When I (finally) got rid of him, I had only 1.5 months left of the estimate project time before I had to deliver. The project was estimated to last for 6 months, and I built it (alone!) in 1.5 months because I didn't have more time left. Basically, the guy squandered 75% of our projected time because he "wanted to teach himself GoLang and Rust".
Today our entire infrastructure is built in Hyperlambda, and if anybody as much as mumbles let's use Python/PHP/Java/GoLang/xxx I wouldn't even give them the curtesy of firing them, I would chase them out of the office with a stick ...!!
The guy basically swindled me, and his reasons (I assume) was that he was more interested in building his CV than my project ... :/
agh that sounds super painful and I can see why you were frustrated!
I think you also learned a valuable lesson there as well as a project lead! that knowledgeable doesn't always mean good in practice! I too had a lead that would take forever to deliver because he wanted to get everything right. I valued his knowledge but it was frustrating to see him take so long in finishing things we really needed, so I can understand your feelings very well.
I think at that point it's better for these types of dev to move up the ladder and help juniors and mid seniors improve their code or have a more architect sorta role, and maybe they also need to be reigned in a little because they can get very excited! like a kid who wants a rainbow play doh ball so he mixes them all.... only to end up with the disappointing reality of a brown one instead hahaha (btw I'm just putting some ideas out there nothing too serious!)
In the end, I'm glad that your project was able to take off and give you better memories :3
These are very wise words, and if we had been a large and mature company, I'd probably have room for him, even though he didn't deliver according to expectations. However, we're a startup, and our ability to move fast, is our only chance at success. When I finally had to let him go, I even told my investor the following; "The guy is amazing. If we gave him 5 years, he'd probably come up with something that's way smarter than I could come up with - However, we don't have 5 years, we've got 6 months, and I need the stuff 'yesterday'".
However, in the end, his (lack of) social skills and ability to start fights over tiny and mostly ridiculous things was the tipping point for me. It was painful, but I had to let him go. When he had left the office, I contacted every single recruiter I knew on LinkedIn though, and before he made it back home he had a new job with a common acquaintance of us, who runs a much larger company, and can afford to have people do "deep dives for years" in solitary environments, where team work and such are less important ...
I still hold great amounts of respect for the guy, although I admittedly feel sorry for him - However, I suspect the feeling is not mutual ... :/
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When I (finally) got rid of him, I had only 1.5 months left of the estimate project time before I had to deliver. The project was estimated to last for 6 months, and I built it (alone!) in 1.5 months because I didn't have more time left. Basically, the guy squandered 75% of our projected time because he "wanted to teach himself GoLang and Rust".
Today our entire infrastructure is built in Hyperlambda, and if anybody as much as mumbles let's use Python/PHP/Java/GoLang/xxx I wouldn't even give them the curtesy of firing them, I would chase them out of the office with a stick ...!!
The guy basically swindled me, and his reasons (I assume) was that he was more interested in building his CV than my project ... :/
agh that sounds super painful and I can see why you were frustrated!
I think you also learned a valuable lesson there as well as a project lead! that knowledgeable doesn't always mean good in practice! I too had a lead that would take forever to deliver because he wanted to get everything right. I valued his knowledge but it was frustrating to see him take so long in finishing things we really needed, so I can understand your feelings very well.
I think at that point it's better for these types of dev to move up the ladder and help juniors and mid seniors improve their code or have a more architect sorta role, and maybe they also need to be reigned in a little because they can get very excited! like a kid who wants a rainbow play doh ball so he mixes them all.... only to end up with the disappointing reality of a brown one instead hahaha (btw I'm just putting some ideas out there nothing too serious!)
In the end, I'm glad that your project was able to take off and give you better memories :3
These are very wise words, and if we had been a large and mature company, I'd probably have room for him, even though he didn't deliver according to expectations. However, we're a startup, and our ability to move fast, is our only chance at success. When I finally had to let him go, I even told my investor the following; "The guy is amazing. If we gave him 5 years, he'd probably come up with something that's way smarter than I could come up with - However, we don't have 5 years, we've got 6 months, and I need the stuff 'yesterday'".
However, in the end, his (lack of) social skills and ability to start fights over tiny and mostly ridiculous things was the tipping point for me. It was painful, but I had to let him go. When he had left the office, I contacted every single recruiter I knew on LinkedIn though, and before he made it back home he had a new job with a common acquaintance of us, who runs a much larger company, and can afford to have people do "deep dives for years" in solitary environments, where team work and such are less important ...
I still hold great amounts of respect for the guy, although I admittedly feel sorry for him - However, I suspect the feeling is not mutual ... :/