Over 30 years of professional experience. Currently at a FAANG. Just today I fixed a bug that the entire team couldn’t figure out, including our team lead who is brilliant who is 15 years my junior. I’m not a better programmer than he is but I pull my own weight. When I fixed the bug, I had a rush the entire day. 30+ years and I still love programming, and I feel blessed and grateful to have fallen into this career. It felt like divine, Godly intervention for the path that lead me here.
There are some things that I disagree with the author, most especially things like this:
> If you don't agree with this, I have no hope for you.
> When in doubt, choose different. If you exclude people based on them being unlike you, you will likely be choosing poorly.
He says he believes in diversity but contradicts himself a few sentences previous. I find this typical with a lot of people who claim to believe in diversity: they don’t actually believe in true diversity, they believe in people agreeing with their pre-existing beliefs. And if someone doesn’t agree, there’s no hope for them at least according to the author. That’s not someone who believes in diversity.
And I actually believe the greatest software projects have a single strong voice with a strong vision and strong competency that drives the entire project. Look at Steve Jobs with Apple and the iPhone, Linus and Linux, Elon Musk with Tesla, Zuckerberg and Facebook. You don’t find a lot of collaboration, what you see is a brilliant visionary with strong opinions and not much diversity in opinion. Too many cooks spoil the broth, as they say.
If you want a fun environment, then sure you can collaborate and give equal time to others but you won’t go as fast and usually the end results aren’t as dramatic.
There are some things that I disagree with the author, most especially things like this:
> If you don't agree with this, I have no hope for you.
> When in doubt, choose different. If you exclude people based on them being unlike you, you will likely be choosing poorly.
He says he believes in diversity but contradicts himself a few sentences previous. I find this typical with a lot of people who claim to believe in diversity: they don’t actually believe in true diversity, they believe in people agreeing with their pre-existing beliefs. And if someone doesn’t agree, there’s no hope for them at least according to the author. That’s not someone who believes in diversity.
And I actually believe the greatest software projects have a single strong voice with a strong vision and strong competency that drives the entire project. Look at Steve Jobs with Apple and the iPhone, Linus and Linux, Elon Musk with Tesla, Zuckerberg and Facebook. You don’t find a lot of collaboration, what you see is a brilliant visionary with strong opinions and not much diversity in opinion. Too many cooks spoil the broth, as they say.
If you want a fun environment, then sure you can collaborate and give equal time to others but you won’t go as fast and usually the end results aren’t as dramatic.