
Are You The Best Developer In The World? - askorkin
http://www.skorks.com/2009/08/are-you-the-best-developer-in-the-world/
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neonscribe
Pardon the copy editing, but let's not make up words when the exact word you
want already exists. The word is "humility", not "humbleness".

~~~
bravura
And please don't correct someone for using a word that is a real word,
nonetheless an unpopular one:

    
    
      http://www.answers.com/humbleness
    

This reminds me of when I was told the word "priorly" was made up.

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askorkin
Thanks for that, I've been copping flac left right and center even on twitter
:)

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helveticaman
I aspire to being neither humble nor arrogant perception of myself; I aspire
to having an accurate perception of my self worth in every area.

~~~
askorkin
Exactly the point I was trying to make

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jacquesm
I read a quote somewhere by Golda Meir, it went 'don't be humble, you're not
that great'.

There is a lot of meaning in there, for one, to be truly humble you first have
to ascend to greatness.

So for the majority of us ordinary mortals it's fine to be proud of our
achievements. But to descend into arrogance is one step too far.

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jacquesm
Emphatically: NO. I'm definitely not the best developer in the world, I've met
18 year old kids that could literally run rings around me.

But being 'best' in anything is not the criterium. Only one person can be
'best' at anything. But to put the whole workload of the world on the
shoulders of that 'best' person is not feasible. So everybody contributes to
their ability. And we try to learn as much as we can from the best.

~~~
askorkin
Agreed, but also we not only try to learn from the best, but also try to teach
what we know to those who know less.

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jacquesm
That's very true, consider that a beta release bug ;)

So how about: "And we try to learn as much as we can from the best and from
each other." ?

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askorkin
That's what I meant, (I guess I didn't express myself very well)

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BigZaphod
It's rare in my experience that anyone believes they really are the best
developer ever. Generally programmers seem to be a pretty humble bunch, I
think. Perhaps because the nature of our work is such that, in a sense, bugs
are there because of our own personal failings and mistakes. We deal with that
all day, every day. How could anyone, when faced with such an ever-present
reminder of their own deficiencies, honestly think of themselves as the best?

(Although in thinking about this, perhaps maintenance programmers are most
prone to this as their task is largely to fix bugs in other people's code -
not their own. It'd be easier to fall into that trap, I imagine.)

I suspect that most "I'm the best ever" talk is just a game. A form of
"blowing off steam." All the developers I know do that at least some of the
time. Everyone knows better, though. It's all tongue in cheek stuff and just
for fun. Often it ends after a few rounds of ludicrous build up to the point
where the entire universe itself would have imploded if it wasn't for me... :)

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edw519
_Are You The Best Developer In The World?_

I don't have to be.

But I do have to be the best developer on what I'm working on. That's what I
strive for. I want to be proud of everything I do.

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jcromartie
Like this guy?
[http://girlvinyl.com/lj2009/Recent_Graduate_Programmer_Neede...](http://girlvinyl.com/lj2009/Recent_Graduate_Programmer_Needed_-
_C%23%2C_ASP.NET%2C_SQL_1248638229344-20090726-155736.jpg)

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anamax
I've run into a number of writers whose stated goal was to write better than
anyone who wrote faster. Using that definition, they could all be "best".

What definition of "best" are we using?

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BigZaphod
Oh hell yes! To put it another way: Have you heard of Plato, Aristotle,
Socrates? Morons.

(cough...)

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BigZaphod
Wow. Is "The Princess Bride" humor not allowed here or something? :P

~~~
askorkin
Oh yeah, now I get the reference :)

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tybris
Your greatest strength is knowing your weaknesses.

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rawr
My favorite Slashdot comment on this subject matter was:

"Every developer wants to think of themselves like House, M.D. where if they
left the company it would fall apart. In reality, everyone is replaceable and
if you got hit by a bus today in three months the company will have completely
recovered."

