As has been mentioned already in this thread, jerks are in every profession. But after being a software developer for many years and being exposed to other industries both directly and from hearing about it from third parties, the jerkiness in software development is much more palatable to me (though I'm a software developer, so go figure).
In a lot of fields people will be very polite to your face while stabbing you in the back and turning the knife. In software the jerks are generally very upfront, showing far less "people skills" but at least showing you their cards. And while I like to think I've never been a jerk (you'd have to ask people who worked with me to be sure), I've noticed there tend to be two classes of jerks in software development and it may be important for you to try to recognize the distinction.
The first kind of jerk is the grumpy old coder who shoots down your idea to use the latest wiz-bang tech to rewrite your entire project for the next release. This guy has very little people skills and may not do a great job of explaining his position, so he seems to just be shooting you down for no reason. THIS GUY IS PROBABLY RIGHT, though. And his jerkiness comes from years of battle scars.
The second kind of jerk is the cocky (usually younger) developer who is sure he is right about every decision despite having limited real world experience. At first blush he looks like the other kind of jerk (except that he's probably younger). THIS GUY IS PROBABLY WRONG. And his jerkiness comes from a lack of real-world experience combined with an over-inflated sense of confidence coming out of the school years where he was the smartest guy in his school, but mixed with unacknowledged self doubt. Sometimes this kind of jerk grows up to be the first kind of jerk, but sometimes they remain the second kind of jerk.
Oh please stereotype much? Grumpy old coders want a way to do their job as easily as possible -- which is good. However it becomes bad when they refused to learn new (community accepted) ways of doing things that are either REQUIRED or lead to efficiency down the road.
I'm a young manager that has older coders and I defer to their wisdom 90% of the time. The other 10% I prod them to explore some of those 'wiz-bang' solutions to discover something that they hadn't thought of before.
I gave two stereotypes, yes, and anyone reading what I wrote should be aware that those are stereotypes and not always or exactly applicable, but I didn't write the original article and if anything I'm breaking up the more general stereotype they gave of "software developers are jerks", though into only two other stereotypes. I also meant to imply there is also a third class, which is developers who just aren't jerks at all. You can be a software developer and have social skills, I've worked with many of these people. Only about 35% of the people I've worked with were actually jerks.
To be clear, I don't think anyone should be a jerk, not even the people who are right when they are being jerks. But given the choice between someone who is going to be a jerk to me upfront in a meeting where I can rebut their arguments if I choose to do so, and someone who will nod and smile to my face and then talk shit behind my back to other coworkers and rally political forces against me, I'll take the first type of jerk any day, and those kinds of jerks are far more common than the other kind when it comes to actual software developers, in my experience.
> However it becomes bad when they refused to learn new (community accepted) ways of doing things that are either REQUIRED or lead to efficiency down the road.
I totally agree, which is why I'm 40 and I know JavaScript very well and I'm familiar with a lot of new frameworks using the language and write a fair amount of JavaScript despite the fact that I think it is a terrible language. And on the flip side of that, my absolute favorite language to code in today is Go, which is very "new" by programming language standards.
> I'm a young manager that has older coders and I defer to their wisdom 90% of the time.
Aren't we mostly agreeing then? I said that guy is "probably right", not "right". 90% is much higher than what I would normally consider "probably".
Strong opinions, weakly held. Be vocal if you think you have a case or don't understand. Stay professional, don't make it personal and you should be ok.
The only category you seem to recognize is whether or not someone has real-world experience. There are legitimately negative people in this field who hurt others at their own expense, or for no reason, every day. This isn't about being nicey-nice when dismissing a bad idea.
It isn't a saving grace if someone bullies you 'upfront' on a daily basis - or if they (like you and almost every man in this industry) assume they are right and have more real-world experience and are geniuses.
In a lot of fields people will be very polite to your face while stabbing you in the back and turning the knife. In software the jerks are generally very upfront, showing far less "people skills" but at least showing you their cards. And while I like to think I've never been a jerk (you'd have to ask people who worked with me to be sure), I've noticed there tend to be two classes of jerks in software development and it may be important for you to try to recognize the distinction.
The first kind of jerk is the grumpy old coder who shoots down your idea to use the latest wiz-bang tech to rewrite your entire project for the next release. This guy has very little people skills and may not do a great job of explaining his position, so he seems to just be shooting you down for no reason. THIS GUY IS PROBABLY RIGHT, though. And his jerkiness comes from years of battle scars.
The second kind of jerk is the cocky (usually younger) developer who is sure he is right about every decision despite having limited real world experience. At first blush he looks like the other kind of jerk (except that he's probably younger). THIS GUY IS PROBABLY WRONG. And his jerkiness comes from a lack of real-world experience combined with an over-inflated sense of confidence coming out of the school years where he was the smartest guy in his school, but mixed with unacknowledged self doubt. Sometimes this kind of jerk grows up to be the first kind of jerk, but sometimes they remain the second kind of jerk.