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Google I/O 2009 - The Myth of the Genius Programmer

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  • Recommended by 9 people: 5 on Hacker News, 2 on Lobsters and 2 curated lists.
  • A classic. People kept recommending it from 2011 to 2024.
  • Presented by Brian Fitzpatrick and Ben Collins-Sussman
  • An opinion. It argues one side of a question engineers disagree on.

Beginner. No background in the topic needed.

1.2M views17 years ago9 recommendations

Tools and practiceCareers and interviewsCode review and teamworkDeveloper productivityCareer growth

Brian Fitzpatrick and Ben Collins-Sussman discuss how to overcome ego, collaborate effectively, and build healthy software development communities.

Google I/O 2009 - The Myth of the Genius Programmer Brian Fitzpatrick, Ben Collins-Sussman A pervasive elitism hovers in the background of collaborative software development: everyone secretly wants to be seen as a genius. In this talk, we discuss how to avoid this trap and gracefully exchange personal ego for personal growth and super-charged collaboration. We'll also examine how software tools affect social behaviors, and how to successfully manage the growth of new ideas. For presentation slides and all I/O sessions, please go to: code.google.com/events/io/sessions.html

Why it's here

9 people recommend this

What people say. Highly recommended as a career-changing talk on collaboration, code reviews, and professional software engineering.

bajsejohanneson Hacker News • Recommends

On “Your taste is why your work disappoints you.”

I recommend The Myth of The Genius Programmer: link to this video What you see on Github is people's polished code - you don't see what they are throwing away. They might be better, but you are probably looking at some of the code they are most proud of. (Actually, for my github/bitbucket page this is no longer the case. After I watched this video, I started publishing as much of my code as possible, if it actually did what it was supposed to)
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oleksiypon Hacker News • Recommends

On “Ask HN: What's your favorite tech talk?”

Google I/O 2009 - The Myth of the Genius Programmer One of the best talks about code reviews and similiar things link to this video
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sethops1on Hacker News • Recommends

On “FAQ on Leaving Google”

Two talks given by Ben Collins-Sussman absolutely changed my career path from being a hot headed programmer to thinking like a professional engineer. The Myth of the Genius Programmer: link to this video The Art of Organizational Manipulation: link I rewatch these every few years, or before an interview. Puts me back in the right headspace. If you're reading this Ben, thank you.
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Coding Interview Universitycurated list on GitHubRecommends

Under “Don't feel you aren't smart enough”

The myth of the Genius Programmer
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every-programmer-should-knowcurated list on GitHubRecommends

Under “Engineering Philosophy”

:movie_camera: The Myth of the Genius Programmer
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majjohaon Lobsters • Recommends

Google I/O 2009 - The Myth of the Genius Programmer
5View on Lobsters

coppolaemilioon Hacker News • Recommends

On “Ask HN: What do you do when you realize you are not a programmer?”

"I hated discussing what OO pattern should be used" "they submit patches to major frameworks, writes things in assembly for fun" You don't have to do this kind of things to be a programmer. Of course discussing OO patterns with your team is a need but submitting patches to major frameworks is on your free time! If every programmer would do so we wouldn't have so many incomplete open software. Try not to be chased by the "The Myth of the Genius Programmer" and keep enjoying creating things. A google talk: link to this video
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maze-leon Hacker News • Recommends

On “Ask HN: Is there no place for people, who are average at something?”

Most people are average, thats kind of the meaning of average. I consider myself an average programmer advancing on an average career path and had plenty of recruiters contact me with interesting opportunities recently. Sure its not Google or Facebook, but so what, I wouln't like to work for a mega coorporation like that anyway. If you doubt yourself because you consider yourself average, consider that the constant talk of excellence, highest skilled people and so forth is mostly HR PR bullshit. Sure, there are extremeley talented people out there, but they are pretty rare. Interesting video, that touches the issue: "The myth of the genius programmer"0. 0: link to this video
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rjpcasalinoon Lobsters • Recommends

The Myth of the Genius Programmer (2009)
3View on Lobsters

RyanMcGrealon Hacker News • Mentions

On “Nimbus.io: Open-source alternative to Amazon S3”

It's open source insofar as the code, when it is released, will be released under an open licence. However, it fails the 'unofficial' criterion of a project that is developed in the open . See also: link to this video
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mqsiuseron Hacker News • Mentions

On “What Programming is Like”

So, just as a reference: "Google I/O 2009 - The Myth of the Genius Programmer": link to this video There are quite a couple of possible views in IT, which makes it hard for us
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octosphereon Hacker News • Mentions

On “Ask HN: As a programmer, how do you know if you're a good one or not?”

Some basic heuristics I use for determining the capability of other programmers and myself: 1.) Does the code have a good bus factor i.e If the maintainer dies tomorrow by being knocked down by a bus, can other people pick up where he/she left off? Further research into the Bus Factor can be found here: link to this video 2.) Is the code well documented? This is so obvious that it is painful to write this comment, but it is a very simple heuristic for determining capability. Documentation can include code comments. 3.) Is the code resilient to weird input? The code should perform well under heavy fuzzing and where possible, sanitize different input. It should be tested against this: link
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u/teawrecksheroin r/compsci • Mentions

On “I feel like I'm the worst CS major at my university. Does/has anyone have/had this problem?”

One problem everyone in CS (but all fields in their own way) faces is comparing their 'everything' to everyone else' 'best'. You see everything you make, but you only show off your best. So does everyone else. I guarantee you your peers are way better at appearing confident than they are at CS. You should take a lesson from that. Confidence can get you far. Also, watch this: The Myth of the Genius Programmer
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