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I think the question might be "why might someone gatekeep at all?" As a software developer, I love working with developers that are competent, and especially i

I think the question might be "why might someone gatekeep at all?" As a software developer, I love working with developers that are competent, and especially if I'm learning a lot just by being on projects with them. I do not love working with developers who actively decrease the quality of the code base because they do not understand what quality is. Now, that can be relative, and subjective. I'm quite open to junior developers trying things, asking questions, requesting code reviews, etc. But some people get a senior title and a confidence about their work, and charge ahead generating extra work for those around them. So I'd rather such people were, perhaps, not in the field at all! In general, though, I would like to encourage lots of people to try programming. From my perspective, it's super empowering, interesting, deep and can be a great career choice. Try it, and if it interests you, and you find yourself driven to improve, learn new things, and seek mastery, we're really going to enjoy having you here in the field with us. There are aspects of programming that almost anyone considering the field could try and learn and see some success at. But it helps to understand that you may discover your own limits (whether by talent, motivation, or opportunity) sooner or later in the field, because there are aspects that are much less approachable. Do you want to spend countless hours preparing for algorithmic whiteboard interviews? Do you want to bury your head in code while stepping meticulously through a debugger on a squeegee hunt for an edge case? Do you want to optimize relentlessly when the scenario requires it? If software is eating the world, we'll need a lot of developers. And we'll want some that are happy to do grunt work while others forge into the most treacherous waters. But we don't want you to think that all software development is easy, because it's not.

waylandsmithers 6y ago
> I think the question might be "why might someone gatekeep at all?" We'd always go through the same thing with folks who were new to interviewing with a candidate who couldn't quite cut it. In the following discussion they'd be hesitant to say no and maybe go into how they seemed nice or whatever. Then we'd ask "Ok, would you want them starting on your project with you tomorrow?" Well, no...

waylandsmithers 6y ago

> I think the question might be "why might someone gatekeep at all?" We'd always go through the same thing with folks who were new to interviewing with a candidate who couldn't quite cut it. In the following discussion they'd be hesitant to say no and maybe go into how they seemed nice or whatever. Then we'd ask "Ok, would you want them starting on your project with you tomorrow?" Well, no...