That Brilliant Programmer May Not Be Your Most Valuable

[etienne_marais]

That Brilliant Programmer May Not Be Your Most Valuable

I’m not sure exactly when the stereotype of the brilliant programmer switched from nerd to role model. But places like the Q&A platform Quora often publish wistful queries like How does one become a great coder? Or What things do you do to become the best programmer?

Brilliant programmers are a rare species. That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t aspire to be one, especially when you first start a coding career. Or, if you’re a project manager, you try to hire the smartest programmers you can find. But it does mean you should be aware that a focus on the highest levels of programming talent, without consideration of other skills, can be shortsighted and even lead to problems for your organization.

https://www.izenda.com/blog/that-br...4492604&utm_medium=social&utm_source=linkedin

* Worth reading entire article I.M.O.

 

[Thor]

It's k@k.

Sorry skimmed through it when I was supposed to be sleeping. Read it again now.

 

[[)roi(]]

Quite accurate.

In what sense?

Personally I found it to be unsupported drivel:

• Code Does Not Solve Everything: assumes brilliant programmers are so eager to code that they won't validate a requirement, or even worse describes a scenario where specification isn't ratified.
• You Can’t Keep the Talent - wrongly assumes brilliant programmers always want to jump ship.
• Brilliant Can Mean Arrogant - another assumption, or worse biased opinion.

In most cases I'd argue just the opposite.

 

[cguy]

Can't say that I'm too impressed with the article either. Largely a combination of Captain Obvious vs unfounded stereotypes.

• Code Does Not Solve Everything: No **** Sherlock. Personally, I've found there to be a very strong correlation between those who are excellent at coding, and those who can solve problems outside of coding. Logical thought, quantitative and lateral thinking aren't just useful for writing code.
• You Can’t Keep the Talent: Yeah... if you don't pay them competitive rates they will likely leave. Surprise! That's true for pretty much everyone.
• Brilliant Can Mean Arrogant: So can Stupid. Mostly, I would say that it's those with weaker skills that tend to have issues remaining professional in the work place. The really brilliant developers just get things done, and they do it in the correct way, which usually involves not pissing people off.

 

[Oppiekoffie]

What is a brilliant programmer? surely everyone on the team can solve a problem in the chosen technology? Some may take a bit longer but the work will still be done. Not sure who the writer is/role but this may be from a business perspective. Business users usually have their darlings in dev that they ask everything and get everything. And no one else can do their stuff for them. Seen that a couple of times, its like "O God, if X leaves everything going to stop." Never seen that play out.

cguy "You Can’t Keep the Talent: Yeah... if you don't pay them competitive rates they will likely leave. Surprise! That's true for pretty much everyone."
You get total idiots in management, thats when people resign. Even the brilliant dev will leave no matter what you pay them.
the worst places are when middle management are clueless.

And even worse, in SA management isn't determined by "can you manage, experience in dev management etc" it by race, sex so sometimes the wrong people are in the management positions IMO.

 

[skimread]

A click bait titled article written by a non programmer nobody for her company blog using her own misguided conclusions based of reading quora answers

Downside 1: Code Does Not Solve Everything

The article is about programmers so there job is coding. That's like telling a painter, painting is not everything.

Downside 2: You Can’t Keep the Talent

Yes you can if you create an enjoyable work environment and competitive salaries

Downside 3: Brilliant Can Mean Arrogant

Programmers just don't like to be distracted unnecessary. Caring about productivity isn't arrogance.

Switch from Stars to Hubs

Have good hiring practices and good environment. Hiring like minded individuals who care about coding. Hubs will take care of themselves.

 

[MrGray]

Over the years I've really come to appreciate the brilliant programmer is really someone who writes understandable, maintainable code that does not break and can easily be extended by others, sometimes years later.

Unfortunately, the reality is that the guy who takes his time to get those basics right doesn't look as spectacular as the guy who "finished" the project overnight even though nobody has a clue how the code works, where those weird third party libraries he found come from, the code is fundamentally impossible to maintain by anyone else and falls over the first time it's load tested.

And usually, by the time management has worked out that they're now having to spend three times as many resources on maintaining and making the original code work in production and adapt to the customer's needs, the guy has moved on to greater glory.

 

[[)roi(]]

Over the years I've really come to appreciate the brilliant programmer is really someone who writes understandable, maintainable code that does not break and can easily be extended by others, sometimes years later.

Unfortunately, the reality is that the guy who takes his time to get those basics right doesn't look as spectacular as the guy who "finished" the project overnight even though nobody has a clue how the code works, where those weird third party libraries he found come from, the code is fundamentally impossible to maintain by anyone else and falls over the first time it's load tested.

And usually, by the time management has worked out that they're now having to spend three times as many resources on maintaining and making the original code work in production and adapt to the customer's needs, the guy has moved on to greater glory.

 

[_kabal_]

My practical definition of a brilliant programmer would be someone who can write maintainable, easy to use code, and are able to take a project from start to finish in an agreed upon time.

They are, for our business, undeniably the most valuable

 

[DA-LION-619]

Give me any developer except the hype ones.
"OMG you got to try this new framework"

 

[Hamster]

Give me any developer except the hype ones.
"OMG you got to try this new framework"

...or the negative "bitch about everything" guy

...or the "scared to try anything different" guy

...or the "I'm the scht and I alone are worthy" guy on his own mission

 

[Oppiekoffie]

My practical definition of a brilliant programmer would be someone who can write maintainable, easy to use code, and are able to take a project from start to finish in an agreed upon time.

They are, for our business, undeniably the most valuable

That sounds more like a good programmer. Brilliant is a total level above that. Would do stuff in a way that others won't normally do? Or not? Bad devs are those who don't indent(I've seen that), difficult to read, unneccesay varaibles, etc

 

[Pho3nix]

...or the negative "bitch about everything" guy

...or the "scared to try anything different" guy

...or the "I'm the scht and I alone are worthy" guy on his own mission

Guess I might be the last one
But only because I've been in teams where they couldn't string together a "Hello World" if it wasn't on StackOverflow. Easier to jump in and work, prof other devs when you need a fresh pair of eyes.

 

[Pho3nix]

Bad devs are those who don't indent(I've seen that), difficult to read, unneccesay varaibles, etc

While I get your point, some of that stuff is refactored in a later stage and would he thrown out during code reviews.

How do people not indent... most IDEs do that for you :wtf:

 

[GoB]

The job title 'programmer' is misleading.

Awesome definition by Mark in the article comments:

To me brilliant is the person who can pick up new code and understand the backing architecture, figure out how that solves a business problem and being able to bring that forward as well as solutions others may not see.

 

[Oppiekoffie]

While I get your point, some of that stuff is refactored in a later stage and would he thrown out during code reviews.

How do people not indent... most IDEs do that for you :wtf:

Indent setting is off. Or they just don't put lines between blocks of code etc. Though I'm talking about 15 years ago, crappy DB SQL editor.

 

[MrGray]

The job title 'programmer' is misleading.

Awesome definition by Mark in the article comments:

To me brilliant is the person who can pick up new code and understand the backing architecture, figure out how that solves a business problem and being able to bring that forward as well as solutions others may not see.

That applies more to a brilliant maintenance programmer. A brilliant programmer would be the guy that wrote the original code to a standard that it is clear what the architecture is and how it fulfills the business problem without requiring days of scouring through it to work out what's going on.

 

[_kabal_]

So a proper senior developer who got that title via more than just years experience (which does not a senior make)

The brilliant and the senior are for all practical purposes the same

It just so happens that the developer pool most probably follows a ratio like 30:60:7:3 (poor:average:very good:exceptional)

 

[envo]

While I get your point, some of that stuff is refactored in a later stage and would he thrown out during code reviews.

How do people not indent... most IDEs do that for you :wtf:

So you'd have them build up technical debt just because they were too lazy to write the code properly the first time around?

 

[Pho3nix]

So you'd have them build up technical debt just because they were too lazy to write the code properly the first time around?

Beat them with their own rubbish code. Do you spend all your time baby sitting problem devs?

We have a rule book for the quality of code, when we see your code and it's crap, you need to rewrite it, with all the other commitments you made. Devs like this usually don't last too long in most cases either.