The Guru Myth
来源:互联网 发布:淘宝药品真假 编辑:程序博客网 时间:2024/06/05 11:01
Anyone who has worked in software long enough has heard questions like this:
- I'm getting exception XYZ. Do you know what the problem is?
Those asking the question rarely bother to include stack traces, error logs, or any context leading to the problem. They seem to think you operate on a different plane, that solutions appear to you without analysis based on evidence. They think you are a guru.
We expect such questions from those unfamiliar with software: To them systems can seem almost magical. What worries me is seeing this in the software community. Similar questions arise in program design, such as "I'm building inventory management. Should I use optimistic locking?" Ironically, people asking the question are often better equipped to answer it than the question's recipient. The questioners presumably know the context, know the requirements, and can read about the advantages and disadvantages of different strategies. Yet they expect you to give an intelligent answer without context. They expect magic.
It's time for the software industry to dispel this guru myth. "Gurus" are human. They apply logic and systematically analyze problems like the rest of us. They tap into mental shortcuts and intuition. Consider the best programmer you've ever met: At one point that person knew less about software than you do now. If someone seems like a guru, it's because of years dedicated to learning and refining thought processes. A "guru" is simply a smart person with relentless curiosity.
Of course, there remains a huge variance in natural aptitude. Many hackers out there are smarter, more knowledgeable, and more productive than I may ever be. Even so, debunking the guru myth has a positive impact. For instance, when working with someone smarter than me I am sure to do the legwork, to provide enough context so that person can efficiently apply his or her skills. Removing the guru myth also means removing a perceived barrier to improvement. Instead of a magical barrier, I see a continuum on which I can advance.
Finally, one of software's biggest obstacles is smart people who purposefully propagate the guru myth. This might be done out of ego, or as a strategy to increase one's value as perceived by a client or employer. Ironically, this attitude can make smart people less valuable, since they don't contribute to the growth of their peers. We don't need gurus. We need experts willing to develop other experts in their field. There is room for all of us.
By Ryan Brush
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3
- The Guru Myth
- The Guru Myth
- Guru of the Unix gurus
- Guru of the Week 条款25:auto_ptr
- Guru of the Week 条款17:转型
- Semantic Search: The Myth and Reality 及其中文翻译
- The Machine SID Duplication Myth (and Why Sysprep Matters)
- "C++ Coding Standards" -- the Guru of all the C++ developers
- Guru of the Week 条款27:转呼叫函数
- Guru of the Week 条款28:“Fast Pimpl”技术
- Guru of the Week 条款30:名称搜索
- Guru of the Week 条款30附录:接口原则
- The Guru's Guide to Transact-SQL by Ken Henderson
- Guru of the Week 条款24:编译级防火墙
- Guru of the Week 条款18:Iterators(迭代子)
- Guru of the Week 条款07:编译期的依赖性
- [翻译]Team Geek -02- Chapter 1 - The Myth of the Genius Programmer(完)
- Guru of the Week 条款29:不区分大小写的string
- VC中_T、_TEXT和TEXT宏的作用
- The Golden Rule of API Design
- C#+ArcEngine开发笔记
- JQuery实战学习--在dreamweaver 8中配置Jquery自动提示
- MAC下安装与配置MySQL
- The Guru Myth
- Dynamo详解
- Hard Work Does not Pay Off
- Ruby_Watir 安装可能1
- a
- How to Use a Bug Tracker
- C# 文件批量重命名工具源码实例
- Improve Code by Removing It
- How to expand the BOM using ABAP?