Jerod Santo

Posted on Jun 28, 2019

What do you consider your greatest developer strength? Weakness?

#discuss #career #programming

On JS Party #78 we talked all about developer strengths and weaknesses (and even shared our own). That got me thinking... we all have strengths and weaknesses. Sometimes we have them in common, sometimes they're totally unique because of our background/experience. Let's share 'em! I'll go first:

Strength 💪

One of my greatest strengths as a developer (which I learned is shared by some of my JS Party co-panelists) is STUBBORNNESS! I will continue to bang my head against a wall until there's a hole large enough for me to slip a solution through.

Weakness 😭

One of my greatest weaknesses as a developer is I am not good at thinking in libraries, so I often fail to generalize my code for reuse. Or, if I do generalize it for reuse, I don't package it up and release it for others.

Your turn 🤝

What do you consider your greatest developer strength? Weakness?

Latest comments (24)

Ross Henderson • Jul 2 '19

Strengths

I am good at developing an idea whilst taking into account future use. I.e. "We can do this, but it'll be a problem when x comes into effect, so we may as well deal with it now".

Weakness

I need to get better at talking to people, not just developers. I struggle to elucidate my point when I find something obvious and other people don't. I get frustrated and people can find me hard to work with at times because of it.

That being said I'm still actively working on my strengths but being very mindful of my weaknesses!

Daniel Mayovskiy • Jul 2 '19

Strength

If I am interested in a library I will research it thoroughly. I will read like 90% of the documentation and see test comparisons and things alike. Will make experiments of varying difficulty to see how comfortable is this library for me and how much is comfortable to do with it. (so far Mithril.js is a winner for me).

Weakness

If I have dropped the project for a week, I dropped it forever. It is quite rare for me to comeback to my project, no matter the stage at which it was done, because I can't come back into the context that I was in.

Glen Connolly • Jun 30 '19

Strength
Genuinely love challenging tasks. The more complex the problem, the more enjoyment I get from it.
Weakness
Cannot gracefully toggle between focuses. If new developers ask a question or there are meetings or a distraction can't be avoided, I react like a woken snorlax for a good 10 minutes before providing any real contribution

Alex Oladele • Jun 29 '19

Strength
I know that I'm not an expert in what I do, so I'm constantly striving to be better and learn more

Weakness
Sometimes I don't have the patience or mental capacity to learn certain things as in-depth as I want to

Cubicle Buddha • Jun 29 '19 • Edited

Strength:

Introspection. I’m always willing to look inside and think about what I’ve done wrong and how I could do better. This includes software, but it mostly refers to reviewing how I interacted with people. I strive to constantly reinvent myself to be happier and healthier with others

Weakness:

I am more than a bit obsessive about TypeScript so that means I’m not really ever going to agree with someone who thinks it’s better to write JS. I don’t like that part of myself that is committed to a decision. That being said, it’s a decision I’ve made after years of research and talking to people.

Scott Bamforth • Jun 29 '19

Strength

I can pick up a learn things quite quickly. It doesn't normally take me long to grasp the concepts of something new and then start applying it to my work. This mainly applies to things I want to learn...

Weakness

I get bored really easily and if I'm working on something that I don't find quite exciting, or have to learn something that I don't want to, it just takes me way longer and I might even just put it off to do something more interesting

Evan Plaice • Jun 29 '19

Strength

Resilience. Throw me in the deep end -- of the ocean -- and I'll wash up on shore the next day.

It's a combo of hardheadedness, resourcefulness, confidence, and ability to quickly adapt learn.

Weakness

I have zero passion to become an 'expert' in current technologies that'll be dead in 5 years. I'd rather develop skills in filuture standards. Unfortunatel, current tech is what everybody is hiring for.

Max Ong Zong Bao • Jun 29 '19

Strength

Resourcefulness to always find a way despite the present situation looks bad.

Weakness

Being too kind to people who takes advantage of you for your kindness.

Kevin Ball • Jun 29 '19

I resonate with your weakness, which is part of a spectrum where too far in either direction can be problematic. Too cynical about people and unwilling to help is bad, but too selfless and always giving can leave you nothing for yourself.

That said, I’d rather err on the side of too kind. All of the best things that have happened to me have come as a result of giving to others. So often the more you give the more you get.

Max Ong Zong Bao • Jun 29 '19 • Edited

Yes I follow that philosophy of being a giver than a taker. Focusing on giving value than being a person who constantly takes without giving.

Jason Murray • Jun 29 '19

Biggest strength: I'm able to pick up any API or Library and start using it with minimal ramp up time.

Biggest weakness: I'm unable to say no. I believe, as a developer, my job is to make anything possible, it's the job of the PM and management to temper that with things such as scope and cost. If asked if I can implement a feature, my answer is invariably "yes".