The supply of passionate, engaged, "craftsman" developers is not zero-sum. People can be inspired to take their relationship with their work to a higher level o

The supply of passionate, engaged, "craftsman" developers is not zero-sum. People can be inspired to take their relationship with their work to a higher level of emotional engagement. No, this does not require people to develop on side-projects, outside of work (something that is nigh impossible to request from people with other demands on their time, such as academic degrees or newborn children). Neither is such emotional engagement necessarily evidence of a "10x" engineer. The simple fact of the matter is that Product does not work with code, does not understand code, and will not appreciate the complexities of working with code unless •Engineering stands up for its own interests. You can* inspire Juniors to understand more about their interests, care more about their craft, and lead them on a path to being happier with their career choice more generally. That only happens if you decide to engage with them, mentor them, and give them time to self-develop.