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Comment by sammnaser | Hacker News Reader

I guess it's like saying the most important traits of a golfer are patience and focus. Sure, if you're missing those, you'll toxically spiral when you don't perform, but are those the "most important skills" in golf? Nope, I'd say those would be the technical skills that let you make the shot.

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I think the perspective of this is assuming that the technical skill is there. You're totally right that the difference between a prime Tiger Woods and the field is definitely talent related.

But when there's a lot bigger population who all have a similar level of technical skill and that's not the limiter, I can agree these things are some of the important differentiators.

You're totally right. I also acknowledge that it's hard to develop those technical skills in the first place without patience, humility, and a willingness to admit to more experienced people that you don't know what you're doing and want to learn from them.

Also we should keep in mind that very few software developers are playing the PGA tour( working on rare problems). Most people are playing in local tournaments ( easy enough projects where the skill required is fairly low). And they need to do that every day of the year. In those environments the technical skills seem less important.

This is so true. There is so much focus on social skills nowadays, I see it taking over someone with technical skills. It’s a double edge sword in my opinion. You have a bunch of agreeable software developers that cannot code outside their frameworks.

> I think the perspective of this is assuming that the technical skill is there.

Of course if the technical skill is there then the most important skills will be nontechnical. :P

Exactly. The unspoken context undermines the point. It makes me wonder why articles like this gain any traction. What purpose do they serve?

Is it really a case people have the notion developers min/max their professional skills like it was a video game where only the level of "programming skill" matters?

I doubt anyone who comes across these articles have so little life experience to actually believe the lazy stereotype "developer" = "anime watching shut-in with no life skills and can't function in society."

So what _other_ purpose does the article serve? Who is the audience, and what value do they get? (I have my ideas, I'm just asking rhetorically.)

Yeah, the title is meaningless. I'd say the gist of the article is:

Attention to Detail and Patience are key, often unsung, developer traits

Thanks for this summary. I have to say, the most annoying co-workers for me are those without attention to detail. Absolutely hate those guys. I'm your reviewer, not your editor.

I believe he's using "Most Important" in the sense of necessary pre-requisites - and surely, those aren't technical, but behavioural.

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