To me, being a Senior Developer is kind of like growing up and asking yourself, "Where's the adult in this situation? Oh, crap, it's me!" You suddenly realize that you are the responsible developer whose task it is to help guide other developers and make sure they only wander so far off the safe path, but not watch them so closely that they don't have the opportunity to explore and make mistakes, which are necessary for learning. Eventually, you just accept that role and learn to enjoy mentoring junior devs.
So in short, a senior dev is just a leader, which doesn't necessarily mean they're a manager or even an official tech lead. And just like being a responsible adult or a leader, some people never really become senior developers.
To me, being a Senior Developer is kind of like growing up and asking yourself, "Where's the adult in this situation? Oh, crap, it's me!" You suddenly realize that you are the responsible developer whose task it is to help guide other developers and make sure they only wander so far off the safe path, but not watch them so closely that they don't have the opportunity to explore and make mistakes, which are necessary for learning. Eventually, you just accept that role and learn to enjoy mentoring junior devs.
So in short, a senior dev is just a leader, which doesn't necessarily mean they're a manager or even an official tech lead. And just like being a responsible adult or a leader, some people never really become senior developers.
Spot on