I personally know some developers who are very talented and can create wonderful pieces of software with no or little struggle. Because of these gi...
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Excellent post, in the spirit of Albert Einstein's quote: "A true genius admits that he/she knows nothing."
The admission is itself the prerequisite for genius.
To add on, I believe we are seriously lacking a culture and the mechanisms in the software industry to view and support each other as learners. Mentorship and apprenticeship are virtually non-existent and when they are, they are often in name only.
The suck thing about "experience" and learning is, that the more you truly learn/know, the more it reveals what you don't yet know. It often feels like for every one thing I master, I also see that there's at least two more related thing's I've yet to master. It's like a geometric curve of relative-ignorance.
...More, it puts you in a position where you realize "I have expertise, but I am not an expert — and I have no idea what that self-proclaimed expert is because he very clearly has less expertise than I do."
This is related to the Dunning-Kruger effect
Yes and no. People that display DK tend to never really ever reach a point of "huh... I guess I didn't actually know as much as I thought".
I guess I was lucky then: I was able to find a really good mentor early on in my career. Changed my life, and then happened to be friends with my current manager at my job (didn't know that when I used him as a reference).
10/10 would recommend a mentor, but they're hard to find and often just come out of nowhere.
You're lucky man! I just wrote a post here about this problem when you just start your career and don't find the right company with the right projects and mentors, you really feel disappointed.
I too was lucky enough to have had a couple of mentors early in my career that, IMO, changed everything. Because of this I have taken it on myself to be a mentor when and where I can. I find myself, at this point in my career, managing a large team of UI devs and have the opportunity to help them grow and learn. I feel it is my responsibility. Kind of a "pay it forward" mentality. It's also personally very rewarding.
In the end, I feel that we are all responsible for mentoring each other, and believe we all have something we can share and learn from one another. As practice lead, it's something I expect from my team and have zero tolerance for those that feel they are above others and not willing to share and mentor.
Thanks! Mentorship is a big problem indeed.
My company also tried to create a mentorship program inside.
But we failed twice. Since it requires a lot of time and money, which we could not afford at the time.
So, for now I don't know how to break this vicious circle.
I think some comments are missing on the sarcasm of the post here. I don’t think the author thinks themselves bad programmers, but rather is poking at those “Star devs” who claim their talent is wasted in writing unit tests and such.
Excellent post !!
I think you put yourself down way too much. Judging from the article and what I see in my industry, you're already better than 90% of the developers. Integrating different pieces of technology and code, and writing new code is pretty much what software developers are meant to do. Knowing that you have to do CI/CD, myriad of testings, and knowing how to go about doing it and all the options available to do it shows you know what you're doing. That's already better than most teams I see.
Totally.
Also, many devs have different focus.
I met people who can get up and running with new stuff quickly, and others who know older stuff in and out. Both having their struggles with the other side.
Some are also simply good with talking to non-technical people.
I can't count how many super-devs I got introduced to by some non-tech folk that turned out to be barely junior.
Compared to some pros working at Facebook or Google, I'm probably mediocre.
Compared to some hacks working at some no-name company I'm doing rather fine I think.
And there are more of the last kind, hehe
You are not a mediocre developer, you are simply a DEVELOPER.
If people expect you to be a "programming encyclopedia", then that's their problem. You don't have to remember everything, you just need to be AWARE that there's such function or such class.
I know a 20+ years experienced man who can build advanced systems with raspberry pi and stuff like that and integrates them with his own code. The man is clearly on very advanced level, but he still googles lots of stuff that he faces on a daily basis.
If programming is not your 24/7, if you have your personal life, hobbies, whatever else you wanna do with your life, then it is OK to do what you are doing.
There's few rockstars in the world but millions of musicians. Not everyone wants to be famous. Not everyone wants to be a super nerd. Those times have passed. In 2018, people value LIFE more than WORK.
Enjoy your life and you will enjoy your work as well!
One of my favorite posts of all time. I feel that I am no rock star developer either, but the one advantage I have is learning from my mistakes. I have already spent a long time figuring out what DOES NOT work. I have arrived at many of the same conclusions as you. Still learning too.
The same for me!
Great post!!!
I’m totally moved by ur post. As a former developer, I quitted working as developer now, I had thought about this “medicore developer” things for long time. and always the conclusion was I was not a competitive developer. And ur post let me think about those things and courage me to being a developer again.
and if u don’t mind I’d like to translate ur post in Korean and post it on my blog(blog.meeta.io) with original link.
By the way, thx for nice post and inspiring me!! ;)
I am really glad I have inspired you to be a developer again! Please, feel free to translate this post. And, also, please send me a link, I would be very honored.
THX ;)
I just finished translation and post it on my blog!! (blog.meeta.io/15)
These are habits of any successful developer. If a rockstar devleper thinks this stuff is unnecessary then they are dillusional and setting themselves up for failure.
I look up functions, syntax, and algorithms all the time. Sure, as I get into a project I'll start remembering the common stuff, but it's not ingrained in some permanent memory somewhere. I'll lose it when I move projects.
What I tend not to look up are paradigms, patterns, and structure. This stuff is universal and difficult to search for. It's the type of question they close on StackOverflow. How much of this stuff you can keep in your head will impact your overall ability. It's a huge part of what must be "learned".
I don't trust my code either. It's not just my code, I don't trust the framework, I don't trust the OS, I don't trust the user, the environment, everything. I assume everything will break because it eventually will. I focus on test/use-driven development. I consider code reviews hugely beneficial. Defensive programming is a must.
Some people may think this slows you down, but I consider it speeds me up. By following a checked development practice I can be assured I'm not spewing out crap, nor do I need to second guess myself. Good practices help free my mind from clutter.
A side-note to the WTF/Minute: I believe one should develop a coder empathy. Don't judge your code from your viewpoint, but from others. There's plenty of code I've written that I have no problem understanding, but I know will confuse others, and probably even me in a few months time. Though it's not always easy to make the distinction between necessary and needless complexity.
I've always been the same way regarding trust. It seems the minute I trust that something will work as it is supposed to, it doesn't.
Dovetailing with this idea, my first boss often complained that things took "longer than they should" when I worked on them. But then when it came time to discuss my performance for the year I would be pretty much with everyone else in terms of completed items. What he was initially missing was not only that I would dig to ferret out the real problems rather than treat a symptom but I would also go over it a few times and think about edge cases, etc... That made it rare for a ticket to come back to me after I had completed it where many of the other "faster" devs would end up revisiting the same ticket 5 or 6 times because they were trying to work fast. Sometimes we would joke when a dev would hit a rough patch where it seemed nothing they did was passing QA calling the offender "Captain Rework".
Also, we shouldn't fool ourselves into thinking "a user would never do that". We had an end user that would literally wait for an update to come out and then he would actively try to break it. We'd literally get tickets where he'd say something like "I put 55 question marks in this field and tried to submit the form, my browser became unresponsive and crashed. When I put in 54 or less it works fine, please fix." I mean really, who does that? lol
Beginner programmers write simple code.
Mid Level programmers write complicated code, abstracting an abstraction of an abstraction, mostly trying to be clever.
Senior programmers write simple code.
Having seen the light, senior programmers know that humans are flawed, keeping things as simple as possible is more valuable than bragging about your latest "hello world" that took only 173 lines of code.
BTW. Googling simple function names etc. only means that you don't waste memory capacity, rather saving it for higher level thoughts. Especially these days when most of us have to learn so many different languages and tools inside each project.
Nice Post!
Despite the title and your take on the issue, a great many of the things you list are what I would ascribe to high-quality developers, i.e. the ones that are dependable, performant, and that make the project and the team better.
In fact, lots of those points I recognize in myself, and count among my most important and valuable skills.
I'm pretty sure every developer does this for anything that hasn't been beaten into memory by recent or frequent use. You can make the process a lot faster by using an offline docs browser like Zeal (Linux/Windows) or Dash (OSX) though.
Ctrl-Alt-Space to focus the Zeal/Dash window and a few keystrokes to find a method, guide, etc for a particular language is way faster than Googling, and I use it frequently every day.
I didn't know Zeal/Dash exist and you are an absolute legend. Thank you! ❤
My GOD I love this article. Sorry I'm late to the party but thank you for soothing a gigantic insecurity of mine! I've lost significant sleep over not being a "real" developer and it's good to know that I am not alone there!
Great article, but I think you're being a bit hard on yourself.
Although I have to 100% disagree with this statement:
Why? Unless youre using higher-order logic to write decoupled functional code (functions that take functions, combining or composing them), then functions are IMO a bad idea
That's because I spend a lot of time using functional languages (
elixir,elm, a lit bit ofreason).And it seems to me that functions are much easier to compose, extend, and reuse.
Think of it as a personal preference.
Makes sense. I've been using Kotlin which is as close to functional as you can get on the JVM without breaking from the stdlib, so it was a bit rough learning to mix and match OOP and functional. I definitely prefer functional style but can be dangerous when trying to use libs and frameworks which are often just wrappers around java classes, if at all.
One of my personal best practices to protect against my own overconfidence: For every PR I write up the comments to include the testing I did. And I write down all the testing I should do. Sometimes I discover testing I didn't actually do, so I go back and do it. And more than once, I found bugs when I did!
Just a little correction: Margaret didn't write all of that code, but she was the leader of the team who did, so she designed the architecture and so on, aswell writing a good part of it. But not entirely as it's typically known.
Excellent post anyways!
Articles like this kinda tricks my brain to think that I have a mentor. I, too, am experiencing (or maybe it's just me) this kind of thinking that I'm just a mediocre developer despite being able to solve some problems. Complex problems take time to solve but somehow I manage through it.
Being able to constantly learn is the real deal here. If you aren't willing to learn, you aren't giving yourself opportunities to become a better version of yourself.
Kudos to this post!
@sobolevn great post. Kind of late reading but very inspiring. I can also be seen as a midiocre developer.
I am also looking up the most trivial things about a language or concept because I want to make sure I remember them correctly or because I don't have the capacity to remember them all.
Heck I was recently asked on an interview to describe programming concepts that I half knew or did not know at all and it felt embarrassing for a brief period after the interview since I have been doing web development for more than 15 years.
Later on I came to the realization that its OK to not remember all those concepts. I personally would not call you or me or anyone on similar boat midiocre developer.
With all the different areas of development to be explored the last few years its not possible to know or remember them all by heart. Each one of us gets accustomed mostly to the ones that are often or recently used. The strong point of a developer should be that given a problem to find a good, practical solution that stays within time limit and budget.
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Indeed I agree on all of it!
And at my feeelancer work I was presented to very poor code indeed made by others. No comments, no identations, no proper namming conventions, huge methods, ifs inside ifs inside ifs, no modular or refactoring approach ....
But in my opinion the best rule of thumb is indeed:
And convice yourself, it is impossible to know everything so prepare yourself to learn something new every single day.
Poor software also happens because (usually) the person(s) that pays wants to pay as little as possible so even good developers limit the time they dedicate to it to the minimum assigned time to put the product running.
Project sponsors usually do not understand the required hours developers had to spend to properly understand a language or a product. That is why sometimes developers prefer to do project management, they earn a little more and do not spend hours looking at code, also they get much more overall visibility.
But in the end it's the technical persons that perform the work ...
I feel like that there are three types of developers:
Impostor syndrome is a psychological pattern in which one doubts one's accomplishments and has a persistent internalized fear of being exposed as a "fraud". Despite external evidence of their competence, those experiencing this phenomenon remain convinced that they are frauds, and do not deserve all they have achieved. Individuals with impostorism incorrectly attribute their success to luck, or interpret it as a result of deceiving others into thinking they are more intelligent than they perceive themselves to be. While early research focused on the prevalence among high-achieving women, impostor syndrome has been recognized to affect both men and women equally.
Great article and solid points whether you're a seasons developer or starting out.
I keep all my stuff simple, at the end of the day some fancy or complex looking solution can be broken down into simple code and it still does the same thing and what you end up with is lean code that is nice to return to 6 months later.
Great post, and I feel the same way about myself. I had four job offers last time I was looking, and have nearly 20 years under my belt. I even got recruited internally to jump from software to data engineering (and did it).
I STILL often joke that I'm the worst programmer on the team, which is why I'm such a careful engineer (note the distinction). Everything you've said notes a greater level of understanding and working with others than the average developer.
These are good rules.
I have just read a great post here
I'm currently a student who is taking a Computer Science degree. Nevertheless, we also have semesters where we actually work with a real client. I am an average student, not gifted like a walking wikipedia developer like most of my classmates. I don't have the confidence to trust myself when creating codes. I often let my classmates check my work. I also have this fear everytime I was assigned as a developer in the group because of having the thought that they might judge my work, and if something goes wrong, I panic immediately. I thought great developers didn't have the chance to experience these problem.
Thanks to your article, I don't feel isolated.
Complexity. You nailed it!
This is just perfect, as I totally relate.
I actually spend alot of time documenting my design before I code it, and after I write the code...
I spend more time in an IDE than at the terminal prompt as I never got to many of the commands
Our weaknesses are our greatest strengths...
This is a really great post and, honestly, I'm reading it right now because of how discouraged I am with my development career.
I am currently at the point where I wonder if I should just throw in the towel and go get a house-cleaning job because I can't even seem to give my services away at this point. And I find myself actually being one of the developers that don't need to Google things all that often and knows the standard library of my language of choice (Python) very well, and still nothing.
The last several months have been rejection after rejection, both as a freelancer and in the 9-5 world. So, I would offer the encouragement that, even if you feel that you are "mediocre", at least you're employable. Some of us, for one reason or another, simply aren't.
I love to code so much. I swear I would do it if I picked up garbage for a living (and to be totally honest, that looks like where I'm headed). So keep going with that love and never remember: no matter how you feel about yourself or your skill level, you are still miles ahead of those of us who are unemployed!
Keep going! Rays of support coming from me to you!
You can actually join some open-source development in Python. I have a bunch of projects. That's the world where people appreciate your work and effort, provide mentorship, advice, and help. With more experience it will be easier for you to find the dream job.
Some projects that I can offer:
Just drop me a line if you are interested: mail@sobolevn.me
Brilliant! First part about googling code or solutions made me chuckle, none of us could survive anymore without the internet, we're just tiny parts of a huge universe. Excellent write-up, shows of course that you're way above mediocre :-) but the mindset is the right one - don't believe that you're a genius because 99% chance is you aren't, you need the tools and the processes.
Thanks for the post, it's very heartening!
I've suffered impostor syndrome long before I knew what it is. While actually I'm pretty good (at least above average developer) everywhere I've worked, yet those rock-stars in every workplace and interviews-for-superheroes always discourage me. You just pointed to the right symptoms (like, I can't recall a solution yet I do know where I've used it, and how to customize it into a new code after I read it again) that feed this impostor syndrome, and it's relieving to realize we're not alone in this.
Thanks for your story.
I think that you have touched a very important problem, that was not covered in my original post.
It is all about broken interviews. For what reason should developers crack these HackerRank questions in just 5 minutes? Is that what they are going to do during their work days?
If so, please do not sign me in. I want to solve more complex problems. Which include communication, long term planning, architecture decisions, prototyping, finding and inventing new tools for the job, etc. And I have mentioned just some skills that are mostly not covered during the interviews but are essential for software developers.
All in all, I hope that you will find your perfect job!
I have noticed a pattern in web development when integrating web services: there is an unreasonable faith in the data returned by APIs.
Especially if that API was written or managed by the customer. Web Dev's appear to have forgotten about GIGO (Garbage In, Garbage Out)
So I would add to this post: assume the input is broken
XML will be malformed. Check for it.
Do your own maths, don't rely on a calculated sum
Dates will be American instead of ISO. In fact, use a date picker for user input. Type check input on the front end.
Customer data need to be uploaded to your server? Ok then, zero-bytes files are a Thing.
There will be characters that are non-UTF-8.
There are so many ways to fail. Check your input and handle bad data gracefully and loudly. Don't assume your input will never be bad
I love this post! I know the reasoning for labeling yourself as a "mediocre" developer. But to be honest, this is much more mature than most self-proclaimed "genius" developers.
The beautiful thing about "mediocre" developers is that it is repeatable and teachable. These things laid out here is something that can be practiced and honed. I believe a company does better hiring 50 "mediocre" developers than 50 "genius" developers.
Great read! Absolutely gained a new follower :)
Agree with talonga, if you respect your simple things and how to survive rules, then you're already better than most of the developers I have meet.
I don't think it's unreasonable to not want to be a 'rockstar' developer. It doesn't interest me as much as other things in life do. Sure, I push myself and enjoy learning but that's not only with regards to programming. I need time to do other stuff.
I feel like my biggest problem is figuring out exactly how to write tests and stuff. I do mobile development and hot reloading has been my savior for the most part. If not then I just compile and run on each platform every time I make a change. Definitely a time waster. Great post!
Re: the imposter syndrome, I think that people lacking that self consciousness, how much more there is to learn, or lacking the general insight that most software is broken most of the time are either very inexperienced or immature and delusional.
Regarding the "BFS on the whiteboard" hiring, that system is designed to favor young, straight outta college types that still remember seldom used algorithms, willing to sleep in the parking lot and pull 60 hours work week, and to intentionally frustrate experienced devs who've learned to offload such info to the internet or literature, but without the obvious ageism and discrimination.
i am unluckly,because going a lot of detours.Begining, i believe coding only copy and i personly study with myself.Now coding is more interesting than talking to people.
The saddest thing about the No Code repository is that it has 1,661 open issues and 274 open pull requests 😂
1811 issues (at the time of writing), but 0 bug.
github.com/kelseyhightower/nocode/...
Promises kept. :)
I am mediocre developer with 5 yrs experience and I am proud of accepting the need of learning still. great post, man.
This post is very inspiring.
TBH, it seems to me that in my workplace people are very sensitive about their code, i.e., they see a negative peer review about their code as a negative review about themselves.
Although, the individuals cannot be completely blamed for such behavior, since many times the review is not properly directed at the code. To prevent this we even had a small talk about Nonviolent Communication.
Also, it's not always possible to get proper peer review around here, since it is not a pre-condition for merging or deploying, and we are almost always working in a hurry to deliver.
I can relate to your post :)
I google the simplest thing as well :'D but mostly because i want to make sure that what i do is good and right :)
So dont put yourself down at all and dont doubt in your work, from time to time the more you do it will get better :D
Such an awesome, honest post!! And ur right, we are all the same. Why? Because we are human!! Thank you thank you!!
I will add this to the daily list of our junior developers to read it. Every. Single. Day.
And me, too. This is such a great motivation every morning.
Thank you from the bottom of my ♥️.
LOL. You are not a mediocre developer. But keep thinking that, because it will fuel your growth.
Love this article! I feel there is that pressure to be able to materialize great code at the drop of a hat. That’s not me lol... I too don’t trust myself xD
misleading - you don't appear to be mediocre at all :)
My feels completely! ;_;
Knowing what to google and asking for help solves many things :D
this post hits home for me quite hard. im a junior comp sci major and it helps to know that I can get better regardless!!! GREAT POST and Thank You!!
Preach it brother!
Execellent post...by the way "Prefer regular functions over classes" i love this part ;)
A mediocre developer wouldn't this at all. So I think you wanted to write: "I am a pragmatic developer and not a fucking rock star".
Brilliant article!!! I reckon that it is a good guide for developers in general and in particular for beginners.
Nice article.
I love that you included my personal software heroine, Margaret Hamilton.
Needed this today. Thank you.
I would like to have more mediocre developers like you!
Awesome stuff
Amazing post, so true to life.
I indeed feel like this is a problem and have luckily found some great mentors on some amazing discord servers.
Great article!
Love this, thank you.
Sorry about my ignorance and inexperience, but why should someone fallback to classes only in a strong need?