Hyper-Efficient or Hyper-Inefficient? The Dangerous Mindset of Stagnant Engineers
How Attitude Impacts the Quality of Work as a Software Engineer: Why It’s Critical, and Perhaps the Most Important Factor
Let me start with my own experience. After five years in the industry, I’ve interviewed and worked with numerous software engineers. I’ve encountered many great engineers whose quality of work and the impact they deliver to products and businesses are truly outstanding. However, I’ve also met engineers — some of them quite senior, with over five years of experience — who seem “stagnant,” lacking both soft and hard skills.
What causes them to become “stagnant”?
When I tried to identify a pattern among these stagnant engineers, I had a realization: it all comes down to attitude. Attitude shapes the quality of a software engineer over the long term. As John Maxwell discusses in his book Attitude 101, a person’s attitude can significantly influence their growth or stagnation, ultimately determining whether they excel or falter in their career.
Your attitude is like the minds paintbrush. It can paint everything in bright, vibrant colors-creating a masterspiece. — John C. Maxwell
Attitude, to me, is more important than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company… a church… a home. — John C. Maxwell
The Dangers of Bad Attitudes
Many software engineers, especially as they gain more experience, fall into the trap of arrogance. They become too self-assured, believing that they no longer need to learn from anyone who isn’t as senior as they are. This arrogance limits their ability to stay humble, to descend from the mountaintop, and to embrace their failures and mistakes. Over time, these attitudes make them dull, insensitive, and unable to adapt.
Bad attitudes can lead to a decline in a software engineer’s quality of work. They start to believe they know everything, dismissing input from others and refusing to accept that they might be wrong. This mindset not only stifles their growth but also damages their relationships with peers and colleagues.
Hyper-Efficiency vs. Hyper-Inefficiency
I’ve noticed that stagnant senior engineers because of they have “bad” attitudes often fall into two categories: hyper-efficient and hyper-inefficient.
The Hyper-Efficient Engineer
Hyper-efficient engineers adhere strictly to certain theories and are fiercely opinionated. They impose their rigid beliefs on others without considering the context or the current situation. They do what they believe is best, closing their ears and eyes to other perspectives, and holding onto their dogmatic views at all costs.
I once worked on a project as a frontend engineer where a small data-sorting issue arose. The backend didn’t provide the necessary parameter to change the sorting of my data. Requesting this change would have taken weeks or even longer, so I decided to tackle the backend issue myself. I expected to find a simple raw SQL query or Database ORM where I could add ASC or DESC to handle the sorting. But after an hour of digging, I discovered something surprising: the sorting logic was in the application layer. The engineer responsible had chosen to sort the data there rather than in the database. When I asked him about it, he responded, “It’s easier to scale the application than to scale the database.” I was taken aback. We only had 10 users, all of whom were engineers, product managers, or executives—why was he already worrying about scalability for an admin panel that might eventually have less than 20 users?
Engineers like this waste time by focusing on unnecessary details. They are overly opinionated and can drive their peers, especially juniors, crazy. Their stubbornness harms the people around them, the product, and the business. It also stunts their own growth, making them unable to adapt and evolve, leading to stagnation.
The Hyper-Inefficient Engineer
On the other hand, there are senior engineers who are incredibly inefficient. They work long hours not because they overthink, but because they never address their technical debt, which compounds and slows them down. Or perhaps they are simply lazy, yet fortunate enough to remain employed.
These engineers lack dignity, ownership, principles, and the commitment to deliver high-quality work. Their standard of ownership barely reaches the “as long as it works” bar. Over time, this kind of attitude cripples the team with massive technical debt, forcing others to pay for it.
I once encountered a senior engineer whose code was a mess — hardcoded values everywhere, even secret keys. His work was the antithesis of “Clean Code.” Instead of following standard practices, he invented bizarre, convoluted solutions that made his work difficult to understand. He was opinionated, but his opinions were “weird” and far removed from industry standards.
He did no testing and made no effort to improve the quality of his work. When I first saw his code, I thought the messiness might be due to the pressure of building an early-stage product. But no, it was peacetime, and he had plenty of spare time. His recent commits were no different from those made years ago. His poor system architecture and pervasive code smells showed that he had no intention of addressing his technical debt. Engineers like him cripple the team, worsening the situation when the product and business need to deliver quickly to stay competitive or meet strategic goals.
Conclusion
Attitude is crucial to the quality of work as a software engineer. It shapes who we become and how we perform over the long term. To avoid becoming a “hyper-” engineer, it’s important to remain humble, open to learning, and adaptable. Don’t let arrogance cloud your judgment or stifle your growth. Pay attention to your technical debt and always strive to improve your work. By cultivating a positive attitude, you’ll continue to grow, adapt, and deliver high-quality work throughout your career.
Closing Thoughts
I’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences on this topic. Feel free to share them in the comments section below. If you enjoyed this post, follow my Medium channel, and don’t forget to subscribe to my Substack for more personal and interesting blog posts.
