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1x Programming

https://tim.mcnamara.nz/post/667318290442600448/1x-programming

Principles of the 1x programmer

Software is a team sport

Even if you’re coding for yourself, you’re still coding for a team. Your future self will not have the same cognitive context that you do currently. Therefore, you should always code in a way that respects the people who are following you.

One of the best introductions to this type of socially minded programming is called Building Software Together (freely licensed under CC-BY-NC 4.0) by Greg Wilson and contributors.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31071690

angarg12

I praise 1x programmers, but for reasons that might go against the grain in HN. I'm from Spain so our working ethic is different from the Anglo-Saxon world. "Work to live, don't live to work" as the saying goes. My principles for a 1x programmer:

  • Work is a means to an end. A job should support the lifestyle you want to achieve, not be an end on itself.

  • 9-to-5 is a perfectly reasonable schedule. Fiercely protects personal and time off.

  • Prefers to spend time with their family or hobbies (e.g. train for that marathon) rather than working on a side project in Github.

  • Strives to do a "good enough" job rather than absolute excellence.

  • Keeps their skills at a reasonable level to do the job, but doesn't necessarily work on continuously improving.

  • Most companies don't really need 10x engineers, and would do just fine with 1x ones.

Some people might cringe at this list. Some will argue that one could never be a good developer following those principles. I'm ok with that. I think we should acknowledge for many people programming is just a paycheck and they don't share the passion of the HN crowd. We should broaden our horizon of what success looks like in the development job. Me, for one, feel like some of my friends that fit the description are winning at life more than I do.

jjav

I'll argue those people need a reality check based on how things work in every other profession.

My dentist is a great dentist but she works 8am-3pm and most decidedly does not spend an additional 8 hours slogging through leettooth exercises on topics barely realated to the practice of dentistry.

My friend is a respected surgeon, but when he clocks out of the hospital he goes cycling and to the beach.

Same goes for pretty much every professional career outside of software development. Many of those have continuous education requirements, but they are done as part of the job. For example my dentist is out several weeks a year on that, not available for appointments.

So I agree with the above list, but there's nothing to apologize for in it. Working 9-5 and then completely disconnecting is the mark of a professional.