The Solvers' Manifesto | Hacker News Reader

The Solvers' Manifesto

solversmanifesto.com

27 pointshugoahlberg14 comments

This is not something that anyone should aspire to. You are proud of mediocrity, desperation, and identity crisis?

"We are experts in nothing, yet we know a great deal about almost anything."

"But most of us are exploited, doing odd jobs for you just because we are the only ones that know how to do it."

"We are not jobless, yet there is no name for what we do. And because of that, our craft hasn't earned any respect."

This is just emotional, self-satisfying bait for unsuccessful freelancers and cheap employees to feel good over. You should not feel good about being a struggling freelancer (I certainly don't!) or a cheap employee - and you should work hard to develop skills that transcend such a state.

You should NOT be reading this garbage and feel part of a "tribe" and get comfortable.

All of you who upvoted: Do better.

Though I agree that the manifest is worded a bit negatively in a few places, being somewhat of a generalist does not mean that you're mediocre in everything, or a cheap employee.

"We are experts in nothing, yet we know a great deal about almost anything." to me, seems to imply that you know a lot about a lot of things, and have developed your skills, though have not dived deep enough to be considered expert in some narrow area.

It's the kind of person I've always aspired to be, as I have very wide interests. Also: technologies come and go, which means that, if you're invested too much in a specific niche, you might find yourself "useless" some day.

"being somewhat of a generalist does not mean that you're mediocre in everything, or a cheap employee."

No, it doesn't.

It's very important that you're not mediocre in absolutely everything. There should be at least one field you know in depth. As far as I know, this is the only way anyone ever gets a good feel for what it means to know anything in depth. It's much better to know two or more things in depth. Then the generalizations you make about deep knowledge in areas where you're not an expert will be operating on more data.

It's also common to know one thing in depth, but then fail to realize what this implies about every other field of knowledge. It's not a good thing, IMO.

Also: technologies come and go, which means that, if you're invested too much in a specific niche, you might find yourself "useless" some day.

Be familiar with underlying principles. Those don't go out of style.

We are experts in nothing, yet we know a great deal about almost anything.

Exactly what is "a great deal?" I think one is just starting down the road to being an expert when you begin to get an idea of what you don't know. The current depth of human knowledge is such that a half lifetime of study is required in many fields to become a true expert.

Then again, sometimes, it's better to know less to get started. Knowing the sheer magnitude of what you don't know can be paralyzing.

Getting things done is a valuable thing in itself. A lot of arguably smart people have difficulty with this.

Being able to solve problems outside of your domain knowledge is a very good skill to have. Especially, in start ups.

This manifesto implicitly states that you're either an expert, or a person with broad skills. Why can't one be both: an expert with broad skills ?

It's very important to be both. One needs to be aware of the breadth of knowledge. One also needs to be aware of how deep knowledge in one small area can go. Being an expert in a few things with broad familiarity in other fields is the only practical way to accomplish this.

Sorry for offending anyone but this came off to me as pompous and somewhat pathetic.

Clicking the link I was hoping for a "get shit done" type of manifesto, i.e. "Stop complaining things are impossible, and try, fail and try until you succeed", not a "You shouldn't be doing this, but if the client's paying, what the hey!?" type of thing. Now I want to write that former manifesto.

I certainly know people that would fit into the category that they describe. I consider them massively underpaid given the amount of value that they bring to any project they work on. They act as the glue and enablers for product developers, designers, front end coders and developers whilst being able to act partially or fully as many of these roles. They all started as designers but have become much more. I recognise the need for this role to be named but Solvers definitely isn't it. I've often pondered what this role should be called but I'm still at a loss. Hopefully we can find it so that these guys can begin to be awarded the respect and pay that they deserve.

"Webmaster" or "Web Developer" were the terms I remember people like this having back in the pre-bubble days. They didn't have to know so much about video back then, but otherwise "Solvers" sound the same.

Nice words, though personally I don't like the sound of "We are a tribe" and "Just show some appreciation once in a while." Both seem kind of negative in one way or another, though maybe it's just me.

I like to call it being an "Intelligence worker" as opposed to a "Knowledge worker"

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