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

Google for Developers · 1.2M views · 2009-06-02 · 55:17

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Overview

Brian Fitzpatrick and Ben Collins-Sussman argue that the 'genius programmer' ideal harms collaboration. They advocate trading ego for growth, sharing work early, and understanding how tools shape social behavior.

On Hacker News

HN regulars recommend it as a career-shaping talk on code review, humility and collaborative development.

Recommended by 5 HN people across 5 months · HN mentions 2011–2024

Topics

Software practice, open source & careersManagement, leadership & organizations
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code reviewegobus factorteam cultureopen source

What people said

sethops1 · 2024-01 · Strong recommendation

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: [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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oleksiyp · 2016-10 · Strong recommendation

Google I/O 2009 - The Myth of the Genius Programmer One of the best talks about code reviews and similiar things [VIDEO]

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bajsejohannes · 2011-04 · Strong recommendation

I recommend The Myth of The Genius Programmer: [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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Sources

Video by Google for Developers, played through YouTube.

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