Comments on: The Firepower of Teams

By: Hans-Eric

Hans-Eric — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 09:36:01 +0000

Good points.
I too am mood-driven and sometimes on bleeding edge, sometimes in mainstream and sometimes legacy. It’s equally fun as long as I’m getting somewhere, but I need to change tasks regularly to stay efficient.

By: Hans-Eric

Hans-Eric — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 08:37:46 +0000

However, the generalization does hold overall: by and large, the best programmers will also be sufficiently interested in programming that they spend time out of work doing it, and contribute to open-source projects.

Absolutely, but it depends a little on how you define “best”. If you mean “most skilled”, I agree. But if you mean “most productive” (from an employers point of view), then I’d say the generalization may or may not be true.

By: Paul W. Homer

Paul W. Homer — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 21:58:25 +0000

I think if you redefined it a bit to leaders and followers, it would be easier. Most programmers I know are a bit of each, and often that changes with age and whatever else is happening in their life. Sometimes I’m the first in, sometimes I wait, it often depends on how tired I am of banging my head against the brick wall of new technology.

The best programmers I know all share a common characteristic: they want to build things. They are driven deep inside by the need to create pieces of software. Not all of them ‘care’ about the technology or the vendor, instead they focus on what they want to create. Assembler, C, C++, Java, Cobol, RPG, APL, Lisp, etc. they are all just different means to the same ends. They all basically allow you to offer functionality to the user to manipulate data. Just because someone has a preference for some flashier bit of pain, doesn’t make them any better or more sophisticated (in fact one might actually draw the opposite conclusion :-). It’s all about the building.

It is the power and flexibility to create new tools or extend the existing ones that is important. If the capabilities are there, the actual technology is just a minor issue.

Paul.

By: Anthony Williams

Anthony Williams — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 17:07:43 +0000

Ben’s 80-20 generalization is just that: a generalization. Sure, there are programmers who know their company’s software inside out, and can add three new features during a their coffee break, but only develop software when they’re being paid, and only with the tools provided. There are also brilliant programmers who are too caught up in the bleeding edge technology that they don’t manage to invest any energy in actually getting things done (rather than finding new ways to do it), and end up being thoroughly inefficient.

However, the generalization does hold overall: by and large, the best programmers will also be sufficiently interested in programming that they spend time out of work doing it, and contribute to open-source projects.

I wholeheartedly agree with your final comment, though: if we’re working on a project (whether or not we’re part of a team), it’s important to focus on things that make progress towards the goals of the project, rather than just focusing on what we find interesting.