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Comment by amelius | Hacker News Reader

But the question is what mindset will allow you to put yourself ahead of the rest. Because I suppose the OP doesn't want to end up as just another mediocre programmer.

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Do what interests you.

Every programmer really is just mediocre. There is no perfect software yet. Hence people who built it are mediocre.

Well, in any case, llms are certainly not perfect.

Hence why I avoid to use them.

Imperfect != useless.

Are your other tools/languages perfect or imperfect?

I've met one or two great programmers. But perfect software that solves a significant problem can't usually be built by one person, so it's rare.

Like any skillset, programming skills likely form a distribution pattern. There are exceptional programmers out there, I've worked with a few. "Every programmer really is just mediocre" merely indicates you have only worked with mediocre colleagues and are one yourself.

> There is no perfect software yet.

"Software" you refer to is actually 'software product', not merely 'code'. So the reality is that even with exceptional programming talent, the art of making great software products is out of reach of most teams and companies. Vision, management, product development, accurate grasp of the user needs, ..., none of these are "programming" skills.

I even consider well respected devs mediocre. Obviously there is a distribution, like with everything. But even the best of the best produce garbage

There are a lot of paths to become T shaped.

> become T shaped.

my middle manager buzzwords this 26 times a day. triggers me.

Same. Yet being a generalist has always been the most interesting to me so I carried on that path. Ironically, now I can use an LLM for depth, I’m the one being asked how I manage to ship so much. It’s in part due to how I use LLMs for depth whilst relying on my natural breadth.

Having wide shoulders is cool but how does it help with software engineering?

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