Hi, I'm Gregory Brown.
My goal is to help software developers get better at what they do, whether they've been at it for five weeks or fifty years.
(he/him)
The most obvious one but still worth mentioning: That the job is to develop software, rather than to help humans solve a meaningful problem in the world.
(Both the business side and the engineering side of a company can be biased towards thinking this way, to everyone's detriment.)
Hi, I'm Gregory Brown.
My goal is to help software developers get better at what they do, whether they've been at it for five weeks or fifty years.
(he/him)
This is a post about what common falsehoods exist among software developers.
The common misconception is that a tech-centric focus is normal and reasonable for software developers.
I am saying that this is a bad thing, and that software developers should instead see themselves as people who first and foremost are human problem solvers, and that software just happens to be the toolset we use to help others.
Since when we programmers know what to do for the customers?
It's a reality we fall in rabbit holes all the time and we forget that at the end it's all about the user and the usage.
Hi, I'm Gregory Brown.
My goal is to help software developers get better at what they do, whether they've been at it for five weeks or fifty years.
(he/him)
But the speed at which we gain experience is pretty much directly tied to our willingness to listen, learn, and communicate effectively with the people around us, whether that is customers, coworkers, or business leaders.
As developers we have a lot of direct ways of improving our ability to communicate and learn from the people we're working with and for, as well as plenty of opportunities to get support where needed to get better at those things. But developing a human-centric rather than tech-centric mindset is a key starting point for those who want to head down that road.
The most obvious one but still worth mentioning: That the job is to develop software, rather than to help humans solve a meaningful problem in the world.
(Both the business side and the engineering side of a company can be biased towards thinking this way, to everyone's detriment.)
Edited: my original comments where because I misunderstood the comment I was replying to. Turns out we're both on the same side. 🤦♂️
This is a post about what common falsehoods exist among software developers.
The common misconception is that a tech-centric focus is normal and reasonable for software developers.
I am saying that this is a bad thing, and that software developers should instead see themselves as people who first and foremost are human problem solvers, and that software just happens to be the toolset we use to help others.
Ah yes, so we're on the same side, sorry. The double negative confused me.
I remember overhearing a joke between interns,
"Just do what the product designer says and no one gets hurt."
lmao
good joke - the product designers should be "asking" not telling programmers what to do!
Since when we programmers know what to do for the customers?
It's a reality we fall in rabbit holes all the time and we forget that at the end it's all about the user and the usage.
Reality is, 90% of people have no idea what to do for customers, including customers, programmers, founders, project managers.
Only experience can teach that, and very often people dont learn on failures for a long time.
Well, experience certainly helps.
But the speed at which we gain experience is pretty much directly tied to our willingness to listen, learn, and communicate effectively with the people around us, whether that is customers, coworkers, or business leaders.
As developers we have a lot of direct ways of improving our ability to communicate and learn from the people we're working with and for, as well as plenty of opportunities to get support where needed to get better at those things. But developing a human-centric rather than tech-centric mindset is a key starting point for those who want to head down that road.
that probably wasn't a joke.
...Yeah, you're right.