Everywhere I look, there are articles targeting programmers with suggestions and plans for how to be “better.” Some articles promise to make you a better co-worker, while others extol the virtues of being a better manager. Some will make you better at communicating while others will make you better at coding. In all cases, though, the message is the same: you programmers need to be “better.”
I like to read work-related articles online, and I am always looking for ways to improve, but lately, I have been a bit underwhelmed by the articles I have seen promoted and shared. I went through my weekly newsletters with article suggestions as well as checked out a few sites that I frequent, and the lineup of recommended articles was contradictory and demoralizing. The first article I checked out was touted as a way to become a better overall programmer. I was hoping for some strategies to better manage projects or architect systems. Instead, it was all about how programmers are too focused on being right rather than the needs of their customers/users. The article wrapped up by explaining how we need to put our egos aside and learn some compassion.
The next article was also about becoming a better programmer, but this one criticized programmers for giving in to customer whims and not enforcing proper security protocols and architecture best practices. The takeaway from this article was that programmers need to stand up for what’s right no matter what customers/users are requesting.
Another article said that programmers need to step up and be managers because it is essential for managers to understand their team’s job. While the next one said that programmers should never be managers because the industry is so short on programmers that we can’t afford to have anyone leave their programming job.
This trend continued. Programmers need to have more face-to-face meetings to better understand their users and stay on schedule. Yet another said programmers should also stop having face-to-face meetings and handle more by email because meetings waste programming time and interrupt essential thought processes. Programmers must have a coding standard and never change it, but programmers also need to be flexible and ignore non-critical standards to get things out the door more quickly. Programmers should never use a framework because it is just a crutch and is too bloated, but programmers should also always use a framework because it wastes time to code things that have already been coded.
So I don’t know who needs to hear this today, but you are doing a good job. Being a programmer is hard, and there is very clearly no one right answer for how to do things. All we can do is to keep learning, take all advice with a heavy dose of skepticism, and above all else, protect our mental health. Don’t let the news and blogs get you down. Don’t let your job overtake your personal life. Don’t let exhaustion lead you to burnout. All the frameworks, best practices, meeting techniques, and everything else is not worth losing yourself over. You are important.
Originally published in “Another Bright Idea”, the June 2022 issue of php[architect] magazine.