After a few years of working in the field, I’ve come to a conclusion: one of the best ways to evolve as a hacker is to work with other hackers. Not just that, I’d rather work alone than work with non-hackers. Wait, I can almost see you reaching to close this tab, mumbling to yourself this is nonsense. I’m not saying workplaces shouldn’t hire junior developers .I’m saying that working with people that don’t have Hacker Quality™ is frustrating.

In my previous work place, about 90% of developers were ‘home brewed’. That means 90% of developers are kids that performed well enough on analytical exams to be put to a 4-month course and study basic programming concepts, and just enough Java to become certified code monkeys. Some, those with hacker quality, keep learning and become real stars after a couple of years. The majority remain grunts that never grow to consider their work as a craft.

My experience with working with them is that the hackers make working so much more fun. You’ve got people to bounce ideas off, learn new things from, debate about tabs and spaces. The rest make work a nightmare, and made me want to get back to my high-school way of coding (all night long, alone in the dark, with some Iron Maiden).

Being fed up with this, when I started working in a new place recently, I made a decision to try and surround myself with fellow hackers. First of all, you should start with the actual selection of a work place. Given my case (which was that I wasn’t going to start anything up by myself), I interviewed in lots of places, and chose the place that seemed to have the best and most hackers in, judging from the people I’ve interacted with in the interview process, and knowing some people from the company.

Just getting to a good work place isn’t enough, because I’ve yet to hear about a place that is 100% hacker driven (other than start ups with 5 people). You should always try and work with the better guys around. Seems like interesting projects tend to gravitate towards hackers, wherever they are. Even if the better guys aren’t working with you on your current project, grab a coffee with them. Some chatting on whatever is going on with other hackers always makes you see things differently.

Given that you usually can’t get rid of the less-competent guys (legally), your only next chance in increasing Hacker-to-Coder ratio is bringing in more hackers. If you know of any good hackers that might be in search of a job, get them an interview. Usually, that’s all it will take to get them in. Also, try and take an active part in the interviewing process. That will allow you to influence the type of people that you’ll work with, and maybe raise the bar a little bit.

I really think that investing energy in the peopleware of the workplace accounts for 80% of the evolving of coders there. And, given that we coders rarely see daylight and spend most of the time at work, that’s the lion’s share of learning opportunities you’ll have. Maybe it sounds odd to put all this effort in a place that isn’t yours, but does it really matter who’s the founder? You’re there, and better make the best of the experience.

All that leaves in the workplace is making sure your team encourages learning, experimenting and sharing (maybe I’ll cover it in another post sometime).

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