Gifted

I came across this blog post about a job offer posted on infojobs.net by my previous employer in the beginning of this year. A weeny bit xenophobic but slightly amusing nonetheless. Apart from the rather entertaining and pointed impressions of the company and its website, the author rambles on about the "typical endless list of requirements" in order to attract an authentic "superdotado" (gifted person). But apart from the deliberately roaring title, the offer contained a clear description of an all-round developer, well versed in either Java, DOT.NET or LAMP with some web client-side stuff sprinkled in. To describe such a programmer derisively as "gifted" is probably a telling indicator about the skill-level of the author.

A common attitude among web designers and developers alike is to flinch at the effort required to become a skilled C# or Java programmer. For a programmer brains is a bonus, back-bone is a must. We are talking about a serious intellectual investment here, which seems hard to grog for those which lack experience or a formal training in computer science. Mind you, part of that is cultural: you need to be creative and inspired rather than (yawn) disciplined, methodical and studious in order to be a web monkey. But probably the main reason is that the low entry barrier to web development means that it has attracted a lot of people for whom the prospect of becoming an all-round programmer is unattainable as they cannot cope with the sheer amount of study and hard work required to become a real hacker.

Mind you, there are quite a few exceptions. I have known several "web developers" who would humble any "software engineer" with their knowledge, professionalism and craftsmanship. But then, it took them years of hard work to become the giants they are now. No free ride for them either. And many developers, having attained a rather precarious skill-level, seem to fall victim to a certain degree of sloth. "OOP" is the final paradigm and they will cringe when scary alien things like Haskell or Erlang will get too close to their comfort zone. That stuff is too ephemeral, too academic. For the "gifted" among us.

Problem is that the times really are a-changing. Lots of those weird concepts from functional programming are making their way into the main stream. C# 3.0 is a completely different beast from the original Java clone of a few years ago which carried the same name. And although the model of web development, that of scripted markup languages, seems to become more pervasive, none of the new developments in that respect (Adobe Air, Microsoft SilverLight, a whole series of new Mozilla initivatives, ECMAScript 4) are very forgiving for those with only a faint grasp at their craft. It's going to be a tough ride for those who gather that studying is only for the "gifted".

And as an answer to the blogger: we did find a "superdotado". A young programmer, quite experienced with Java and HTML/JavaScript and after a few months up to speed with DOT.NET as well. He is talented, a good all-round coder, speaks excellent to fluent English, French, Italian and Spanish of course, as he is from Valencia, Spain. And the best yet, he will not consider himself "gifted" but will work and study long strenuous hours to better himself.