4 ms·

Becoming a SME (subject matter expert) in a certain technology (that would benefit the org) and then evangelizing that technology within the organization is a m

Becoming a SME (subject matter expert) in a certain technology (that would benefit the org) and then evangelizing that technology within the organization is a mark that I look for in a senior.

Fire-Dragon-DoL 6y ago
That is an expensive thing to ask to a person (to be fair, depends on the depth you are asking), since that skill might be useless outside your organization, how do you manage this fact?
blackbear_ 6y ago
Care to elaborate? I would associate that to a beginner, and I'd expect a senior to simply advocate for whatever technology works best in each case (i.e., while the junior is focused on a single technology, the senior knows several and keeps in mind that they are just tools to solve business problems)
- halfmatthalfcat 6y ago
  Becoming a SME in, let’s say Typescript (or for any statically typed language), for example easily takes 2-3 years unless you really excelled in type theory in college. Knowing the ins and outs of advanced types, generics, conditionals, etc and also having implemented these things to a degree where you can do it in your sleep. No way a junior would be able to do that. Seniors have deep knowledge of the systems/technologies that they work in and are able to articulate that to more senior management on why using that particular thing is the way to go. Obviously you want seniors to have more than just one (for both their sake and the organization) but it’s a mark that they’ve attained at least one technology that they’ve “leveled up” so to speak.
  - halfmatthalfcat 6y ago
    Downvotes for Typescript, that it doesn't take that long to master Typescript or something else? Flummoxed.
nsajko 6y ago
> evangelizing that technology within the organization Ever heard of the term "architecture astronaut"? > Your typical architecture astronaut will take a fact like “Napster is a peer-to-peer service for downloading music” and ignore everything but the architecture, thinking it’s interesting because it’s peer to peer, completely missing the point that it’s interesting because you can type the name of a song and listen to it right away. I mean, I guess it's true that once one understands a certain problem area better than most peers, they will be able to find better alternative tech to solve the problem at hand. But, the other side of that coin is embracing or evangelizing a technology that is not appropriate to the problem (and thus possibly harmful to the business). "Hype driven development" and/or "resume driven development" are some instances of this. BTW, I stumbled upon a relatively recent and relatively unknown development in CS (with potential real-world applications in parsing formal languages) some time ago, and evangelizing the technology is on my todo list since then. How to do this without seeming like an architecture astronaut? The fields of parsing and formal languages are actually quite unloved in both industry and academia in recent decades, so a more general question is also pertinent: how to get people interested in something that is widely considered boring, or even a solved problem? I guess starting a blog would be a good idea?
- halfmatthalfcat 6y ago
  That's why I added "that would benefit the org". It takes a Senior to know hype from real applicable benefits.

Becoming a SME (subject matter expert) in a certain technology (that would benefit the org) and then evangelizing that technology within the organization is a mark that I look for in a senior.

Fire-Dragon-DoL 6y ago

That is an expensive thing to ask to a person (to be fair, depends on the depth you are asking), since that skill might be useless outside your organization, how do you manage this fact?

blackbear_ 6y ago

Care to elaborate? I would associate that to a beginner, and I'd expect a senior to simply advocate for whatever technology works best in each case (i.e., while the junior is focused on a single technology, the senior knows several and keeps in mind that they are just tools to solve business problems)

halfmatthalfcat 6y ago
Becoming a SME in, let’s say Typescript (or for any statically typed language), for example easily takes 2-3 years unless you really excelled in type theory in college. Knowing the ins and outs of advanced types, generics, conditionals, etc and also having implemented these things to a degree where you can do it in your sleep. No way a junior would be able to do that. Seniors have deep knowledge of the systems/technologies that they work in and are able to articulate that to more senior management on why using that particular thing is the way to go. Obviously you want seniors to have more than just one (for both their sake and the organization) but it’s a mark that they’ve attained at least one technology that they’ve “leveled up” so to speak.
- halfmatthalfcat 6y ago
  Downvotes for Typescript, that it doesn't take that long to master Typescript or something else? Flummoxed.

nsajko 6y ago

> evangelizing that technology within the organization Ever heard of the term "architecture astronaut"? > Your typical architecture astronaut will take a fact like “Napster is a peer-to-peer service for downloading music” and ignore everything but the architecture, thinking it’s interesting because it’s peer to peer, completely missing the point that it’s interesting because you can type the name of a song and listen to it right away. I mean, I guess it's true that once one understands a certain problem area better than most peers, they will be able to find better alternative tech to solve the problem at hand. But, the other side of that coin is embracing or evangelizing a technology that is not appropriate to the problem (and thus possibly harmful to the business). "Hype driven development" and/or "resume driven development" are some instances of this. BTW, I stumbled upon a relatively recent and relatively unknown development in CS (with potential real-world applications in parsing formal languages) some time ago, and evangelizing the technology is on my todo list since then. How to do this without seeming like an architecture astronaut? The fields of parsing and formal languages are actually quite unloved in both industry and academia in recent decades, so a more general question is also pertinent: how to get people interested in something that is widely considered boring, or even a solved problem? I guess starting a blog would be a good idea?

halfmatthalfcat 6y ago
That's why I added "that would benefit the org". It takes a Senior to know hype from real applicable benefits.