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> Wolves don’t care if they are seen or not. Wolves are entirely focused on the self-selected essential project in front of them The wolves analogy is simply w

• lukan 8mo ago
  I read those stereotypes as people phantasizing about being wild and free and a fierce (coding) biest, without actually knowing the wild. But it does have the effect on me to not being able to take it serious. If they don't even know basic facts about the animal they want to use as their metaphor, I expect way more to be wrong.
• its_ubuntu 8mo ago
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• begueradj 8mo ago
  Not all wolves work in packs. Hint: think of the widespread expression used in terrorism debates: "Lone wolf". It's a self radicalized/motivated individual acting independently and alone.
  • Jolter 8mo ago
    Lone wolves are not happy animals, though. They are less successful in hunts, they can’t take down large prey at all. They don’t generally produce offspring. They’re an unfortunate effect of the social structure of wolves, where young males who cannot find a place in the pack are expelled. There are plenty of lone wolf developers, but you won’t find them in large teams. Or if you do, they’re dysfunctional. On their own, a lone wolf engineer is not generally able to complete large, important pieces of work. Some do! But they are exceptions.
    • hogehoge51 8mo ago
      Whether or not the natural world has such wolves, its a well formed fictional archetype. You assume "lone wolf" types are "one trick ponies" who can't learn. You also assume the only interesting problem space for these people is technical/code. The lone wolf has a big limitations in transitioning to scale: 1. managers do what the article suggested, and stay out their way. The lone wolf never gets the experience of being managed, so it is difficult to transition to manage others. 2. they don't get why others don't "get it". e,g the solution is clear , the code can be done in a day, the comprehensive system model in their head should be shared by everyone.... it takes time to understand that the average engineer works slow and steady on a small scale understanding. I will suggest there is a lone wolf type manager too. This is not a productivity skill, but an adaptivity and mobility skill.
      • Jolter 8mo ago
        A ”lone wolf” with a manager is a contradiction in terms.
        • hogehoge51 8mo ago
          you need to think in a different plane of isolation. i would say the pure machiavellian manager is a lone wolf in that the relationships hold no weight as interpersonal relationships, only as functional relationships - no different to how you would manage and integrate code.
          • Jolter 8mo ago
            It’s clear that the discussion has stretched the metaphor of wolves far beyond its breaking point. The point was that developers (or indeed people in general) do not work the way wolves do, and I’m not reading great arguments to the contrary.
  • michaelt 8mo ago
    > Hint: think of the widespread expression used in terrorism debates: "Lone wolf" I'm pretty sure the author doesn't think managers should create a culture that attracts and promotes terror attackers.
• hogehoge51 8mo ago
  lone wolf. maybe he missed the significance of lone in that phase when he heard it first and thought it could be dropped. That is my working assumption, it happens. Whether or not the natural world has such wolves, its a fictional archetype. It is a particularly common theme in Japanese fiction, where the deviation from the social hierarchy requires a stong force of individual will. Interesting it is also common in Japanese technology breakthrough documentaries. Ogami Itto - Lone wolf and cub is the first thing that comes to mind when the author says wolf.
• estimator7292 8mo ago
  I think we can simply replace "wolf" with "alpha" and the analogy makes much more sense. I mean that in the worst possible way.
  • readthenotes1 8mo ago
    Especially since the whole "alpha" thing has been debunked, mostly. Interestingly, it came out from putting random individuals in anhigh-stress prison environment. "Alpha" in the wild is really dad and mom...
    • its_ubuntu 8mo ago
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      • lolc 8mo ago
        > Then there's the weak, pathetic, scrawny dweeb who sits on a bench dressed up in fancy robes, who passes judgment on big strong men in handcuffs daily and sends them to prison for years. He may have some level of power, but he's Beta as they come. He was placed in power by an Alpha. Whoa that's a lot to unpack. Most pressingly, why do you need to point out that judges are not "at the top"? They perform a duty with a lot of responsibility. And that is that. No, where I live judges don't get appointed by "alphas". > Not everyone can be at the top of the bell curve. This is me nitpicking and I understand you mean to say that "the alphas" are special. But "at the top of the bell curve" is where everyone is! The freaks are found down in the tails. Exceptional people will be in the middle with everybody else on most metrics that show a normal distribution. I'd say you'll have to look at metrics that show a not-normal distribution to cluster "the alphas" together. But then I don't really know how "being alpha" is defined. So maybe there is a metric where humans distribute in a bell curve and "the alphas" crowd out one side of it? Got an example?
        • its_ubuntu 8mo ago
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