Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by IceDane 2512 days ago
I think that by virtue of being here to comment at all, you are not one of these dark matter devs.

The group of people he is describing I think largely don't bother to come to communities like this. They do their job, go home and only know about developments in tech if it is relevant to their job and most likely because it comes through in-house channels.

I know a lot of people like this. Many of them aren't even aware that automated testing is a thing. They hardly know anything about any programming languages or technologies except for those they work with.
2 comments
sjclemmy 2511 days ago
I don’t think it’s about ability or interest. It’s about presence. There’s loads of developers out there with a range of skills. I work with devs who are great who you’ve never heard of and others who aren’t so great who you’ve never heard of. I’d consider myself in the 99%. I aspire to market myself but I’ve got lots of interests and I’m quite a private person so I find marketing myself in conflict with that aspect of my personality. But get me one to one and I’ll happily talk about my latest interest (which by the way is Directed Graphs).
link
Davertron 2511 days ago
Same. I'm just horribly bad at self-marketing and generally have zero interest in getting attention. I used to think that as long as I was doing good work people would notice, and sometimes if you're lucky that can happen, but there are lots of situations where you're doing yourself a major disservice if you're not selling yourself and your accomplishments. You just shouldn't depend on any one else to advocate for you.

That doesn't mean it's easy though. I still hate it and have to make a conscious effort to market myself.

link
Davertron 2511 days ago
Maybe I'm just missing the point of his article then. The way I read this though is "hey there are lots of devs out there who never post on social media or write blog posts. That's because they don't care about technology or being on the cutting edge, they just do their jobs and go home." If we disagree on that point, fair enough, I might be projecting some of my own angst here.
link