Who Is The BEST Developer You Have EVER Worked With?

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Hey folks, we're going to the experienced devs subreddit and this question is what or who is the best developer that you've ever worked with? I thought this would be kind of fun to talk through. Um I haven't gone through all the comments on that thread, of course. I pulled it up right before recording this. Did a quick scroll through. Um but I thought it'd be kind of interesting. Uh, I'm not going to list names of anyone or anything like that, but I thought it would be cool to talk about different characteristics that stand out, at least to me. Um, and would be curious, obviously, as we're going through this. If, uh, if you're listening, if you're able to comment if there's, you know, someone that stands out to you in your career, that would be really cool. Maybe uh, feel free to leave a comment about what it was that made them stand out.

You don't have to like, you know, say specific people's names or anything like that, but like maybe just the characteristics or how they made you feel or what they were able to help you accomplish. Like why why were they the best developer that you've ever worked with? Was it someone that you didn't even directly work with, but they were on a partner team and like you you know about them like they were a legendary developer and you know there there were things that you got to hear or see that made you go like wow like that person's incredible even if you didn't work uh directly with them be very curious to hear from you. Um, and yeah, so for me, I was trying to think about this and I I don't know. I feel like part of me is like, okay, like let me think of like the the person who was like the most experienced like wizard level software engineer.

Um, and like I don't I don't think I really have that as my as my go-to. um like that that doesn't really stand out to me. Um I think that when I was an intern uh one of the one of the places I worked was a startup at the time it was called ion on grid. I I don't know ex I think they they got bought or the technology was purchased or something but um when I think about like just like technical ability between that and um one of the other interns uh internships I had Ingenuity Corporation the uh the founder and owner of that uh was a very technical person. So, I think I'm going to talk about those from the technical side. And it's funny because those were the earliest parts of my career, the very earliest parts of my career before I actually started working full-time.

Those are the people that stand out to me as the technically the best ones, which is interesting, right? Cuz like what does that mean about the rest of my career? I'm not saying that I haven't worked with anyone technical, but when I think about best developers, the ones that stand out to me technically are going to be some of those people. Now, later on in my career, like since then, it's been what is it now 13 14ish years? um 14 and 1/2 years of like working professionally, I outside of internships, I I I think my list of people or qualities would be a little different, but it's not to say that these other folks didn't have them. So, um when I worked at Ingenuity Corporation, we'll start with that. The founder was extremely technical. Um, and at the time, at the time he was like for, this is like such a weird stat, but like I think he was at the time the number two person in the world for posting on Python forums.

Like he was a absolute Python guru. It's like a weird a weird statement to kind of say, but yeah, like just absolutely amazing. He was like extremely technical. Um, but also like he was very good at explaining things. So he was a really good technical mentor that way. So it's not like he was so technical that like like impossible to talk to or something. But um I feel like he's the kind of person if you were like I need any type of software built. He like instantly would be like I know how I'm going to go put that together. Like that's kind of the the feeling I would get about about how he operated. that um very very like you know good attention to detail uh could always could solve any problem that we ever encountered and I I always felt that like like something

that stood out to me like yes I'm talking about the technical people but something that stood out to me was that I felt like anything that we encountered like he probably knew how to solve it very quickly but always made space for like but like how how would you do it, right? Let's talk about it. Like kind of uh inviting you to explore and to problem solve and uh just such uh yeah such a tremendous person to work with for someone that was so like incredibly technical and intelligent. uh just kind of like a fascinating thing to realize that he was probably, you know, really going out of his way to to help educate and and help. Um so his name uh from Ingenuity Corporation, his name is Peter Hansen. I haven't talked to Peter in quite some time, but I I hope uh I hope Peter's doing amazing.

I should really reach out to him again. He's been it's funny like he's been very transformational for me as like a I don't know as a as a professional I guess. I remember ask we were driving to a client uh in Toronto to go on site and I remember asking him cuz he was very like very open and like hey like you know I went to the same university as you like I know how internships and stuff work. Um so it was always like inviting me to like be curious and ask. I went there for two internships and we were driving to a client and I had said, "Hey, like like you have your own software company like what sort of uh what stops you from just like growing it and being bigger and whatever?" And I remember Peter had said to me, he's like, "I just that's not what I want." He's like, "I like the work we do.

I like the work life balance. I we have good clients." Like he's like, "That's that's what I want." And I couldn't I didn't understand it. I'm like, you're so good. You have this business. Like why like why would you not just keep pushing? Um and I guess you know the the answer is like that that looks different for different people. So yeah, it's like there there are some things that are kind of like anchored in my brain like little I don't know like words of wisdom from Peter that I it kind of like I don't think I can ever forget and I just really valued uh you know all of his insights and yeah clearly like one of the smartest people I've ever got to work with. Um, moving on to, by the way, if I'm like ex if anyone if anyone I've ever worked with is like offended they're not on my short list.

I'm not saying that you're not intelligent. These are just people that to me when I reflect they stand out as like oh man like uh but there are lots of amazing people I've worked with at uh my god I've already said it at ion grid. Ion grid was the other place that I wanted to talk about. the founders there um were ex Nvidia staff. They were like ex Nvidia like architects and executives and just like serial entrepreneurs and like obscenely intelligent and uh it was really cool to work there. So uh I can't remember his last name but there was Nick Tantos, Ben I can't remember Ben's last name. uh and Gary King. And um Gary was my my manager as a as an intern there. And uh Gary was also like just just all three of them were just so intelligent. It was crazy.

And uh I I what I thought was really cool about what Gary did for me was that um I think Gary could see that I was uh like if if I was given problems to go solve, I would go deliver the features, fix the bugs, like ship the things. And like again, I'm not saying that I'm the most amazing developer in the world or anything like that. Don't want to try to talk about myself like that, but I think he could see that like you're putting stuff in front of me. I'm getting it done. I'm doing a good job. Like give me more. Give me more. Right? like I'm not explicitly asking for it, but he can kind of see it. So, he started giving me some things that were like, I would argue were just like sort of beyond my level of understanding at that time.

Um, in a way that he's like, I want to give you challenges because I want you to like to feel like you're you're learning and growing, right? Not you're not just like, yes, we're a startup. Yes, we're delivering value to customers. Yes, all these things. But like it it felt like he was genuinely like I want I want to put you in a position where you're like feeling kind of stretched in terms of learning. And so um he had me doing some things like with uh with graphics and uh doing like I'm I don't like thinking about doing math and and programming. I hate doing math. He got me doing like compression algorithms and for for storing like uh some type of graphic information, just like stuff that I like never would have ever done. And I I felt like it was because he's like I I know you want a challenge and like let me let me deliver that to you.

So very cool. Um really appreciate it, Gary. But yeah, Nick Triantos, Gary King, and Ben Ben, I'm sorry, I can't remember your last name. Uh, just incredible to work with on the technical side. Now, since then, no single technical person has ever shown up in my career. Just kidding. Um, lots of brilliant people, but um, I would say when I started working full-time, the the developers that stand out to me were not because they like were so technical or anything like that. And that's probably why some people like if I work with them and they're like not being listed here, I'm sure they are amazingly technical and I'm sure there are lots of those people, but they're not they're legitimately not the ones that stand out to me as the best developers.

to me the best developers I've worked with um they had this balance of like of course being technical but like what's a good way to put this it's not the right like it's not sufficient but like they were very rational and I I realize that sounds kind of funny cuz you're like well uh isn't that isn't that arguable about like or uh I don't know very much opinionated like are they just rational cuz they agree with me. Uh and I don't mean that which is why I said it's not sufficient. Um they were pragmatic I guess is another good word like extremely pragmatic. Um so they might have strong opinions strong opinions loosely held right um but pragmatic about how they do things. uh they would all have things that like I knew that they would prefer and lean into, right?

Like so they do things a certain way or like if they had a preference they would do something but you know uh they would approach every situation like okay what do we got going on let's see what the constraints are and let's go let's go engineer this not not hey like I read this in a book once or like this is how we always do it it's like no what's the situation and that extended well beyond just uh technical it wasn't just how do we like what algorithm, what programming language, what tech stack, this was often like when it came to prioritizing things, right? Like, hey, we need to deliver these features and fix these bugs and stuff. And the type of people that could they could challenge, right? they could say like, hey, like instead of us just continuing to go into whatever vicious cycle we're in, is there an opportunity to like take a step back and like, you know, can we re-evaluate how we're approaching this, right?

Like instead of how do we just get faster and better, like how do we do it differently? How do we think outside the box a little bit? Um, so some really standout people that way. And I think the other thing is just that like they were genuinely like I want to say like I want to say like good people. That doesn't sound right again because it's very much like such an opinionated thing to say. I mean they were very they were people that cared about other people. That's how I would frame that. They cared about other people. they would um make sure that other people understood the things they were saying. Uh I know like and for the people that I'm thinking of, I know that like they're the kind of people that would be frustrated by certain things like any of us would be, but they would never like use that against people.

Um like just really trying to assume that everyone's trying to do their best work and I don't know, just like genuinely good to other people. uh mentoring people even if they don't realize they're doing it like this kind of thing. Making space for other people to make mistakes and like coach them through it. But like really good people. Now I just described a whole bunch of different characteristics but as a package there are some people that I've worked with that really stand out to me like that. Um, and I don't know like there are I'm not going to talk about anyone at at Microsoft cuz that's like I still work there and I don't think that's necessarily fair, but I'll talk about Magnet Forensics where I used to work. Um, I think like top top of my list right now, the two engineers that come to mind are uh two people that were actually on my teams.

They've gone on to do just incredible just incredible in their careers. I'm taking all the credit for it. No, but they're but they were very much um you know super technical but also like really good uh in terms of being pragmatic but also very good with people. So I think uh one of them has since left magnet. The other one uh is still there. I I won't say their names because I know if they were ever to listen to this, they know who they are. And I bet you if uh someone else from Magnet was listening to this, they already know who I'm talking about. Like that's they're good. People would know that. Um that's really on the engineering side. There were I don't know like there were definitely other people that had qualities like that kind of like a this mix of like being technical good with people.

Um and I I suspect the reason they they maybe don't uh they're not on my like short list of these two people I'm thinking about um I think it's only because they were more junior. That's it. literally that's the limiting factor like did not get enough time to work with them genuinely. Um and I I think or I would hope that if we continued to work together that um you know that I would see that kind of my my prediction of them being absolutely amazing like these other individuals I was thinking about would hold true. Now, there are others too that aren't in engineering roles that I would say really stand out. Um, but what's I guess what's different is that instead of being technical from like a coding perspective, they end up standing out for the same sets of reasons I was already saying and then in their domain they have some like something that stand out as well.

So in all cases it was like it's never about just being technical I is the meta point right so if you're like thanks for the rambling Nick um my meta point is that once I started working full-time it was almost never about who's the most technical to be the best engineer like it's uh that's a piece of it being technical but you don't have to be the most in my opinion you don't need to be the most technical I I do think it's uh some of these other qualities that really make a difference for people that stand out to me. So, I'm going to try to park one more time. Let's see if I can do it here. And like I said, would love to hear from you if you don't mind sharing who are some You don't have to share names. Who are some standout people?

I shared some names because they were from way back in my career. um others I I kept out but yeah what qualities make those engineers stand out and any kind of story to share around you know how that that impacted you would love to hear I'm sure other people in the comments would too so thanks for watching if you have questions about career development software engineering you can leave those in the comments too or go to codecommute.com and I will try my best to make a video for you take