term but it will make it clear that there is a gap in
| output and productivity within the team that must be
| addressed. Go lift heavy weights (im talking about iron).
| prirun wrote:
| Being the big fish at your current job gives you some
| advantages. I would talk with your manager and explain that
| you need to work fewer hours so you can take better care of
| your physical health. Especially if you combine this with
| coaching your peers, they may not resent the fact that you
| are getting some perks they don't get. And if they do, well,
| that's not your problem. I have worked at many jobs where I
| received flexibility that others didn't have, and as long as
| you're not a dick about it, others will accept it because of
| your obvious value. The alternative is, you quit and then
| they get all the work.
|
| Work isn't everything. If you start working on your health,
| it will improve your mood and outlook. My guess is, you have
| an introverted personality and occasional feelings of
| isolation are just part of it. Try to accept it rather than
| fix it, because you might find that if you did have peers,
| that would have its challenges too.
| pnutjam wrote:
| aside from your 1 hour lunch, you're entitled to at least a
| couple 15 minute breaks. Make sure you're stepping away
| every now and then to take care of yourself. Working from
| home is not the same as working in the office and we all
| need to adjust.
| rexpop wrote:
| > I have four kids, I am everything BUT lonely with them.
|
| This is inadequate. Adults need "love" and companionship from
| adults in our lives. The love of children is inadequate; we
| must also have strong ties with buddies, pals, compatriots,
| and colleagues for mental health.
|
| Children can never fully deplete adult loneliness.
| somenewaccount1 wrote:
| Sounds like you just need to redefine what "working" for the
| company is.
|
| If your exhausting yourself at a desk for 8 hours x5 until
| complete burn out...well...then you go from writing 80% to
| 0%. How does that help the company? It really doesn't, and
| your overall average drops real fast (even though your not
| there).
|
| Others maybe already get this (or live like it anyway) and
| spend less time typing code. Taking care of yourself so you
| can continue to contribute 4-5x of others is far more
| beneficial for the company in the long run.
|
| Think about the "10x" companies - FANNG if you will - they
| have bicycles for people to go between campusus's, entire
| gyms, foosball, etc, etc. They seem like insane perks to the
| outside world, but it's what give balance to the 10x'ers whom
| work there - and they do it on company time.
|
| Good luck!
| amelius wrote:
| > seek upward movement until you no longer feel like you're the
| smartest person in the room.
|
| What do you mean by "upward"? If it's the classical meaning:
| you're not guaranteed to find smarter people higher in the
| organization.
| throwaway012299 wrote:
| > "If you're the smartest person in the room, you're in the
| wrong room."
|
| Easier said than done. I found smarter people only in few teams
| in FAANGs, but never in other companies.
|
| Unfortunately there are many other aspects that we need to
| balance out in life other than being in the right room.
| ziddoap wrote:
| > _Easier said than done._
|
| My next line literally says _" I know saying this is easier
| than doing it,"_
|
| > _Unfortunately there are many other aspects that we need to
| balance out in life other than being in the right room._
|
| And then I finish with _" work/life balance is so much more
| than just what hours you work_"
|
| So... yes. I agree?
| mepiethree wrote:
| Meh. 16 people from work came to my wedding (including my best
| man). You can be social at work without it ruining your life
| ziddoap wrote:
| This doesn't run counter to what I said, really.
|
| I believe that if you are already feeling lonely, _despite_
| working somewhere for X number of years, the solution is very
| likely not going to be found at that same place of work.
|
| If you have friends at work and they come to your wedding,
| congratulations, my thoughts on the situation are not
| suitable for your situation and you are more than welcome to
| (and should) ignore it.
| hoten wrote:
| I like to say I aim to be the second dumbest person in any
| room.
| amelius wrote:
| And Feynman was in the wrong room his entire life.
| dfcowell wrote:
| To his credit, it wasn't for lack of trying. He was in a
| lot of pretty good rooms.
| kilroy123 wrote:
| Couldn't agree more. You never want to be the dumbest one in
| the room. Stressful and dangerous position to find oneself
| in.
| ed_elliott_asc wrote:
| Another front page item is pretty appropriate:
| https://integritytalk.substack.com/p/the-eternal-battle-for-...
| pojzon wrote:
| Im at my nth company and I feel lonely because there was almost
| noone that could follow my speed of thinking.
|
| Ive met ppl that could, but they are now either Lead Developers
| or moved abroad.
|
| I dont want either. I want a good team where we build cool stuff
| and have fun doing that.
|
| Finding few ppl that think likewise and actually have skill and
| capacity to do that seems extremely hard.
|
| Now Im stuck in boring as hell disfunctional corpo with fat
| paycheck just so I can focus on my own things..
| dansiemens wrote:
| > In my direct team of 10 people, myself included, I have
| completed 71% of all story points in 2022, the other 9 are
| responsible for the other 29%
|
| This just sounds like another example of Price's Law. Seems like
| you've climbed the ladder of competency at your organization, and
| now there's nowhere else to go.
|
| I'll leave you with this quote from Garry Tan:
|
| "At every job you should either learn or earn. Either is fine.
| Both is best. But if it's neither, quit" [1]
|
| Sounds like you might need more on the side of learning here.
| Good luck.
|
| [1]
| https://mobile.twitter.com/garrytan/status/13776619701789736...
| davidy123 wrote:
| You didn't mention your actual life and what makes you happy,
| aside from mentioning you are lonely and stressed.
|
| If you're happy with the pay/location, work less. Most people
| really only have a few hours a day of full-on productivity. A
| large part of many jobs is station.
|
| Maybe teach or do something so working less is less obvious,
| because that would be noticed. But get a life, something that
| lets you enjoy moving around and engage with people who aren't
| part of work. It's very, very unhealthy to just work. And don't
| forget, the only 'reward' for being a committed worker in this
| situation is more work. You will be taken for granted.
|
| A lot of comments are about becoming an "actual" 10x developer.
| But that's contextual. If you're solving problems for a company
| or people you care about, great. Otherwise, tech comes and goes,
| keep the focus on quality but otherwise it's unlikely there's
| much meaning to "better" work unless you're creating something
| deeply reusable or are in research.
| sydthrowaway wrote:
| lr4444lr wrote:
| _I catch myself becoming more controlling because at this point
| about 80% of the code base is my code for the applications my
| team is responsible for. I don 't think that's a good thing, at
| the same time what I find plainly obvious is not to others._
|
| Why don't you get into management? You may be one of the rare
| devs who successfully makes the jump.
| synergy20 wrote:
| "I have completed 71% of all story points in 2022, the other 9
| are responsible for the other 29%" -- this is close to the 2080
| rule: 20% of the people doing 80% of the work. And yes "If you're
| the smartest person in the room, you're in the wrong room."
|
| I work in a similar situation(a startup), the few very senior
| peers I work with basically can not code, they're probably much
| better compensated than me. There a few junior developers
| actually pick up stuff faster and can produce some code at the
| end of the day. Overall I could hardly learn a thing and feel
| lonely all the time. And yes I'm thinking about leaving but in
| the meanwhile changing company too frequently is not good, I will
| just hang on for a few more months.
|
| The OP should just find a more challenging company to work for is
| my suggestion.
| sokoloff wrote:
| Change jobs to a company where you can continue to grow.
|
| "If you are the smartest person in the room, you are in the wrong
| room."
| hellohowareu wrote:
| 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.
| 100011_100001 wrote:
| The thought I used to help me in times of doubt, or impostor
| syndrome was that I might lack the experience of even 28 year
| old devs that worked since graduating college, but I have more
| life experience to compensate.
|
| If you look around, you will see that a lot of the struggles of
| younger age developers are from lack of life experience not
| specific developer skills.
| mech422 wrote:
| It's up to you...I'm 55, and still going strong... Haven't had
| any trouble keeping up or finding jobs.
|
| Have Fun!
| phphphphp wrote:
| I've worked with people who could have written this post with the
| stats and how they consider themselves, but they were awful to
| work with. People didn't challenge them because it was
| exhausting, because they knew best, despite their constant
| churning out of garbage code that the business didn't have the
| guts to address.
|
| That's not to say you're bad or your code is bad, but it's
| definitely worth considering whether the way you're measuring
| yourself is a true reflection of your value: have you talked to
| your co-workers about what it's like to work with you? What value
| you provide to them? How you can contribute to their careers,
| their work? The greatest value you can deliver to a business is
| rarely code: if you can improve every other developer by 1x, the
| business will be much better off than you being on an island all
| by yourself.
|
| My measure of myself always starts with whether or not people
| enjoy working with me, whether I'm providing value to the people
| around me: I could write 10x as much code as I do now, but I
| don't believe it would have better results for the company
| overall.
| Andrew_nenakhov wrote:
| From my experience, a person claiming to be a 10x developer
| probably isn't one. All real performers I knew were pretty
| humble people.
| MauranKilom wrote:
| > People didn't challenge them because it was exhausting,
| because they knew best, despite their constant churning out of
| garbage code that the business didn't have the guts to address.
|
| That doesn't square with how people are going out of their way
| to query OP though, no? If people drag you into meetings
| tangential to your work, it seems unlikely that they hate
| working with you...
| phphphphp wrote:
| Difficult to say without knowing the OP personally, but in my
| experience, all of this can square.
|
| There's complex dynamics at play that are a product of the
| genius developer mythology: someone produces a lot of code,
| the system becomes an extension of that person, everyone
| becomes dependent upon that person regardless of whether the
| person is good or bad, enjoyable to work with or not, because
| they're the genius system-whisperer.
|
| Earlier this year I spent some time at a company that has an
| incomprehensible system that is deeply problematic and
| painful to work on -- so much so, they brought on dozens of
| developers to try and speed up the rate of delivery (I was
| one of them) -- but the person who built it (and is most
| productive in it) has been elevated into a position where he
| now owns the entire technical implementation for the company,
| and is responsible for designing the solution to the
| nightmare he created, despite clearly demonstrating he has no
| business doing so: he's simultaneously a linchpin and
| incompetent.
|
| There's probably some version of the Peter Principle that
| applies to software engineering: a software engineer's output
| will rise to the level where it's a burden.
| 100011_100001 wrote:
| This is a fair criticism and concern.
|
| Part of the reason why I made this post is I can sense
| internally that I'm starting to lean on the whole "I know
| this thing better than you", which actually scares me. If
| I'm thinking it, I'm probably sub-communicating it.
|
| Both this reply and your original one are solid thoughts.
|
| > someone produces a lot of code, the system becomes an
| extension of that person, everyone becomes dependent upon
| that person regardless of whether the person is good or
| bad, enjoyable to work with or not, because they're the
| genius system-whisperer.
|
| I hope this is not true for myself, but your logic is
| sound. I see the truth in it, I just hope it's not the
| truth. You gave me something to reflect on.
| jv22222 wrote:
| > I know this thing better than you
|
| Whenever I hand code over I ask, does it make sense?
| Usually they say something like, yep looks easy.
|
| I used to think it was because I was a dumb ass and only
| wrote simple stuff, but finally realized it's because I
| spend large effort on making the code read like english.
| (Good function names, good variable names, code that
| looks like logical short sentences, etc.)
|
| All this to say, if you make code it's own wiki, you can
| avoid "I know this thing better than you" quite
| effectively, and complex code can be made to seem quite
| simple.
|
| You may already doing that, but thought I'd share in case
| it's helpful in any way!
| rr808 wrote:
| Sounds like you need a more challenging project. However its a
| red flag to me if you write 80% of the code. Do you really need
| to write so much code? I worked with a prolific developer and
| instead of doing things simply he always wrote another dozen
| classes. The whole thing was over-engineered because this guy was
| always adding an extra layer of complexity, it was so hard to
| understand - the only guy who understood it was you know who.
| Make sure you're not that guy.
| lifeplusplus wrote:
| If you want to feel like a noob again join a different company
| with different stack.
| [deleted]
| jonnyDev1 wrote:
| Hi, thanks for your post, you mentioned in the comments that you
| have good systems that allows you to write code well, do you mind
| sharing what are those systems? Or where could we learn them? I
| definitely don't see your post as bragging but more inspirational
| and I would like to learn how to type code like that and be that
| kind of developer that ships good quality products.
|
| Kind regards.
| Joel_Mckay wrote:
| The Venn diagram identifies most job related burn out warning
| signs: https://blog.darlingmagazine.org/what-is-ikigai/
|
| ;-)
| pphysch wrote:
| I've heard CEOs say "it's the loneliest job in the world". Their
| solution? Peer groups; CEOs of different companies meeting
| informally on a regular basis.
|
| If you're not angling for a CTO position, though, switching jobs
| is the best way to find a better IC "peer group".
| scotty79 wrote:
| I'm not a great developer but I can pretty much do everything
| that is needed and I noticed the pattern in my career that I tend
| to drift towards messiest, hardest, least flashy jobs because I'm
| the one who can find his way around there. And I tend to be left
| alone in those jobs as others move to greener pastures. I'm left
| on some stale but key project as lonely one man army. The way to
| get out is to switch an employer.
| mooreds wrote:
| > I worry that by not being challenged I will become complacent.
|
| Fair worry.
|
| > What can I do to change things?
|
| You should switch jobs.
|
| I've been the top technical person at a couple of companies (not
| the size of your company, however). It can be exhilarating to be
| "the person". You get a lot of respect and autonomy. But it can
| be easy to fall into the curse of the expert beginner:
| https://daedtech.com/how-developers-stop-learning-rise-of-th...
|
| While you can mitigate this to some extent by participating in
| groups (virtual and physical) for other great developers, the
| easiest way to handle this issue is to switch jobs.
|
| So, I'd suggest you start interviewing. Either you'll find a
| better place, or you'll discover advantages of your current
| situation.
| hellisothers wrote:
| +1. I had a similar crisis when I was a "big fish in a smallish
| company", I wasn't learning, I wasn't being stretched and felt
| like I was going to get stuck in this eddy. Move to a bigger
| company, be challenged again.
| QuercusMax wrote:
| 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.
| biomcgary wrote:
| I mostly agree, but I don't think the company necessarily has
| to be bigger, just more competent and ambitious(?).
| drewcoo wrote:
| The parent meant to communicate "big fish in small pond"
| but tossed in the word company instead of pond. Ignore that
| bit.
|
| Big fish in small pond still describes the need for room to
| grow accurately enough.
| mooreds wrote:
| I agree. It depends on what you want to do. I've been
| challenged technically at 2 person startups and 100k person
| companies.
|
| Advice for OP: what companies do you admire? Either
| globally or locally? Have conversations with folks at that
| company (LinkedIn is your friend in accomplishing this) and
| see what people actually working at these companies think
| about challenges and accomplishments at their employer.
| 100011_100001 wrote:
| This is an interesting idea.
| cableshaft wrote:
| I concur, switch jobs. It may just be that you've become the
| big fish in a small pond (or even a large pond, but just at
| that company). No better way to make you realize what all you
| don't know except by switching jobs.
|
| I've been "the goto guy" at a few places, usually just ended up
| that way over time, and when I switched jobs, suddenly it felt
| like I didn't know anything, or at least had a lot of catching
| up to do.
|
| Like I was a SME at my previous company, that got pulled into a
| bunch of meetings, and was often brought up and thanked in
| multiple town hall meetings for various projects I worked on.
|
| At my new job, it was obvious that everyone was using
| technology and architecture that I was never exposed to and I
| had a lot to catch up on, and I still am. I am definitely not a
| SME here. Although I have been on one project just long enough
| that I will start helping onboard and overseeing some junior
| engineers soon, it sounds like.
|
| Also, I'm smart and can pick up things quickly, but I would
| never consider myself a 10x engineer.
| justatdotin wrote:
| change projects.
| Jensson wrote:
| Most developers pivot to harder things until they are reach the
| level where they are barely able to stay productive since the
| tasks are too hard for them. This means it is really easy to be
| much faster than everyone else just by not pivoting to new
| things, just continue mastering the same thing. Many people never
| master anything and just stall though, but the way other
| developers handle your problem is to move on to something harder,
| that is what everyone else did who didn't struggle with the tasks
| you currently work on.
| nosefrog wrote:
| How did you become a more productive developer?
| 100011_100001 wrote:
| I can go really deep talking about this, so I will just write
| my personal system pointers that I keep by my desk.
|
| Iterate fast > perfect
|
| Write it down to relieve cognitive load.
|
| Uni-task (focus on one thing at a time)
|
| Prioritize and execute.
|
| Solve problems by:
|
| a. Invert - improve by subtraction
|
| b. Decision trees - compare outcomes, reduce load
|
| There are two types of decisions. Hard choice (A vs B), or
| multiple factors (A vs B vs C, but you can do A+B etc).
|
| Hard choice model. Is it a hard or easy choice? Does it have
| low or high impact. Hard to compare, low impact = apple vs
| oranges, focus on optimization.
|
| Hard to compare, high impact = get impact and mitigate
| negatives.
|
| Easy comparison, low impact = Go with your gut
|
| Easy comparison, high impact = Be confident
|
| For multi factor decisions use a decision matrix.
|
| Understand systems by looking at the connection circle or
| iceberg model.
|
| Connection circle is when you take the key elements and put
| them on a circle as points. If there is a cause and effect
| relationship you draw an arrow from one element to another. If
| arrows end up connecting three or more elements together you
| have located a closed feedback loop.
|
| Iceberg model, top of the iceberg (what's visible) is the event
| that just happened, underneath that there are patterns/trends,
| under that structures and connections. The deepest part of the
| iceberg are the mental models and assumptions made by people.
| If it's a system I don't understand I will confirm my path down
| the iceberg by looking at the code, testing the code and
| talking to SMEs
|
| In terms of actual code reminders I try to make it work, make
| it right, make it fast.
|
| I also try to do always, then inhibit, then ignore cases that
| don't apply.
|
| Minimize if statements to have consistent execution.
|
| If a function is called from one place I will inline it. From
| multiple places I will try to see if I can have it happen in
| one place so I can inline it (plus it's an optimization thing).
| For complex calculations if I can't have it happen once I will
| try to cache it, but cache invalidation can get tricky, so I
| always opt for do it once.
|
| Finally I try to write pure functions, look at parameters and
| return one or more computed value.
| Scarbutt wrote:
| _n terms of actual code reminders I try to make it work, make
| it right, make it fast.
|
| I also try to do always, then inhibit, then ignore cases that
| don't apply.
|
| Minimize if statements to have consistent execution.
|
| If a function is called from one place I will inline it. From
| multiple places I will try to see if I can have it happen in
| one place so I can inline it (plus it's an optimization
| thing). For complex calculations if I can't have it happen
| once I will try to cache it, but cache invalidation can get
| tricky, so I always opt for do it once.
|
| Finally I try to write pure functions, look at parameters and
| return one or more computed value._
|
| What programming languages are we talking about here?
| nosefrog wrote:
| Can you talk more about your method for solving problems?
| That's normally where I get stuck.
| marcodiego wrote:
| > I catch myself becoming more controlling because at this point
| about 80% of the code base is my code for the applications my
| team is responsible for. I don't think that's a good thing, at
| the same time what I find plainly obvious is not to others.
|
| I heard once from people who prepare for math competitions: "If
| your are the smartest person on a team, you are on the wrong
| team."
| anatari wrote:
| You should join a startup where generally everyone needs to carry
| their weight for the company to succeed which creates camaraderie
| opposite of loneliness.
| notacoward wrote:
| One word: move.
|
| I left one job, as it turns out pretty early in my career,
| because I felt I'd run out of headroom. I'd gotten pretty good at
| some things, and management very much wanted me to do more of
| those things. I really really liked the people I worked with,
| including said management. But I felt like I was _always_ the
| question answerer. There was nobody I could go to for information
| or advice. I was stagnating. I went to another company where
| everyone was significantly _senior_ to me - willingly choosing to
| be the n00b again. It was scary as hell, but it really helped me
| grow, and I 've never regretted the choice. As it turns out, I
| worked with some of those people twice more at other companies,
| so I didn't even miss them for long.
|
| BTW this has nothing to do with being "10X" or not. It has more
| to do with where you are in your own growth vs. what roles are
| available where you are. If you're in an RPG, but you're level 30
| in a level 20 area, it might _feel_ like you 're 10X but you're
| really just in the wrong place. The "10X" idea might in fact be a
| significant impediment to doing what you need to do. Sometimes
| you need to go outside your comfort zone to grow.
| freemint wrote:
| > What can I do to change things?
|
| Find a talented Junior developer which is able to think in your
| in presence (not stunted by your presence) and out spoken enough
| to disagree while you stand them character wise and take them
| under your wing. Mentor them as far as you think you can be
| effective mentoring them. Then let them grow on their own and
| after some break pick the next candidate.
|
| Edit: Oh i see you are already doing that. Different suggestions:
| network with fellow professionals and contribute to a trade
| publication.
| angarg12 wrote:
| It sounds like you need a bigger pond. I'd recommend either a
| high performing big tech or a fast growing startup. Each will
| challenge you in a different way. On the other hand, it might be
| risky changing jobs now so take it with a pinch of salt.
| donbrae wrote:
| Risky in terms of them being 42, or due to the economy maybe
| not looking too great right now?
| d--b wrote:
| 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. You're losing a lot of
| sympathy in that first sentence.
| flappyeagle wrote:
| Pick a couple of promising juniors to mentor. Commit less code.
| Work through them. Rotate occasionally when one of them reaches
| escape velocity or proves to be a letdown.
|
| Let your manager know about this plan and get their buy-in. It's
| healthier for the org to have fewer single points of failure
| goldenchrome wrote:
| It sounds like you're contributing too much. If you're the
| backbone of your company's technical org and you're not the CTO
| or at least a director, you're being undervalued which causes a
| lot of psychological distress over time.
|
| I recommend you figure out how to get to that position, which
| will probably involve training other developers to take over for
| you.
|
| If you don't want to get into management, you could join a large
| company >3000 employees where there will be dozens of people like
| you.
| sam1r wrote:
| OK but at that point, wouldn't it be better for someone this
| talented, to contract for themselves?
|
| Any new position is still pretty high risk, to put the OP in
| not only the same position they are currently at, but possibly
| worse.
| molyss wrote:
| The beginning of your post did sound like a lot of bragging. Once
| I got to the end, I felt that I could have written a large part
| of it...
|
| Feeling of being rarely challenged, loneliness, frustration with
| slowness, and urge to go and fix "it" have been very present for
| me over the past 2-3 years. It's been pretty harmful to my mental
| health. But it's also forced me to look at the bigger picture. So
| while I feel like I've lost a few years of my career, it's not
| all lost.
|
| Some things I would suggest :
|
| Don't express your frustration. You care, that's a good thing !
| But you can't let the frustration overshadow your knowledge and
| your message. Seen it in some uber-smart people, and it just
| makes everyone feel bad.
|
| Act as a teacher? I'm not sure if that's something that interests
| you, but it's something that'll take some of your time, improve
| the team around you, make you feel less lonely and make you seem
| more approachable for everyone. I also find it very rewarding.
|
| Change jobs ? New team, new company, new role ?
|
| If you're interested by CS in general, find people outside of
| work in the industry that you think are "10x" devs as well (god,
| I hate that term...)? Simply people you respect that have similar
| interest. I haven't solved the "how" myself, so if you're open to
| having some off-HN conversations about this, just let me know and
| we'll figure something out :)
| 100011_100001 wrote:
| I hate the term 10x as well. I just didn't know how else to
| phrase it.
|
| If you go to my profile...and translate it you will find my
| email address. Ping me :)
| tomxor wrote:
| heh, fun :) Maybe need a more challenging one as a filter.
| [deleted]
| hiimshort wrote:
| Have you been working at the same business for all (or most) of
| this time?
| icsa wrote:
| Become the other definition of a 10X developer - the developer
| who makes the other developers around them 10X better.
| mattnewton wrote:
| Not to be flippant, but I have often felt if I look around and
| feel that I am the most capable or smartest person in the room, I
| am probably in the wrong room. Have you thought about applying to
| work at a company known for engineering excellence? With remote
| work becoming more mainstream, why not try it at a big Fang-type
| shop? I know I felt I was a 100x type engineer until I joined
| Google for example - a ton of people to learn from in a company
| like that :D
|
| Another option is to embrace the role and lean into mentorship at
| your current company. But it sounds like that is not something
| you are interested in at this point, so I would start applying to
| companies.
| cat_plus_plus wrote:
| I think you are not defining the problem broadly enough. Working
| or coding in general can not provide all the challenge and social
| belonging in life. Pick something that you are not good at and
| recapture satisfaction of growth. For example, I took up
| kickboxing about a year ago and I am still not great at it, but I
| can see improvement month by month. Or an ultimate 100x -
| have/adopt a kid or another kid, no more boredom for a decade.
|
| Next, even when it comes to work, you are not replicating your
| results at scale yet. Can you discover people with great
| potential and train them until they are able to challenge YOU and
| suggest improvements to whatever you come up with.
|
| Finally, is there truly no individual challenge left for yourself
| as an individual contributor? Have you looked at state of the art
| in 3D graphics, machine learning and quantum computing and
| expanded your expertise in these areas? Or if you prefer
| traditional programming, try coding for low end embedded devices
| where extreme ingenuity is required for production functionality
| and performance. Don't mean to jump straight into recruitment,
| but if you want, ping me some ways to contact you and I bet we
| can keep you challenged for a while.
|
| Or, for non work fun, check out retro computing / demo scene.
| This cuts down tedium of writing lots of code - can't fit that
| much in 64K or even 640L - while maximizing fun of making every
| line count.
| clolege wrote:
| I agree with the sentiment here around leaning into
| mentoring/teaching. Watching videos of myself teaching others and
| iterating on it has been one of the best things to happen to my
| communication (and thus teamwork) skills.
|
| Hearing you say things like:
|
| > Nowadays people just accept whatever I say as the best way.
|
| > I catch myself becoming more controlling because at this point
| about 80% of the code base is my code for the applications my
| team is responsible for.
|
| > The thought of "great, one more thing I got to fix" is coming
| up too frequently.
|
| makes me wonder if you might benefit from reading organizational
| books like Turn the Ship Around? You seem to be getting to the
| point where cultivating leadership throughout your organization
| might be the best way for you to affect change, and with the
| right mental models you can often do that with slight nudges or
| answering questions differently.
| wayne-li2 wrote:
| I felt this way somewhat recently. Switching companies to a place
| that had top tier engineering talent put me in my place pretty
| quickly. Now I sweat like the rest of them -- and trust me this
| is a good thing. You want your peers to challenge you, trust but
| verify, question assumptions. You want to cover each other's
| backs. I've never been happier than I am now, because even though
| I'm working harder, I'm able to trust and lean on the people
| around me, and that's so valuable.
| martiya wrote:
| Change job if you can looking for smarter colleagues and/or just
| reflect what are your priorities: you do not need to carry all
| the responsibility in your shoulders. You have room to give more
| time to your health, for example, and still be a good
| contribution to the team. You do not need to do it all. For what
| you say this change will not come natural to you and you will
| need some discipline. Just start and see how it feels.
| JamesBarney wrote:
| Curious how someone who can solve problems so well can't solve
| the problem "My coworkers don't challenge me." The solution is to
| find better co-workers.
| kache_ wrote:
| Why do kevin durant & steph curry play on the same team?
|
| Switch teams dawg, join a place where there are other freaks like
| you. I used to feel the same, until I switched.
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