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What makes you so special? September 17, 2007

Seriously. What makes you so special?

It’s not that you’re brilliant, because, statistically speaking, you’re not.
Sure there may be one or… maaaybe two brilliant people reading this. But, the
odds are that you aren’t them. So what makes you so special?



The way I see it there are three types of people:

• The people who are brilliant.
• The people you look up to.
• Everyone else.

And, since it’s safe to say that you’re not brilliant, you’re either someone
people look up to or… someone else.



So, what  makes you so special?



Are you actively pursuing your dream? Are you fighting for a cause you believe
in? Are you actively trying to be the best you could be at whatever it is you
do? Or, are you like everyone else?



I work with coders, and I am happy to say that most of the people I work with
are really smart, and really good at what they do, but there are very few whose
work I would want to emulate. They’re like “everyone else.” And that’s not bad.
That’s, in fact, quite normal. But, do you really want to be normal?



Maybe the “normal” people around you lead passionate and powerful lives when
they leave the office. I’d like to think they do, but I think most of them
don’t. The sad fact of life in the USA is that you are defined by your job. Your
job takes up the vast majority of your waking hours. When people meet you they
ask what it is that you “do” and, if you’re like most, you answer with your job,
because it’s not just others that define us by our jobs. Artists are one of the
few exceptions to this. When you ask an artist what they “do” they’ll say “I’m
an artist.”, or “I’m a painter.”, or something like that, even though art is
rarely what pays their rent or puts food on their table. I say this is a “sad
fact of life” because, in the USA at least, people generally don’t love their
jobs. They generally do something they happen to have skills for, or work in a
position they happened to fall into. If you’re like most people your job is
something you do to get money to pay the bills. Are you really happy about the
idea of spending the rest of your foreseeable future doing what you’re doing?



When I started writing this, as with most things I write here, I was thinking
about coders and the type of code they leave in their wake. I was thinking about
the type of people in my professional life, and I was going to make a point
about the type of code that you write. But, I think the code you write is more a
symptom of this larger issue. There are a lot of talented people I work with
but, I think, for the most part, they aren’t passionate about what they do. And
if you’re not passionate about what you don’t have a personal investment in the
product of your labor. Sure you want it to be good enough to not get fired but
beyond that I wonder how many of you really care. And, I’m not talking about my
current job, I’m talking about everyone I’ve encountered. I think my office
would be a very empty place if all the people who were just “going to work”
suddenly disappeared.



I have been dealing with code that just “gets the job done” for years.
I’m guilty of writing enough of it myself. I’ve written a lot of crap too, much
of it because I was young and ignorant, although I’m sure I’ll write more crap
in the days to come. And, for all those who have had to deal with my crap, I’m
sorry. I’m sorry I didn’t realize what it meant to be the best I possibly could.
I didn’t realize the difference between “quality work” and “work”. I was like
most of you; agreeing with the smart people about the way things “should” be
done but never getting off my ass and doing it.



But, I realized something. I realized that it is not enough to want to be
someone worth looking up to. It is not enough to want to do or be better. You
have to act. You have to actively work towards these things and that’s
where most people fail. They think that doing is harder than saying. But it
isn’t. It really isn’t. The key is to get your ass out of bed and do it. Every
day. That’s it. It’s not a hard thing. Build the best damn house you can. Be the
best damn parent you can. Be the best damn coder you can. And every time you see
yourself slacking you need to go back and fix it, make it the best thing you
can. Maybe you’re not great at what you do, but you are the only thing
preventing you from being the best you possibly can be at what you do, and if
you keep being the best you can be, you’re just going to keep getting better.
All you have to do is hold yourself to your own standards, accept nothing less
than the best from yourself. How hard is that really? If you look at something
you’ve just done and think, “I really should have done x”, then go do x. 
Don’t just move on and accept something you know isn’t right, and don’t allow
yourself to keep making the same mistakes. Learn from your actions, so that next
time you can be better. Make a promise to yourself that you won’t accept
anything less than the best you can do. When you find yourself slacking go back
and fix it. Repeat.



I want to be someone worth looking up to, not because I want your admiration, or
even your respect (although that would be nice), but because I have to live with
myself and I am not OK with being another schlemiel, and neither should you.



So, what makes you so special?