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by kevinmhickey 1513 days ago
I call it Resume Driven Development
2 comments

I worked with someone who did this. I'm glad he has moved on. He would not do basic tasks correctly. Had an attention span of a toddler. He was DBA and couldn't google simple problems. I asked him to do something he would say give me 20 minutes. 2 weeks later he would say "IT CANT BE DONE". Then, I would do it myself in a few minutes after googling the error.

Instead of applying knowledge, he would bring up all these buzzwords to meetings and not really understand what he was talking about. I get angry just thinking about it.

Hmm, incompetent folks exist and need to be let go. However, I think it is a slightly different category than RDD.
> I worked with someone who did this.

Nothing in your comment points to resume-driven development. You even failed to mention any project or design decision. You just decided to get angry at a coworker because of something.

Yes, this has been my observation as well. I also see this happening concurrently with what I call the "shiny object" problem. Developers have their eye on a shiny new library, framework, language, etc. and have a seated desire to use it at the expense of it being an inappropriate choice for the company.

I believe these two phenomenons are producing a positive feedback loop in the industry. Selected technologies address one challenge, but introduce complexity. The complexity becomes difficult to manage. So other technologies are incorporated to manage the complexity. In the midst of all this, core technologies are replaced, swapped out, or transitioned to under the desires of the dev(s). For example, switching from one js rendering library to another, while preserving the old legacy code. The complexity footprint keeps growing and it doesn't stop because the engineers themselves aren't entirely committed to the project. They can incorporate the new technology to the project, pad their resume, and bail to a new employer if things grow out of wack.