Mattias Petter JohanssonWhat do you think are critical traits in a programmer?
I actually mean critical, NOT things needed for unicorn/senior/super/10x. I mean stuff that you *need* to feel good and function well professionally.
Pavneet Singh Saund🤘🏽Genuine curiosity and following where that leads to.
Everything else comes from that. From discovering new programming languages, solving users needs, improving workflow etc.
JJ Atria@mpj The ability to recognise their mistakes, accept there are things they don't know, and take advice from others
Programmers are often seen as isolated and antisocial, but programming is a group activity, particularly so in FOSS
@pavsaund @jjatria Yep. This comes up a lot on birdsite too, I think it makes a lot more difference than people generally realize. It's also supported by Googles research on high-performing teams - I talk about in in this episode of FFF: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9OpTNk0hYc (link to the research is in the description)
@mpj @jjatria love that video. Also the value of psychological safety
I actually wrote a few reflections on that: http://codingwithempathy.com/2016/08/02/valuable-resource-does-a-developer-need-to-be-nice/
Thanks for your stuff :)
We should also be aware that not everybody will have the same ability to develop or demonstrate empathy. The tricky bit is how to generate a space in which they too can contribute to the group, without damaging the things that make it work.
So maybe A is really bad at SQL, and B is really bad at dealing with people, and C is really bad at keeping the project on schedule. But somewhere between them there is a _team_ that can take the best of everyone.
@jjatria @mpj
People skills / compassion / empathy are skills often neglected, but can be learned. Without them there is no team. Just individuals that happen to work near each other. I think for a team to play on each other's strengths, they need to be able to collaborate with each other at a certain level. Sometimes a team lead/ manager can play the middle-person between all. But I still don't think that's a team.
People skills / compassion / empathy are skills often neglected, but can be learned. Without them there is no team. Just individuals that happen to work near each other. I think for a team to play on each other's strengths, they need to be able to collaborate with each other at a certain level. Sometimes a team lead/ manager can play the middle-person between all. But I still don't think that's a team.
@mpj
I've personally found Empathy to be more and more important.
Being able to seek to understand others needs. From users, stakeholders, teammates and even yourself.