Start by Not Being a Terrible Software Engineer
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We seem to be in a moment that values more terrible engineers in volume than non-terrible engineers.
To me, it sounds very likely that if you're a not-terrible engineer, you won't be rewarded by that effort. Instead, you'll be hired or leveraged for value in the same batch as several other mixed-quality engineers, and rewarded as a maybe-terrible engineer.
Maybe I just want to be non-terrible if there's a viable reward for doing that.
That goes for jobs (you are hired to do something etc) and also for work like free software, open source, even portfolio work (stuff you do to display your skills). Maybe you want to do just enough to show that you can be a non-terrible engineer if the reward for acting that way is guaranteed, which today, it isn't (in my opinion).
I honestly have mixed feelings about what you said. I can see how that’s happening, but at the same time, I feel like it’s been going on for the last 5-10 years, especially during the dev boom on 2020 when anyone with a bootcamp could land a job. But market conditions aside, being non-terrible is, in my opinion, a personal decision based on what makes you happy, fulfills you, and meets the needs of your job. I’ve had periods and jobs where being non-terrible, but totally average was enough, and as you said, I wasn’t going to do more for free. In others, I wanted to go above and beyond because I was motivated or properly compensated. I guess it depends on the situation.
My main goal with the post, though, is that even if it covers some generic points, it can still help people who are trying to improve but failing. In most cases because they’re investing their effort in the wrong things. Lately, I’ve seen many newcomers and juniors trying to respond to the current job market by becoming “better” developers, but they’re just chasing the latest AI buzz word and stacks, not being great at any and also failing at the basics. I think that’s the key takeaway I wanted to share: if you take care of the basics and avoid overcomplicating your work or your team’s life you’re already above average and a non-terrible engineer.
I'm concerned that it will, literally, suck the blood of good engineers to pump into bad ones.
Some 10 years ago, I would tell juniors that donating blood is a good thing to do and something they should aim for. I am not so sure about that anymore. Today I would teach them to sharpen wooden stakes.
I want promising junior developers to survive. That's an important prerequisite for being able to be a good developer. I don't want them to be too naive and die off.