3 ms·

You know, one thing I like about your system is that you aren't at the top of it. I have to question peoples' motives when I see an article like this where the

by j_baker 15y ago

You know, one thing I like about your system is that you aren't at the top of it. I have to question peoples' motives when I see an article like this where they're clearly at the top of the hierarchy.

michaelochurch 15y ago
I developed the scale because I found myself frustrated by "95th-percentile" syndrome. I noticed that, from when I started programming to now, I always considered myself around 95th percentile. And so did most other programmers I knew, whether they were "objectively" 80th or 99.5th. Which meant that these percentile-based self-assessments were worthless. Similarly, if I were at the top of the scale, that would show a lack of imagination on my part, and also make the scale worthless in a "I won at a game where I just wrote the rules" sort of way. Personally, the territory that's most interesting to me is 1.7 to 2.2, because that's what I intend to be covering over the next 5-10 years. People tend to estimate themselves as average within what they consider their peer group when comparisons are difficult or impossible to make (and the fact is that it's really hard to compare two programmers). So I think the 95 comes from the fact that it's "common knowledge" that 90% of "programmers" are incompetent. Of course, these percentiles depend on a population and competence distribution that are by no means immutable, which makes them meaningless as technologies evolve and more people come into software, so I needed a scale for professional development of an engineer based on general knowledge and approaches. The actual 95th percentile is probably around 1.5 on that scale, but that's just a wild guess. I'll still use "5-percenter" (loosely; no clue what the actual percentage is) to describe an elite set of programmers, but that has more to do with attitude, bearing, and trajectory than present-time skill. For example, the guy who picks up SICP because he's topped out and bored at his Java job is probably only 1.2-1.3, which is not yet 95th-percentile, but he's a "5-percenter" because he has the attitude and has found the resources that will make 1.5 likely and 2.0 possible-- which wouldn't be the case if he stuck with his same-every-day enterprise Java job.

by j_baker 15y ago

michaelochurch 15y ago

I developed the scale because I found myself frustrated by "95th-percentile" syndrome. I noticed that, from when I started programming to now, I always considered myself around 95th percentile. And so did most other programmers I knew, whether they were "objectively" 80th or 99.5th. Which meant that these percentile-based self-assessments were worthless. Similarly, if I were at the top of the scale, that would show a lack of imagination on my part, and also make the scale worthless in a "I won at a game where I just wrote the rules" sort of way. Personally, the territory that's most interesting to me is 1.7 to 2.2, because that's what I intend to be covering over the next 5-10 years. People tend to estimate themselves as average within what they consider their peer group when comparisons are difficult or impossible to make (and the fact is that it's really hard to compare two programmers). So I think the 95 comes from the fact that it's "common knowledge" that 90% of "programmers" are incompetent. Of course, these percentiles depend on a population and competence distribution that are by no means immutable, which makes them meaningless as technologies evolve and more people come into software, so I needed a scale for professional development of an engineer based on general knowledge and approaches. The actual 95th percentile is probably around 1.5 on that scale, but that's just a wild guess. I'll still use "5-percenter" (loosely; no clue what the actual percentage is) to describe an elite set of programmers, but that has more to do with attitude, bearing, and trajectory than present-time skill. For example, the guy who picks up SICP because he's topped out and bored at his Java job is probably only 1.2-1.3, which is not yet 95th-percentile, but he's a "5-percenter" because he has the attitude and has found the resources that will make 1.5 likely and 2.0 possible-- which wouldn't be the case if he stuck with his same-every-day enterprise Java job.