Dare Obasanjo

The moral of this story about a developer who helped the team by pair programming and coaching junior engineers at the expense of his own individual metrics is “you shouldn’t judge a fish by how well it climbs a tree.”

Unfortunately companies tend to standardize on performance review systems that are easy to measure. So there are often people who add a ton of value who end up penalized by the system.

https://dannorth.net/2023/09/02/the-worst-programmer/

The Worst Programmer I Know

The great thing about measuring developer productivity is that you can quickly identify the bad programmers. I want to tell you about the worst programmer I know, and why I fought to keep him in the team.

Sep 3, 2023 at 12:34amWeb
Show threadDanielSep 3, 2023
@carnage4life In most companies Tim gets fired.
Show threadJohn BlackburnSep 3, 2023
@carnage4life https://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?story=Negative_2000_Lines_Of_Code.txt&author=Andy+Hertzfeld
Folklore.org: -2000 Lines Of Code

Show threadAzSep 3, 2023
@carnage4life this is really similar to the "glue" article going around. there is so much that makes a developer, or a team member, or a person in an organisation and trying to boil it down to one "north star" metric of productivity is a recipe for disaster
Show threadWillem Van den Ende - WritingSep 3, 2023
@carnage4life thanks. Tim mc kinnon got me hooked on digital photography. He lent me his ixus at xp2001. (They were still expensive at the time, and the beach was sandy :-) ). (Want to tag in dan north, not sure he is in here)
Show threadBen DelarreSep 3, 2023

@carnage4life as a Principal level IC I 100% agree.

Most of my time is spent being a force multiplier for other devs. I've come to realize this is more valuable than anything I can do solo.

I have 100+ conversations a day, dropping knowledge, nudging folks in better directions, playing the smart rubber duck & unblocking others. It feels like the true 10x dev role, not individual effort, but enabling other devs to be their most efficient & grow faster.

Recognition of this work is hard though.

Show threadJames HoldenSep 3, 2023
@bendelarre @carnage4life Same here! If I end up completing a ticket in the sprint, something has probably gone very wrong somewhere.
Show threadGiles GoatSep 3, 2023
@carnage4life <Dark Humour> " pair programming " ... " performance review " ... " .. and this is how mass murderers are made .. " </Dark Humour>
Show threadlj·rkSep 3, 2023
@carnage4life Ugh, too accurate. Even outside of development.
Show threadsrvaroaSep 3, 2023
@carnage4life this is precisely why perf metrics should focus on team aggregates, not individuals
Show threadJason GormanSep 3, 2023
@carnage4life Tim coaches senior engineers, too 🙂
Show threadMark Wyner Won’t Comply Jul 11, 2024
@carnage4life I super love this. 💖