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As a junior software developer, it's sad to hear this point of view. Many of us put an extraordinary amount of time towards improving our craft. On the other h

As a junior software developer, it's sad to hear this point of view. Many of us put an extraordinary amount of time towards improving our craft. On the other hand I've worked with many people who have very similar opinions as yours and they suffered from reality distortion. Their code was poorly implemented and poorly tested, despite what they say, and caused many headaches. Are you actually a top performer in the software world?

pc86 10y ago
True top performers are constantly trying to expand their skills. The only way you do that is by interacting with other people, even less experienced/talented folks. You don't get new insights by being around the same great people all the time.
- nickthemagicman 10y ago
  Linus Torvalds wrote Linux from his dorm room. John Carmack wrote the Doom engine solo. Einstein worked alone, the inventor of PCR did it alone, Wozniak, Picasso, Hendrix, Mitnick. Holy crap almost all incredible innovations were invented by solitary passionate people working alone! Then we have Cascading Style Sheets..that.. was invented by a committee...
  - hackermailman 10y ago
    Einstein didn't work alone http://www.nature.com/news/history-einstein-was-no-lone-genius-1.18793 http://www.nature.com/news/history-einstein-was-no-lone-geni... Torvalds didn't either https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Linux#Chronology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Linux#Chronology note 100+ devs in 1993 working on the kernel to build a userland for it. If they didn't you'd just have another toy kernel floating around nobody uses. Edit: Apparently Hendrix didn't work alone either he claimed Foxey Lady was just something him and his band put together while randomly playing during a rehearsal.
    - nickthemagicman 10y ago
      You're conflating 'influences' and 'being part of a team'. Einstein used the tools that were available to him. He was influenced by other people sure. But Einsteins WORK WAS HIS ALONE. IT WAS NOT THE RESULT OF A TEAM. By your logic... because I contributed to the Linux documentation I was part of the thousand person team that invented Linux!!! Adding that to my resume!!! I invented Linux!! In all seriousness, there's a difference between influences and being part of a team... All major human innovations, at their root, have resulted from passionate smart people working alone without a team to make them compromise on any aspect of their vision.
      - chillacy 10y ago
        Hey, documentation (along with device drivers and userland apps) are tremendously important. Without them, linux would have been another toy project and none of us would have heard of it. Also linux follows in the footsteps of minix and other closed source unix systems right out of Bell Labs, so it's not like he wasn't drawing on a larger body of work. Hard to say he was inventing a whole lot of new stuff as opposed to duplicating an existing refined design. And large parts of what he did write were eventually replaced by others (the scheduler has gone through several iterations now), so those pieces are at least collaborative. The lone solo genius is a trope for an Ayn Rand novel, not achievement in real life. The closest thing is a guy who has a mental illness (or should I say non-neurotypical?) and writes code by himself for himself. But I'm sure even he uses stack overflow ;)
        nickthemagicman 10y ago
        Agreed. We all stand on the shoulders of giants. The point is one SOLO GENIUS took all of the tools available to them at that point in history and made something amazing. By your logic we have to go back and say cavemen inventing fire are key contributors to the Linux kernel because fire was an important tool to the creation of civilization which was critical for the invention of operating systems.
        10y ago
  - InitialLastName 10y ago
    To add to sibling, Hendrix didn't work alone. Not only did Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell (the rest of the Jimi Hendrix Experience) contribute massively to his work, but Hendrix spent the first 3 years of his (unfortunately only 6 year) career cutting his teeth (literally) as a backing player for much bigger performers (Isley Brothers, Sam Cooke).
    - nickthemagicman 10y ago
      While he had influences...at the end of the day... you went to the show to see JIMI FUCKING HENDRIX.
urda 10y ago
As a more senior individual myself, don't sweat it there's plenty of us who love to expand our tool belt and mentor those following the path. > Are you actually a top performer in the software world? Having to ask that question should be an answer in of itself, a resounding "no".

pc86 10y ago

True top performers are constantly trying to expand their skills. The only way you do that is by interacting with other people, even less experienced/talented folks. You don't get new insights by being around the same great people all the time.

nickthemagicman 10y ago
Linus Torvalds wrote Linux from his dorm room. John Carmack wrote the Doom engine solo. Einstein worked alone, the inventor of PCR did it alone, Wozniak, Picasso, Hendrix, Mitnick. Holy crap almost all incredible innovations were invented by solitary passionate people working alone! Then we have Cascading Style Sheets..that.. was invented by a committee...
- hackermailman 10y ago
  Einstein didn't work alone http://www.nature.com/news/history-einstein-was-no-lone-genius-1.18793 http://www.nature.com/news/history-einstein-was-no-lone-geni... Torvalds didn't either https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Linux#Chronology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Linux#Chronology note 100+ devs in 1993 working on the kernel to build a userland for it. If they didn't you'd just have another toy kernel floating around nobody uses. Edit: Apparently Hendrix didn't work alone either he claimed Foxey Lady was just something him and his band put together while randomly playing during a rehearsal.
  - nickthemagicman 10y ago
    You're conflating 'influences' and 'being part of a team'. Einstein used the tools that were available to him. He was influenced by other people sure. But Einsteins WORK WAS HIS ALONE. IT WAS NOT THE RESULT OF A TEAM. By your logic... because I contributed to the Linux documentation I was part of the thousand person team that invented Linux!!! Adding that to my resume!!! I invented Linux!! In all seriousness, there's a difference between influences and being part of a team... All major human innovations, at their root, have resulted from passionate smart people working alone without a team to make them compromise on any aspect of their vision.
    - chillacy 10y ago
      Hey, documentation (along with device drivers and userland apps) are tremendously important. Without them, linux would have been another toy project and none of us would have heard of it. Also linux follows in the footsteps of minix and other closed source unix systems right out of Bell Labs, so it's not like he wasn't drawing on a larger body of work. Hard to say he was inventing a whole lot of new stuff as opposed to duplicating an existing refined design. And large parts of what he did write were eventually replaced by others (the scheduler has gone through several iterations now), so those pieces are at least collaborative. The lone solo genius is a trope for an Ayn Rand novel, not achievement in real life. The closest thing is a guy who has a mental illness (or should I say non-neurotypical?) and writes code by himself for himself. But I'm sure even he uses stack overflow ;)
      - nickthemagicman 10y ago
        Agreed. We all stand on the shoulders of giants. The point is one SOLO GENIUS took all of the tools available to them at that point in history and made something amazing. By your logic we have to go back and say cavemen inventing fire are key contributors to the Linux kernel because fire was an important tool to the creation of civilization which was critical for the invention of operating systems.
        10y ago
- InitialLastName 10y ago
  To add to sibling, Hendrix didn't work alone. Not only did Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell (the rest of the Jimi Hendrix Experience) contribute massively to his work, but Hendrix spent the first 3 years of his (unfortunately only 6 year) career cutting his teeth (literally) as a backing player for much bigger performers (Isley Brothers, Sam Cooke).
  - nickthemagicman 10y ago
    While he had influences...at the end of the day... you went to the show to see JIMI FUCKING HENDRIX.

urda 10y ago

As a more senior individual myself, don't sweat it there's plenty of us who love to expand our tool belt and mentor those following the path. > Are you actually a top performer in the software world? Having to ask that question should be an answer in of itself, a resounding "no".