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Certain degree of narcissist traits can be beneficial if it translates into taking pride in your work. "We will encourage you to develop the three great virtue
by V-2 11y ago
Certain degree of narcissist traits can be beneficial if it translates into taking pride in your work.
"We will encourage you to develop the three great virtues of a programmer: laziness, impatience, and hubris" (Larry Wall)
You don't need to be Donald Knuth - or Larry Wall - to be above average :)
- sokoloff 11y agoAt my most pessimistic moments, I think that just knowing who Donald Knuth and Larry Wall are is strongly correlated with being above-average.
- partycoder 11y agoWell, laziness in terms of typing more, probably. Laziness in terms of thinking less, definitively no.
- V-2 11y agoOf course, anyway I meant to point out "hubris" (as a response to singling out "narcissism" as a flaw) :)
- V-2 11y agoLAZINESS: The quality that makes you go to great effort to reduce overall energy expenditure. It makes you write labor-saving programs that other people will find useful, and document what you wrote so you don't have to answer so many questions about it. Hence, the first great virtue of a programmer. IMPATIENCE: The anger you feel when the computer is being lazy. This makes you write programs that don't just react to your needs, but actually anticipate them. Or at least pretend to. Hence, the second great virtue of a programmer. HUBRIS: Excessive pride, the sort of thing Zeus zaps you for. Also the quality that makes you write (and maintain) programs that other people won't want to say bad things about. Hence, the third great virtue of a programmer. http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?LazinessImpatienceHubris http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?LazinessImpatienceHubris