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Polymaths, a.k.a. renaissance men, do exist. To me, it actually seems absurd to claim that people can only be great in one thing. Just because I'm a great dev

Polymaths, a.k.a. renaissance men, do exist. To me, it actually seems absurd to claim that people can only be great in one thing. Just because I'm a great developer doesn't mean it's the only thing I can be great in. I'm learning to be a great marketer as well, and so far it hasn't taken away from my programming skills.

JLehtinen 14y ago
Guitar players who can also play drums are at a big advantage, just like composers who can write lyrics or sing. Graphic designers are often illustrators too, but copywriting, photo retouching and photography skills can also be very useful for a designer — and not every designer necessarily has them.
- Jack000 14y ago
  I've done hiring for designers at my company, and one of the things I've found is that good illustrators tended to be horrible at design. Not sure why, just an interesting anecdote. I suspect different types of thinking are required for each, illustration is quite a bit closer to "art".
  - adrianhoward 14y ago
    That's not something I've noticed in general - and I've done a lot of design hiring over the years. Think you might just have hit a bad batch ;-)
flyinRyan 14y ago
They exist, but they're extremely rare. Which just so happens to be the opposite of what the post claims.
- randomdata 14y ago
  Or they are relatively common, but not given credit due to preconceived notions about designers and developers? I have noticed that professionally, having worked on both sides, if I present myself as a designer, my development skills are immediately discounted, and vice-versa.
  - flyinRyan 14y ago
    You still haven't proven that they are in fact common. You haven't proven, for example, that you're a good developer or a good designer. But I could certainly believe that there are lots of people who are mediocre in lots of things at once.
    - randomdata 14y ago
      Likewise, there is no proof that they are uncommon. Given that the visual design of code is a core feature of writing maintainable code, in my opinion, I would argue that being a good developer requires one to be a good designer. But that raises the question of how do we even begin to measure greatness? On the developer side, is a programmer who can pump out reasonably bug-free CRUD apps with speed a good programmer, or does it take someone who can implement a Helmholtz machine on a microcontroller to be good programmer? Perhaps you have to invent brand new CS concepts to achieve greatness? Or maybe the aforementioned ability to write maintainable code is what defines a good programmer? Something else entirely? Consider similar parallels for what defines a great designer. As far as the article is concerned, a great developer or designer seems to be someone who is good enough to hire. That makes things easier to prove. With that said, most people working in industry, whether they have cross-domain skills or not, are mediocre at best, but they are still exceedingly good when compared to the general public.
adrianhoward 14y ago
To me, it actually seems absurd to claim that people can only be great in one thing. The real problem is in thinking that "designer" and "developer" are things. They're not. They're a massive collection of skills, techniques, practices, etc. Two groupings of which we've drawn arbitrary circles around and applied the labels "designer" and "developer" too. Those labels aren't real - we made them up. We can draw different circles around different groups of skills. If we want to.

JLehtinen 14y ago

Guitar players who can also play drums are at a big advantage, just like composers who can write lyrics or sing. Graphic designers are often illustrators too, but copywriting, photo retouching and photography skills can also be very useful for a designer — and not every designer necessarily has them.

Jack000 14y ago
I've done hiring for designers at my company, and one of the things I've found is that good illustrators tended to be horrible at design. Not sure why, just an interesting anecdote. I suspect different types of thinking are required for each, illustration is quite a bit closer to "art".
- adrianhoward 14y ago
  That's not something I've noticed in general - and I've done a lot of design hiring over the years. Think you might just have hit a bad batch ;-)

flyinRyan 14y ago

They exist, but they're extremely rare. Which just so happens to be the opposite of what the post claims.

randomdata 14y ago
Or they are relatively common, but not given credit due to preconceived notions about designers and developers? I have noticed that professionally, having worked on both sides, if I present myself as a designer, my development skills are immediately discounted, and vice-versa.
- flyinRyan 14y ago
  You still haven't proven that they are in fact common. You haven't proven, for example, that you're a good developer or a good designer. But I could certainly believe that there are lots of people who are mediocre in lots of things at once.
  - randomdata 14y ago
    Likewise, there is no proof that they are uncommon. Given that the visual design of code is a core feature of writing maintainable code, in my opinion, I would argue that being a good developer requires one to be a good designer. But that raises the question of how do we even begin to measure greatness? On the developer side, is a programmer who can pump out reasonably bug-free CRUD apps with speed a good programmer, or does it take someone who can implement a Helmholtz machine on a microcontroller to be good programmer? Perhaps you have to invent brand new CS concepts to achieve greatness? Or maybe the aforementioned ability to write maintainable code is what defines a good programmer? Something else entirely? Consider similar parallels for what defines a great designer. As far as the article is concerned, a great developer or designer seems to be someone who is good enough to hire. That makes things easier to prove. With that said, most people working in industry, whether they have cross-domain skills or not, are mediocre at best, but they are still exceedingly good when compared to the general public.

adrianhoward 14y ago

To me, it actually seems absurd to claim that people can only be great in one thing. The real problem is in thinking that "designer" and "developer" are things. They're not. They're a massive collection of skills, techniques, practices, etc. Two groupings of which we've drawn arbitrary circles around and applied the labels "designer" and "developer" too. Those labels aren't real - we made them up. We can draw different circles around different groups of skills. If we want to.