What Gordon Ramsay can teach developers about confidence

There’s a fine line between confidence and cockiness.

In the tech industry, software developers are in a uniquely challenging situation when it comes to walking that line:

Development is highly opinionated as-is, with endless frameworks and camps that all think their way of doing things is better than the other.

Becoming a great developer requires an immense amount of passion and discipline.

A developer’s job is to solve complex challenges that not enough people have the skills for today.

These factors inevitably lead to passionate/heated debates, strongly opinionated responses to questions, egos built from having sought-after skills, and a relentless attitude driven from their problem solving nature.

Relentless, proud, opinionated, intensely passionate.

Sounds like Gordon Ramsay.

And, in fact, I’d argue that developers can learn a few things about walking the line of confidence and cockiness from Mr. Ramsay, a man often called both.

Meet David Miller

Long ago on the first season of MasterChef, a developer named David Miller auditioned for the show.

“Some people call me cocky, I prefer over-confident,” David said stepping into his audition.

Gordon Ramsay saw right through his cockiness and knew his audition dish would be uninspiring. David stumbled through it acting like an experienced French chef, over-pronouncing words like “bouillabaisse.”

Expectedly, his dish failed to impress Ramsay.

Ramsay then said:

“When you’re good at something, it creates confidence. When you’re insecure about something, it creates an arrogance.”

And this is where developers, much like David, can learn from Chef Ramsay.

Chef Ramsay’s lesson

Developers who truly are great will exude confidence because they know what they’re doing. They’ve put in Gladwell’s 10,000 Hours of Practice, and no matter what comes their way, they’ll face it without fear.

Cockiness in a developer reveals an insecurity. That when something unexpected comes their way, there will be fear.

For example, a WordPress developer who never learned PHP properly is prone to become cocky as a result of being insecure about their experience compared to other developers (combined with the traits I first listed above). In fact, I can name a few devs off the top of my head like that.

Gordon asked David this after his audition:

“Pull back the smoke screen, what is the real you?”

“This isn’t it, give me another chance,” David says.

Any developer who’s cocky certainly wasn’t born that way. They entered a uniquely challenging situation, in an industry with high expectations, high demand, intense passion, endless opinions and immense pressures that create insecurities.

You have every right to feel this way as a developer. But you also have the opportunity to be better.

Deal with insecurities, and your confidence will take you to great places

Stare yourself in the mirror and ask yourself, just like Ramsay asked David, “Who is the real you?” What is causing an insecurity that creates stress and frustration that you ultimately take out on others?

Do you feel like you don’t know enough? Get disciplined and learn more.

Do you feel intimidated by your team? Lean on them for support rather than creating more tension.

Do you feel like your team’s inferior to you? Rather than be cocky, help them become better.

There’s no need to be fake as a way to feel more secure in this industry. The only way to feel secure, to let go of cockiness, and to let your confidence shine bright, is to tackle insecurities head-on.

There’s also no need to be a sarcastic jerk behind a screen on Slack to your team, or on HackerNews, Reddit, etc. We’re all in this together, why not support each other?

Share this, save a developer

David was given a second chance on MasterChef. He even made it to the finals of the competition, and left the show with a whole new attitude and no longer showing an insecurity.

If you ever see a developer heading down the path to cockiness, share this with them; one day they’ll be grateful for it.