3 ms·

Maybe it's just my luck but my feeling is that terms like 'ninja' or 'rockstar' are these days mostly if not exclusively used by recruiters.

jwoah12 11y ago
I haven't really seen either term used by anyone in an unironic way in a couple years.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- V-2 11y ago
  Which makes the premise kind of a strawman argument. Apart from hacking, hackathon etc. these are real
  - fishnchips 11y ago
    There's always '10x' ;)
amelius 11y ago
I'd rather save those terms for people working on real high-tech, like fundamental physics or medicine, rather than use them on people who churn out CSS all day.
- fishnchips 11y ago
  To be fair to a backend guy like myself CSS folks indeed look like alchemists.
- m12k 11y ago
  Which is ironic, because as far as I can tell, the most common way to become a "10x" programmer is to keep doing similar things with the same tech stack (i.e. not really challenging yourself). It's amazing how quickly you can crank out yet another Bootstrap CRUD app after you've done it a handful of times.
overgard 11y ago
You know what would be an awesome title? "Professional". I'd rather work with adults instead of people that think they can trick 22 year olds into working overtime by feeding into their narcissistic fantasies.
- cortesoft 11y ago
  If I had to choose a metaphor job title, I think I like 'craftsman'. I take pride in my work, and I build solid, practical systems.
  - Retr0spectrum 11y ago
    'craftsman' is getting a bit to close to 'code artisan'[0] [0]https://i.imgur.com/gyU0me4.png https://i.imgur.com/gyU0me4.png
    - sotojuan 11y ago
      I love when I read a website footer that says "Handcrafted with love in SF/NYC/Portland".
- CuriouslyC 11y ago
  I like "creative problem solver"; honestly I don't even enjoy coding that much, it's just the most powerful tool for solving problems (along with math) I've come across. Since HR drones don't grok "creative problem solver", I usually sell myself as a software architect and data scientist - that pretty much sums it up.
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
  - Retra 11y ago
    "Creative problem solver" is only a valuable label if you are well-read and understand existing solutions to problems. Which is not creative. In fact, most problems can be solved perfectly adequately by applying tried-and-true boring, uncreative methods.
studentrob 11y ago
Agreed. Techies use names like these [1] ;-). Granted, these are not from the professional world, but we would never be so boring as to choose ninja or even hacker [1] http://robhawkins.info/nicknames.html http://robhawkins.info/nicknames.html
x5n1 11y ago
And completely ignored by serious programmers/engineers. You want a rockstar, sure let's sign that million dollar contract and we'll be on our way. You want a ninja, sure I will assassinate anyone, that will be again be a million dollar contract. You want a engineering with a very specific set of skills, okay maybe we can work something out.

jwoah12 11y ago

I haven't really seen either term used by anyone in an unironic way in a couple years.

deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
V-2 11y ago
Which makes the premise kind of a strawman argument. Apart from hacking, hackathon etc. these are real
- fishnchips 11y ago
  There's always '10x' ;)

amelius 11y ago

I'd rather save those terms for people working on real high-tech, like fundamental physics or medicine, rather than use them on people who churn out CSS all day.

fishnchips 11y ago
To be fair to a backend guy like myself CSS folks indeed look like alchemists.
m12k 11y ago
Which is ironic, because as far as I can tell, the most common way to become a "10x" programmer is to keep doing similar things with the same tech stack (i.e. not really challenging yourself). It's amazing how quickly you can crank out yet another Bootstrap CRUD app after you've done it a handful of times.

overgard 11y ago

You know what would be an awesome title? "Professional". I'd rather work with adults instead of people that think they can trick 22 year olds into working overtime by feeding into their narcissistic fantasies.

cortesoft 11y ago
If I had to choose a metaphor job title, I think I like 'craftsman'. I take pride in my work, and I build solid, practical systems.
- Retr0spectrum 11y ago
  'craftsman' is getting a bit to close to 'code artisan'[0] [0]https://i.imgur.com/gyU0me4.png https://i.imgur.com/gyU0me4.png
  - sotojuan 11y ago
    I love when I read a website footer that says "Handcrafted with love in SF/NYC/Portland".
CuriouslyC 11y ago
I like "creative problem solver"; honestly I don't even enjoy coding that much, it's just the most powerful tool for solving problems (along with math) I've come across. Since HR drones don't grok "creative problem solver", I usually sell myself as a software architect and data scientist - that pretty much sums it up.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- Retra 11y ago
  "Creative problem solver" is only a valuable label if you are well-read and understand existing solutions to problems. Which is not creative. In fact, most problems can be solved perfectly adequately by applying tried-and-true boring, uncreative methods.

studentrob 11y ago

Agreed. Techies use names like these [1] ;-). Granted, these are not from the professional world, but we would never be so boring as to choose ninja or even hacker [1] http://robhawkins.info/nicknames.html http://robhawkins.info/nicknames.html

x5n1 11y ago

And completely ignored by serious programmers/engineers. You want a rockstar, sure let's sign that million dollar contract and we'll be on our way. You want a ninja, sure I will assassinate anyone, that will be again be a million dollar contract. You want a engineering with a very specific set of skills, okay maybe we can work something out.