Being a freelance consultant / coach, I have worked with many different teams in the last 10+ years. As far as I am concerned, I never was the best developer on the team.

No, I do not have any proof for that, of course not. It is more of a mind set than something that can be objectively proven to be true or false. Let me explain…

Learning Every Day

Learn from everyone, follow noone.

If you hire me, I come to your company to learn something. Yes, I also come to provide more value for you than you pay for me - To teach you something, to coach your team, to help you solve a problem, to write some code. That’s why you hired me.

But for me, it is also a learning experience. I am trying to get better at what I do every day. I read many books, blogs, and I try to learn from everyone. And I really think that you can learn something from everyone: Even the most senior developer might learn a thing or two from the most junior, if she is open to learning something.

Now, if I would be in a team and have an attitude like “I am the best X here”, learning from everyone else just becomes a lot harder, at least in the field of X. Also, I think others on the team might notice that attitude, and this would also hinder mutual learning / teaching.

But What if I am the Best?

Let’s assume, hypothetically, that I come to a team, where after some time, all my evidence suggests that I am really the best developer (I do not think this has ever happened to me). I would still try hard to think that I am not the best.

A little humility can help in many aspects. Mutual learning / teaching, like above, is one of them. A better team culture is another. When you ask for help, you encourage people to talk to you on the same level.

Too Many Dimensions

Also, there are too many dimensions where you can be good in software development. And a team working on any non-trivial task needs many of those dimensions.

So who is the best developer - The person who is good at keeping the overall architecture in mind, the person who knows all the details of your programming language, the person who is getting the details right, or anyone else on the team? You need all of them!

I think that I, personally, are quite competent in several programming languages, in software architecture / design, in techniques for better software quality, in facilitating better team practices. I think that, over time, I have become quite good at dealing with legacy code. I am also quite competent as a trainer and as a technical coach.

But I am probably not the best developer or tester or architect or coach or trainer you have ever seen.

Good in Multiple Disciplines

I think Scott Adams (I cannot find the quote anymore) once wrote that it is really hard to become world class in a single field, but when you become merely quite good in multiple fields, you might already be world class for this combination of fields. And this can be very valuable.

I always liked this idea, and I try to work like that. This is why I think I am competent in so many different fields, but surely not the best in any of them. And so far, this has worked quite well for me.

But even this is not what I am trying to say.

Keep Learning

My goal is to keep learning, to keep becoming better. And a little humility can help a lot here.

When my state of mind is “I am not the best X in here”, the questions become “What can I learn from you?” or “How can you help me today?” and, of course, “How can we help each other today?”.

But, of course, this is also something I have to constantly work on. I always have to remind myself to ask these questions. So this post is also a little reminder to myself ;)