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> the right model is an art studio, a movie set, or a band > Knowledge workers aren't cogs, they're part of a team. That's a bit ironic because movie sets and

> the right model is an art studio, a movie set, or a band > Knowledge workers aren't cogs, they're part of a team. That's a bit ironic because movie sets and bands (almost always) are structured teams with industry standard roles (drummer, audio technician, key grip, gaffer) that make it easy to hire people for the duration of a gig. Developers, analogously, might operate instruments; manufacture their own instruments; compose and/or improvise music; manage their own careers; negotiate their own contracts; edit their own recordings; package their own work for distribution; distribute their own work; and even perform their own focus group studies. Sometimes there's no time to figure out all those things out so you have to pick up one of the instruments of your predecessors and play something useful immediately. I can perform the same exercise for film production, sports teams, and surgical centers. One of the big problems with software development is that we don't have distinct roles. Everyone is a developer/coder/engineer. It would be as if the entire music industry were executives and music developers. Or the entire film industry were producers, directors, and film engineers. Anyway, I actually agree with you underlying point that the health of a team trumps the skills of a team every time. And since the structure of a software team is so fluid, cohesiveness and cooperation is actually more important than it is in a band.

mahyarm 11y ago
We do have specializations. Backend, frontend, platform x, video software, games, dsp, network protocols, etc
- humanrebar 11y ago
  1. We don't introduce ourselves at parties as DSP developers. 2. There isn't a category on glassdoor.com for network protocol developers. You don't see BLS data breaking salaries out based on the specializations you list. 3. If someone puts out a job listing for 'backend developer', you still don't know what your day-to-day will look like at you new job. Contrast this to 'pediatric nurse practitioner'. 4. We don't say to our bosses, "My specialization is X, but you want me to do Y work. We need to hire a Y person or you need to promote me to 'X engineer' and give me a raise." 5. Managers don't think much of sticking a rookie frontend developer on some backend tasks with no training or mentoring. "You'll review the code before it goes in, right? What's the problem?"

mahyarm 11y ago

We do have specializations. Backend, frontend, platform x, video software, games, dsp, network protocols, etc

humanrebar 11y ago
1. We don't introduce ourselves at parties as DSP developers. 2. There isn't a category on glassdoor.com for network protocol developers. You don't see BLS data breaking salaries out based on the specializations you list. 3. If someone puts out a job listing for 'backend developer', you still don't know what your day-to-day will look like at you new job. Contrast this to 'pediatric nurse practitioner'. 4. We don't say to our bosses, "My specialization is X, but you want me to do Y work. We need to hire a Y person or you need to promote me to 'X engineer' and give me a raise." 5. Managers don't think much of sticking a rookie frontend developer on some backend tasks with no training or mentoring. "You'll review the code before it goes in, right? What's the problem?"