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Impostor syndrome is an artifact of dimensionality. There are hundreds of answers for "What does it mean to be a good programmer?" We have back-end and front-en

Impostor syndrome is an artifact of dimensionality. There are hundreds of answers for "What does it mean to be a good programmer?" We have back-end and front-end, "devops" and "DBA" and "data science". We've let the colonizers (business guys) divide us for their purposes (not ours) and we're muddled. It's hard to know if we're good at our jobs because our jobs are constantly changing (and, sometimes, in ways that leave capability and success negatively correlated). The colonizing gendarmes who are supposed to be able to evaluate our work are even more clueless. What we do would be highly dimensional (i.e. specialized) if we weren't a colonized people. But we'd be able to come to peace with it. We wouldn't fret others knowing more than us (which happens to everyone) if we weren't constantly watching our backs. We are constantly meeting people who know more about certain topics than we do (and, reciprocally, so are they). It wouldn't be an issue if we had more career and income security. It's not something about programming that makes people sick. It's not an intrinsically stressful activity. It's far less demanding (speaking of the work itself, not context and social dynamics) than over 75% of paid labor. What's hurting us is that we're a lost, conquered, and scatterd tribe. We think we're elite specialists, but we've done such an obnoxiously bad job of fighting for ourselves and our own value as to let ourselves be typecast to business subordinates, and it's horrible. It would actually be a win for the more progressive business people (as well as us) if we could get ourselves out of this. Would you want to be operated on by a doctor with the pay and social status of an average programmer? Of course not. Well, similarly, we'd make better products if we got ourselves out of the "business subordinate" trap, and pretty much everyone would win.

blindhippo 13y ago
The bigger win would be to flip the traditional hierarchy over and realize a situation in which the "business" side of things works FOR the talent (i.e. value generators), rather then the other way around. In my market (not SV), tech talent is treated like the help. There is no real association to join - the only groups that exist are scattered, un-organized and generally not interested in improving working conditions (that would be far too socialist). I suspect this type of change would require a social revolution. It will come eventually I hope, but I doubt it will come soon enough for me to benefit from.
ForHackernews 13y ago
> Would you want to be operated on by a doctor with the pay and social status of an average programmer? I don't care about the social status of my medical providers, I care about their competence. The last few times I've been to a clinic, I've been seen by nurse practitioners instead of MDs. They've been very capable, and noticeably less expensive than an MD visit. Lots of the rules around medical practice are nothing more than the AMA acting as a guild system to artificially restrict supply and inflate salaries.

blindhippo 13y ago

The bigger win would be to flip the traditional hierarchy over and realize a situation in which the "business" side of things works FOR the talent (i.e. value generators), rather then the other way around. In my market (not SV), tech talent is treated like the help. There is no real association to join - the only groups that exist are scattered, un-organized and generally not interested in improving working conditions (that would be far too socialist). I suspect this type of change would require a social revolution. It will come eventually I hope, but I doubt it will come soon enough for me to benefit from.

ForHackernews 13y ago

> Would you want to be operated on by a doctor with the pay and social status of an average programmer? I don't care about the social status of my medical providers, I care about their competence. The last few times I've been to a clinic, I've been seen by nurse practitioners instead of MDs. They've been very capable, and noticeably less expensive than an MD visit. Lots of the rules around medical practice are nothing more than the AMA acting as a guild system to artificially restrict supply and inflate salaries.