For some reason I thought that the I.T. industry as a whole had matured enough to the point that all developers would have realised that programming with an ego has a bad affect on the software. I also thought that people would stay up to speed, work hard, and focus on producing good quality code. I am very much mistaken 
Recently I’ve been in the unfortunate position of having to deal with some of the most appalling I.T. professionals in the industry (I used the word “professional” in its broadest possible sense!), and the software that’s oozing out of the team is a reflection of the quality of the individuals therein. I could rant for ages about the coding horrors, bad practices and lack of understanding, but that to a point has already been discussed in a previous post (see: The Day Job). Instead I’m going to focus on the one point that I feel is one of the root causes of the trouble: EGO.
These people are clearly unaware of what it means to undertake egoless programming. They don’t seem to realise the damage that they’re doing in behaving the way they do. They’re so protective of their own work, and so ignorant of everyone else’s that the result is what can only be described as a Pot Mess. ie. A pot with nothing but a huge mess in it. If you’re unaware of the general concept of egoless programming, check out this link over at Coding Horror - it covers the 10 commandments of egoless programming - and while you’re reading that, please pray to the Development Gods and sacrifice a few Cobol programmers to them to help appease them for my sake, as I fear there’s no other hope for me
November 4, 2006
I totally agree with you on this… and I’m not even in the industry as a programmer. The sad thing is that this “ego” mentality permeates through all aspects of bad work.
The sad part is that it usually comes from management. Which makes it even harder to get around or past them (which is where i’ve seen it). I believe the phrase is “you can never win a fight against your boss.” (of course, that is assuming that you don’t break the rules.;) )
November 4, 2006
Well, I agree that it’s present in management as well, but I wouldn’t consider it the source. The issues I’m experiencing at the moment come from both permanent and contract staff, the latter of which hasn’t been around long enough to really let it flow down from management.
It’s definitely a huge issue across the board though, and something that I’m sure is present not just in every area of I.T., but most (if not all) industries. I was just hoping that the I.T. industry would have moved past this mentality by now - clearly I am wrong
Fights with management are always tough, and even if you win you’re bound to lose in some way.
November 5, 2006
I’ve worked in a place a few years ago where the cire game engine got split into two separate projects because of the egos of the people who were supposed to be architecting it.
This touches on another issue, which is of trust in your workmates. It’s good to know that when someone is asked to do something you KNOW they’ll deliver, but from some people you just get excuses and end up doing everything yourself. If you’re not careful, this mistrust of other’s ability (whether justified or not) can turn into a massive ego.
November 6, 2006
That’s a bloody good point mate. One that’s so obvious now you’ve pointed it out, but one that I hadn’t really thought of beforehand. My current situation is a classic example of this. Right now, some people in my team consider me to be “too young to do my job”, and one person feels that certain things are “beyond my level of ability” despite the fact that I’ve never worked with him before, and he’s totally (and I do mean totally) unaware of what I’m capable of, and hence wouldn’t have a clue as to what is actually beyond my level of ability. Mind you, this guy believes that everyone in the team fits into this category, so I don’t think I’m a special case.
This fella is the ideal example of an ego (which in his case is not justified) getting in the way of trusting other people’s work before he even knows if they’re capable.