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To offer a dissenting opinion... There are developers that LOVE what they do and do it nearly every waking moment. Guess what? they're way better than the aver

To offer a dissenting opinion... There are developers that LOVE what they do and do it nearly every waking moment. Guess what? they're way better than the average developer. Personally I don't like articles like this because they basically make excuses for mediocrity. We as a society shouldn't shy away from excellence and striving for it. The guys that work their asses off doing what they love and excel do exist and ARE awesome and we shouldn't take anything away from them. I'm pretty sure I'll get down voted for this btw :)

sarciszewski 12y ago
I think you'll get downvoted for missing the point, not for daring to challenge the status quo. "There are developers that LOVE what they do and do it nearly every waking moment." Agreed. I'm one of them. "Guess what? they're way better than the average developer." Good for them! But this wasn't about skill, it was about self-perception, social pressures, and coping with imperfection. "Personally I don't like articles like this because they basically make excuses for mediocrity." Mediocrity is irrelevant. Even excellent programmers can suffer from depression, burn-out, or discouragement. "We as a society shouldn't shy away from excellence and striving for it." No, but neither should we obsess over it like a bunch of severely autistic extremists who value only programming skill and nothing else. Humans are wonderful, complicated things. Obsessing about excellence in one area at the cost of everything else that makes us who we are is dehumanizing. "The guys that work their asses off doing what they love and excel do exist and ARE awesome and we shouldn't take anything away from them." Yeeeeeah, I'm pretty sure everyone would agree with you on this comment, but NOT IN THIS CONTEXT.
- malvosenior 12y ago
  I guess I don't understand the point of the article. He says that it's a "lie" that people love their craft and take it seriously. I'll take umbrage with that since he's not speaking for me and many I know. This article is basically the equivalent of some guy that goes to the gym a few times a week saying that professional athletes are really just watching Breaking Bad every night instead of waking up at 5am to train and that they would be better of being more "well rounded" than following their innate passion. There's already too much "everyone gets a medal" mentality in our culture, it doesn't really add anything.
cushychicken 12y ago
It's all about the choices you make. I align way more with the author; I'd much rather go home, cook a nice dinner with my girlfriend, and watch The Sopranos than spend another 4 hours staring at some Python script. I'm no Kenneth Reitz, but I'm a pretty good (or at least good enough) Python developer. Occasionally I'll find something I think is interesting enough to spend a night hacking through, but 95% of the time, it's down time when I get home. I'd totally agree that there's a huge payoff in terms of skill that comes with coding every waking moment, but there's also a cost involved - reading, exercising, grabbing a beer with your friends. I don't think it's taking anything away from coding ubermensches to say that most folks don't do what they do - more power to the Kenneth Reitzes and Armin Ronachers of the world for what they gave up to achieve what they did.

sarciszewski 12y ago

I think you'll get downvoted for missing the point, not for daring to challenge the status quo. "There are developers that LOVE what they do and do it nearly every waking moment." Agreed. I'm one of them. "Guess what? they're way better than the average developer." Good for them! But this wasn't about skill, it was about self-perception, social pressures, and coping with imperfection. "Personally I don't like articles like this because they basically make excuses for mediocrity." Mediocrity is irrelevant. Even excellent programmers can suffer from depression, burn-out, or discouragement. "We as a society shouldn't shy away from excellence and striving for it." No, but neither should we obsess over it like a bunch of severely autistic extremists who value only programming skill and nothing else. Humans are wonderful, complicated things. Obsessing about excellence in one area at the cost of everything else that makes us who we are is dehumanizing. "The guys that work their asses off doing what they love and excel do exist and ARE awesome and we shouldn't take anything away from them." Yeeeeeah, I'm pretty sure everyone would agree with you on this comment, but NOT IN THIS CONTEXT.

malvosenior 12y ago
I guess I don't understand the point of the article. He says that it's a "lie" that people love their craft and take it seriously. I'll take umbrage with that since he's not speaking for me and many I know. This article is basically the equivalent of some guy that goes to the gym a few times a week saying that professional athletes are really just watching Breaking Bad every night instead of waking up at 5am to train and that they would be better of being more "well rounded" than following their innate passion. There's already too much "everyone gets a medal" mentality in our culture, it doesn't really add anything.

cushychicken 12y ago

It's all about the choices you make. I align way more with the author; I'd much rather go home, cook a nice dinner with my girlfriend, and watch The Sopranos than spend another 4 hours staring at some Python script. I'm no Kenneth Reitz, but I'm a pretty good (or at least good enough) Python developer. Occasionally I'll find something I think is interesting enough to spend a night hacking through, but 95% of the time, it's down time when I get home. I'd totally agree that there's a huge payoff in terms of skill that comes with coding every waking moment, but there's also a cost involved - reading, exercising, grabbing a beer with your friends. I don't think it's taking anything away from coding ubermensches to say that most folks don't do what they do - more power to the Kenneth Reitzes and Armin Ronachers of the world for what they gave up to achieve what they did.