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Consider taking the initiative to try and improve the processes and/or tools that are causing you frustration. I realize that in some organizations this will be
by kohanz 11y ago
Consider taking the initiative to try and improve the processes and/or tools that are causing you frustration. I realize that in some organizations this will be prevented by too much bureaucracy, but in many (even big orgs) your actions will improve your life and those of your co-workers and you'll find such work rewarding (even if it's not necessarily coding). Remember, nobody set out to create procedures just to slow people down or to sap the fun out of your work. Unfortunately, many end up doing that or being perceived that way, but they were created for a very valid reason. See if you can streamline rather than avoid or be frustrated by them.
The other comment I have, unrelated to the above, is that your repeated reference to "talent" is somewhat of a red flag to me. There is nothing wrong with being confident in your skills, but often the idea of "talent" can be conflated with ideas of "if only I didn't have all these procedures, I could write code SO FAST", the consequences of which are generally the reason those procedures exist today. Personally, there is a very small percentage of developers that I have met over my career that I would call "talented" (< 5%) and they would certainly never say it about themselves (and I don't consider myself among them). Talent was in how they thought about solving problems (that maximized quality and minimized work) rather than their ability to "bang out" a solution really fast. The ones that openly refer to themselves as "talented" are often personalities that need to be managed.
- thedevil 11y agoThanks for the feedback, I'll definitely cut back on words like talent. I do have a natural tendency to be arrogant (although I hide it better in person). Sadly, I think the bureaucracy here will be tough to beat. I've already seen a few people try to tackle bureaucratic issues and fail. And I definitely see the value in testing, issue tracking, etc. and even some of the tools I hate. The things that get me are the excessive meetings, keeping in house (and regularly breaking) issue tracking and version control rather than paying a few thousand to outsource, mediocre choice of frameworks and tools, not firing completely unproductive (often senior) devs, etc. Edit: Right now is a good example of my complaints: I've been told not to start something without permission from the product manager or guidance from the team lead because I'm new and might waste time on low priorities (which sounds reasonable). But both of those people are in an unnecessary 90 minute meeting (which they complained about but couldn't prevent). I would have asked for backup work during planning this morning just in case this happened, but our issue tracking system was down so the planning meeting was canceled (we keep this on our servers to save a few dollars but end up costing ourselves huge amounts of time with frequent downtime). I've gotten unhappy looks before for admitting that have nothing to do or for trying to learn stuff not immediately useful. So I'm staring at my computer screen trying to look busy because that's my only idea that will keep everyone happy with me.
- ChuckMcM 11y ago> Sadly, I think the bureaucracy here will be tough > to beat. I've already seen a few people try to > tackle bureaucratic issues and fail. They weren't you right? The point being that don't limit yourself to setting goals that you are sure you can achieve, set goals that you have no idea how you will achieve and work to get there. It is much more satisfying. Bureaucracies have a weak point, self preservation. They will do almost anything to protect their own existence, even change. So the trick to "defeating" one is to put it into an existential crisis and use the uncertainty to drive it into a better place. If you set it up as a game and take notes, you may find it just as much fun as programming (but with people rather than computers)