
Is There Any Room for the Not-Passionate Developer? - gexos
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peterchon
I think Brian Dyson said it best:

“Imagine life as a game in which you are juggling some five balls in the air.
You name them – Work, Family, Health, Friends and Spirit and you’re keeping
all of these in the air.

You will soon understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will
bounce back. But the other four balls – Family, Health, Friends and Spirit –
are made of glass. If you drop one of these; they will be irrevocably scuffed,
marked, nicked, damaged or even shattered. They will never be the same. You
must understand that and strive for it.

Work efficiently during office hours and leave on time. Give the required time
to your family, friends and have proper rest. Value has a value only if its
value is valued.”

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gnarbarian
It's easy for people to be too passionate about a particular design decision
or implementation which can cause all sorts of unnecessary drama and friction
in a team. I think this is where passionate becomes unprofessional. Having
spirited arguments about these things is necessary to shake things out of a
design and help everyone understand every facet of a problem. But at some
point you have to stop beating a dead horse and make a decision. Dwelling too
long can cause factions to become entrenched in their own position and for
people to take engineering decisions personally. This is poison for any
startup. A house divided against itself cannot stand.

There is something incredibly relieving about being able to let it go and to
move forward working on things or directions you may disagree with. Or "how I
stopped worrying and learned to love the bomb".

Work is work, you won't always be having fun or doing something interesting.
There are many things that are impossible to be passionate about especially
when consulting. A large part of professionalism is buckling down and being
productive on dull tasks or decisions you disagree with. Showing that you are
capable of this will earn you a great deal of respect from the people you
disagreed with. Turning a potential enemy into a colleague who will stand up
for you much farther down the road. My ability to do this over the last 10
years has earned me more friends and opportunities in the industry than
anything else.

It also lets you go home at the end of the day and enjoy yourself without some
silly design decision eating you alive when you are supposed to be relaxing
and recharging.

One more thing to add; If you work in a location like SV with seemingly
infinite alternatives and people. It's easy to say "fuck that guy" and just
quit to go work somewhere else. There is a good chance your adversary will
never get handed your resume and asked what they think about you. I live in
Anchorage where the professional community is exceedingly small and you have
to work on what is available even if it sucks and is uninteresting. Up here
having these skills is a necessary long term survival trait because you
inexorably will run into the same people again and again.

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Waterluvian
In my opinion no. Passion is always critical for a good team. But passion
doesn't mean you have to work 60 hours or do home projects. You just have to
come to work eager a d excited to learn and grow.

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gnarbarian
Having a team composed only of passionate developers is great until there is a
big disagreement.

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Waterluvian
Strong opinions lightly held. It's been working for where I work for 3 years
now. Maturity helps. And the desire to find the best solution, not the
solution you came up with.

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anexprogrammer
Previous discussion:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12207970](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12207970)

