It\u2019s amazing what people can do when they don\u2019t know they can\u2019t.<\/p>\n
In the beginning you don\u2019t know all the reasons it won\u2019t work.<\/p>\n
As the years pass you\u2019ll marvel at what you though was possible \u2013 the risks you took.<\/p>\n
And still you\u2019ll see other beginners taking on windmills. Some windmills will batter the riders. Some riders will topple their windmills.<\/p>\n
Reminiscing with a senior developer that I used to manage we talked about a project we worked on together that had major flaws. I told him, \u201cDon\u2019t worry. That\u2019s what has made you senior. Now you really do<\/em> know better.\u201d<\/p>\n Failure can teach you good judgment. At best it will teach you which fears are realistic \u2013 which gambles pay off.<\/p>\n A junior developer often makes up for inexperience with occassionally\u00a0wreckless enthusiasm. But senior developers often earn their keep by what they choose not<\/em> to do.<\/p>\n A senior developer (hopefully) knows the difference between ambitious and unrealistic.<\/p>\n They need to be able to look at a project and say, \u201cYes, we can do that with these critical changes.\u201d And each part of that sentence is important.<\/p>\n \u201cYes, we can do that\u201d \u2013 don\u2019t let your experience lead to cyncism where every project is doomed to fail and any who think they can achieve something are Polyanna.<\/p>\n \u201c\u2026 with these critical changes\u201d \u2013 filter out all of the good or simply true ideas to bring forward the indispensible ones. Conserve\u00a0your ammo.<\/p>\n If you aren\u2019t careful failure might instead turn you into a member of the \u201cno way\u201d choir. If you aren\u2019t careful you might believe that only saying why a project might fail is actually adding value. It\u2019s not. Not really.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve watched junior developers deliver so much more than their senior teammates that it was embarrassing. Perhaps those senior developers overcompensated for failure.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve seen junior developers merrily build weeks of work on a platform that was genuinely incapable of supporting success. Perhaps those junior developers needed more help from a senior developer.<\/p>\n Still, it\u2019s amazing what people can do when they don\u2019t know they can\u2019t.<\/p>\n The truth embedded in Wiley Coyote\u2019s gravity defying double take is that often it is our own perception of doom that causes our doom.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It\u2019s amazing what people can do when they don\u2019t know they can\u2019t. In the beginning you don\u2019t know all the reasons it won\u2019t work. As the years pass you\u2019ll marvel at what you though was possible \u2013 the risks you took. And still you\u2019ll see other beginners taking on windmills. Some windmills will batter the… Continue reading Seasoned or Cynical<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"aside","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[154,158],"class_list":["post-487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-aside","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-interns","tag-senior-dev","post_format-post-format-aside","wow fadeInUp","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.managerjs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.managerjs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.managerjs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.managerjs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.managerjs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=487"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.managerjs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":491,"href":"https:\/\/www.managerjs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487\/revisions\/491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.managerjs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.managerjs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.managerjs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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