“You have power over your mind - not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.” --Marcus Aurelius
“My weaknesses... I wish I could come up with something. I'd probably have the same pause if you asked me what my strengths are. Maybe they're the same thing.” --Al Pacino
Consider the ant. While pound-for-pound one of the strongest animals out there, since it weighs in at a stunning 0.0003 grams, that metric is less than useful. No, the greatest strength of the ant lies in a colony’s sheer number of ants and the fact that they can act with a single-minded determination to get a task done. Very little short of poisoning the lot of them interrupts their task once they begin and they have the ability for hundreds, if not thousands, act as if one being.
Consider the tiger. Tigers are not pack animals. Add a second tiger to a tiger’s territory and you’ll likely end up with a dead tiger. They do not like competition. And yet, as hunters go tigers are frighteningly effective. They can get to be 4 meters long (13 feet), weigh 600 kg (1300 lbs), can run at about 90 kph (55 mph) nearly silently, and are powerful enough to bring down a rhino or an elephant. Where the tiger walks, things that don’t want to be lunch best move carefully.
Two remarkably effective animals. One that can only follow orders, but carries out its task with a determination and undeterrence rarely found in nature. The other nearly unable to work with others of its kind, but with a frightening level of individual ability. Both achieve their goals but in opposite, and incompatible, ways.
Despite having just called the two “incompatible”, a development team must be a colony of tigers. Considering the dev lead as the colony “queen”, each developer must be able to accept their marching orders and complete their assignments with the level of determination of an ant. Yet they must not be the mindless workers that ant embody. They must have the individuality of a tiger and a tiger’s ability to successfully determine how to achieve a goal and then the ability to actually achieve it. And the “Colony Queen”, i.e. Dev Lead, needs to understand that the tiger is not a mindless implementer of tasks and if treated as such then the overall effort is endangered.
We all know developers that are like the ant. Practically useless on their own because they can’t hold an application in their head or understand how various objects should relate or even how various pieces of functionality impact each other. But hand them a task and they complete it. We all know developers that are like the tiger. Highly skilled, able to intuitively understand the task at hand and how best to implement it. But get in his way, critique his code, touch his check ins, or even talk to him when he’s in the middle of something and he’s going to bite.
As a developer it is critical to your career development to embody the strengths of both the tiger and the ant while taking on none of their weaknesses. You must be a colony member that hits his tasks reliably. You must be a tiger that can rely on your own skill and experience. However, when your ability and understanding seems to conflict with your direction, you must be able to do something that neither ant nor tiger can do. You must be able to communicate your results and opinions to team leadership, do so clearly and helpfully, and understand that your ideas will not always be taken.
Make no mistake. This is the difference between a successful software developer and one that is perpetually wondering why he can’t keep a job. It’s not ability. Every developer I've ever worked with is either a tiger or an ant. The successful ones are the developers that can maintain those strengths without succumbing to the weaknesses. Are you an ant? Don’t become so focused on carrying out tasks that you forget that you can contribute your knowledge and experience. Not just repository check ins. Are you a tiger? Remember that at some point, you’re going to be overruled. Learn why, rather than biting. Is there a non-functional limitation, such as time frame or lack of stakeholder buy-in, that simple cannot be controlled? Is your preferred path incompatible with another development team’s work? Remember that setbacks are learning opportunities and treat them with grace. Remember also that others have skill and experience as well and respect that. Especially if you disagree with them.
Neither the tiger nor the ant will ever be anything more than what they are. Their weaknesses insure that they are only useful in narrow circumstances. Take on the strengths of both and the weaknesses of neither and you will quickly find that your organization find more and more situations where you are considered useful, or even necessary.
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