Hi all. I'm proud to be a brand new member here at dev.to, and to hopefully reach out and have some good banter with everyone.
I was recently fortunate enough to bear witness to an out-of-the-box presentation by a very intelligent and capable colleague of mine. I'll be frank here: the presentation could have been anything but interesting; given the title of the calendar invite, I may well have been able to half-listen and arrive on the other side of the meeting no more educated. But it wasn't that.
By examining the workplace environment and paying attention to everything beyond the usual survey questions, this colleague inspired me to ask bigger questions, and moreover ask myself harder questions. You're likely familiar with them:
- What am I doing here?
- What is the purpose driven by my priorities?
- Do I even have priorities?
In the age of developers in 2021, the term fast-paced is now overused and mundane; we know pace like the back of our hand. JavaScript libraries last about as long as vapour trails left by a jet plane. What this means, though, is that it's all too easy to be taken hostage by the details of a particular platform or bug, and forget the big picture. Stress often becomes more important than your own goals and priorities.
It was with this realisation that I felt a sudden onset of motivation to capture what this colleague had awoken so effectively, and to make the message not only applicable to other colleagues, but also to all developers around the world who share the wish to make sure their job is their career, and to make their days and keystrokes meaningful.
I've finished the first cut of my blog, in which I include my manifesto (P.S. I have no tracking or advertising). Here, you'll find the manifesto itself, titled The M/Movement, as a downloadable PDF document. Designed to be as readable and applicable as possible, it walks through how your work environment should be a place you enjoy, and that having fun and sharing ideas are never something that you should feel excluded from doing.
This document was not initially intended for public consumption, but by the time it was finished, I stood back to look at it and said Wait a moment, this could be about anyone, referring to developers, of course.
If you have any PMI (plus, minus, interesting) thoughts regarding this manifesto, those thoughts are most welcome. Thank you for taking the time. All the best!
Top comments (2)
A very thoughtful and well written piece. I suspect there are many that share similar opinions (not only in the software development community). The topics you cover can easily break out into their own dedicated posts. And that got me thinking about something else that you may find interesting.
Have you heard of the quote, "A bad system will beat a good person every time"?
Find more information here. Here is a piece taken from the aforementioned link. "So if a bad system will be beat a good person every time what can you do? You have to focus not on trying harder within the current system but on changing the system so that success is built into the system. Relying on heroic measures is a poor way to manage."
Thanks again for sharing!
A very powerful and succinct way to look at it, a little like telling someone to focus less on pushing the brick wall with more force and instead rip open the adjacent bag with climbing gear.
I admire how there are outbound links in that post - a sure sign that the author believes in their content!