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charlesnw | 11 years ago

Interesting. Because the article accurately describes myself and a number of other folks I work with, all of which are considered "rockstars". It's great advice in my opinion.

I 100% agree with the don't ask for help advice. People need to ACTUALLY LEARN something. I'm sick of people externalizing the costs of their inadequacies.

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zzalpha|11 years ago

To be perfectly honest that sounds like a surprisingly toxic work environment, and a sadly elitist attitude. What are teams for if not to act as a collaborative support system?

Should it be a crutch? No. But never asking for help as a matter of course is, in my opinion, counterproductive.

Gigablah|11 years ago

I would've worded it differently. Do approach people to confirm that you're on the right track, or to find out the (undocumented) motivation for a certain design, NOT to ask them to solve a problem for you.

wallflower|11 years ago

I constantly repost this comment from jlcfly from an AskHN.

"Teach them to be better than you. That may seem counterproductive. I have a type A personality, and I have decent coding skills. I've been in your situation a number of times. I also know there's these mythical expert developers out there that I can't seem to find (or afford). So, what to do? A few years ago I realized that if I continue down this path, I'll end up with some serious health issues due to the stresses that come along with having a reputation for being a really good developer.

So, I decided that instead of searching for developers better than me, I would teach developers I work with how to BE better. It's taken a lot of patience. And it's taken me quite a bit to LET GO of my way of doing things. I had to take my ego out of the picture. (VERY hard to do.)

Nowadays, I realize that developers don't have to BE better than me. I simply have to ALLOW them to do what they do without being so obsessive about it. Turns out, even junior developers really CAN do good work. They just need a little guidance that only comes with experience, and then they need me to get out of their way."

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8649415

CyberDildonics|11 years ago

Working as a team is not externalizing inadequacies.