50 lines
2.1 KiB
Markdown
50 lines
2.1 KiB
Markdown
---
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title: "The Balanced Developer"
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date: 2011-10-31T00:00:00+00:00
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draft: false
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needs_review: true
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canonical_url: https://www.viget.com/articles/the-balanced-developer/
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---
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In preparation for a recent team offsite, I spent some time thinking
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about what I hold dear as a software developer. One idea I kept coming
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back to is the notion of *balance.* I see balance manifesting itself
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several ways in the work of a successful developer, some of which
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follow.
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## Speed Versus Quality
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The most obvious example is the balance of development speed and
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quality. When building software, it's never a good idea to write code as
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fast as possible without any attention toward maintainability, just as
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it's never a good idea to spend such an inordinate amount of time
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designing and tweaking your software that it never ships to customers.
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The balanced developer focuses on delivering value both immediately
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*and* through the life of the software.
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## Shiny Versus Proven
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When it comes to selecting tools and technologies, again, balance is
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key. An unbalanced developer selects technologies simply because they're
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new and exciting, or rejects them simply because they're unknown and
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unproven. A balanced developer evaluates new technologies on their own
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merits, weighing gains in functionality against the inherent risks.
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## Doing Versus Sharing
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If you've ever looked at someone's code after hearing them speak at a
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conference, you know that there's not necessarily a correlation between
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someone's ability to speak about technology and their ability to create
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it. At the opposite end of the spectrum, there's the quiet fellow who
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sits in your company's basement, writing fast, elegant code that no one
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ever notices. The balanced developer understands that doing work and
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sharing work are most effective in combination.
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## That Said...
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To hijack an old saying, you should strive for balance in all things,
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including balance itself. Falling perfectly in the middle of every pair
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of tradeoffs would be, frankly, *unbalanced*. Everyone has their strong
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opinions, and that's a good thing, provided it's balanced out with a
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healthy dose of pragmatism.
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