The Old Joel on Software Forum: Part 4 (of 5)

Talent and Work

I think there is difference between showing the talent and working.

In order to work, you have to give answer to a specific question. Which requires different mind set compared to exhibiting talent.

What this mindset is called? How talented people can build such mindset.?

Social Programmer
Monday, April 5, 2004

Realism

KayJay
Monday, April 5, 2004

Can you describe it?

Social Programmer
Monday, April 5, 2004

Social Programmer, sounds like you work in an environment run by a moron, where your contribution is restricted to answering his or her poorly informed questions, rather than devising solutions and making suggestions.

If that's the case, your question needs to how to deal with morons and whether you should move to a new job. If you're in India, move.

.
Monday, April 5, 2004

1. No, I devise solutions.
2. I am not in India.

Social Programmer
Monday, April 5, 2004

Talent is potenitial.

What I don't understand is why you think solving problems is different from displaying talent.

If you can't solve the problem you're not very talented :)

Could it be that by talent you mean the ability to learn things quickly?

Also often the biggest difficulty in solving a problem is finding out what the problem is in the first place.

Stephen Jones
Monday, April 5, 2004

Didn't Joel write that he looks for two things in developers: Smart and Gets Stuff Done?

In my experience those two attributes are close to orthogonal.

John C.
Monday, April 5, 2004

Devising solutions is solving problems. Most questions I get are in the form: "I have a problem. Can you provide a solution? Yes? How much?..how long?...."

When I work on my own applications, I own the requirements and devise the solution. I also ask myself questions along the way. Should I refuse to answer them?

fool for python
Monday, April 5, 2004

Talent, as someone above said, is "potential". More specifically, it is an _indentified_ and _implemented_ potential. There is a history. A proven record.

But, I believe, what the OP intended was the capacity to creatively extend known skills into different dimensions with a positive result. That is, improvising by thinking out of the box, successfully.

Work, as the OP puts, seems to be the capacity to "bring home the bacon". It is exemplified by the necessity of realising that, as Woody Allen so famously said, "85% of life is just showing up". It is a different thing altogether that my life's thesis is to prove him wrong.

To cultivate a "work" culture in "talented" people, it would be necessary to instill in those geniuses, the acceptance of the validity of the routine and the mundane. This, I have found, is not very easy with Software Developers.

KayJay
Monday, April 5, 2004

Talent is necessary but not sufficient.

Focus and work ethic make talent useful and widely valuable.

(But talent is stupendously rare among humans.)

.
Tuesday, April 6, 2004

"The artist is nothing without the gift, but the gift is nothing without work."
-- Emile Zola

It is all work... The talent appears in the subtlety of the product.

!
Tuesday, April 6, 2004

Well, you see, you can understand programming perfectly, and can design complex systems quickly.

The problem is - do you have the endurance to sit down at the keyboard and implement them?

Big, big difference between the 2 abilities.

Maximus
Tuesday, April 6, 2004

Being able to program is between 10% and 50% of the job of being a programmer.If you are the most talented programmer in the world but can't be bothered to test your work before you check it in to see if someone else's changes haven't broken yours, You're Fired (tm)

pdq
Tuesday, April 6, 2004

Social Programmer,

The word you are looking for is 'Drive'.

The way to get it is :

1 - imagine what you want.

A lot of money, a large house, a happy family, travel, freedom, to work for yourself in a small company you own, to be fit and attractive, to speak spanish fluently, to play the saxaphone on stage in front of a crowd.

What ever it is, IMAGINE IT IN DETAIL, WRITE IT DOWN. FEEL IT. This is what you want.

2 - Describe a plan how to get it.

Dont worry about details. Dont worry about whether the plan is right or wrong, its wrong, all plans are wrong. Dont worry about whether its the most efficient way, it's not. Dont read or talk or worry or research, quickly write down your plan, you already know how to get what you want.

3 - Every day think about what you did in step 1, and take one action that contributes to step 2.

If you can do that for a year you will be disapointed at your progress, if you can do it for five you will be amazed.

The main problem people have is they think they need Knowledge, they don't, they need action. Small steps everyday, embrace failure, dont think about it, make a start, if you think you are on the wrong track, keep going and feel good about your efforts.

Braid_ged

braid_ged
Wednesday, April 7, 2004

Wow.. Braid, that was good.!

Social Programmer
Wednesday, April 7, 2004