Coders: Are You a Slacker, a Grump, or a Try-Hard?

You can only choose one.

Photo by Philippa Rose-Tite on Unsplash

I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about why software engineers are seen as “perfectionists.” The short version is: we’re really not perfectionists.

We’re just painfully aware that if the app crashes every 60 seconds, people will notice — and guess who they point the finger at first?

It’s us, the coders.

While some of us may wish we could go back in time and have chosen a “chill-but-well-paying” tech job like product manager or site reliability engineer, most of us are product engineers who want bug-free apps.

Given that reality, what’s the best way to resolve the fact that our standard of “good enough” as coders (the app either works or it doesn’t) often conflicts with other employees’ “good enough” (keep the boss happy)?

There are three ways you can approach the problem, and the one you choose will become an identity since you’ll need to stick with it:

1. Slacker: You do the bare minimum (or less) and hope you don’t get fired. This works best if you can find a “low-accountability” team with other chill slacker coders who like to work “hard,” just not too hard.
2. Grump: You stand your ground and say, “No, I’m not shipping a user-blocking bug!”…