For this week’s pattern, I chose ‘Be the Worst’ from Chapter 4. I initially chose it because it caught my eye and I was going in order of chapters with the patterns I chose. I thought it would describe in detail to be the worst of your team but it was actually the opposite. The context is after unleashing your enthusiasm, which I assume was a pattern before this one, you take every opportunity to learn new skills. As a result, you outgrow your team and possibly your entire development organization. This was much different from what I originally thought this would be about, I thought this would be to think yourself as the worst to get better as a software craftsman. It kind of follows that pattern of thinking though, basically surrounding yourself with better developers. This in turn, will motivate you to be a better developer and have room to grow as a developer. I thought this was an interesting point, I mean this is something that I sometimes think about and is actually something I’m experiencing right now. I’m in a team that I feel like are all better developers than me which in turn makes me want to be a better developer because sometimes I feel so lost when in team discussions. This pattern really stuck with me because I related to it a lot. I just need to find the motivation to be a better developer, I need an extra push because just a team of strong developers won’t push me hard enough to find that drive to be better than I was yesterday. The pattern also mentions Breakable Toys and Reflecting as You Work as patterns to go back to because they are particularly important if you are the worst on your team, which I am. I guess I’m gonna check those out after this pattern, maybe even write about them. Honestly though, I feel like this pattern kind of reinforces impostor syndrome, which I found out is pretty common amongst developers and probably is common in STEM related jobs, but at least with this book, it puts out a solution for you to follow.
From the blog CS@Worcester – Brendan Lai by Brendan Lai and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.