Do you need to be passionate about programming to be a good developer?

I recently encountered an intriguing article on 10x developers that considers two developer types, the passionate enthusiast and the professional.

I’ve lived in both of these worlds, as reflected in my Compassionate Coding work. I started coding in my teen years and loved it, so I tried to fit in with the hardcore enthusiast programmers and found external success, but it left me miserable and burnt out. I came to believe that you can be an effective developer and live a balanced life that includes care for people, not just code, and I started this company to spread that view.

However, in recent years, my views have evolved further. Is there still a place for the narrowly focused programmer who really does want to code alone in a basement all day? I actually think there is.

While most teams will benefit from hiring balanced developers, the field as a whole has clearly benefited from the work of developers who become obsessed with one particular technology or problem, perhaps even to the detriment of their social skills. We wouldn’t want every developer to be this way, though.

“Even if the computer programmer can write great code very fast, if that programmer cannot understand the needs and objectives of business owners/users, that programmer is going to write a lot of great code to nowhere.”
—Bruce Tulgan, Closing the Soft Skills Gap

Hopefully tech interviews catch up and stop expecting that singleminded code dedication, proven through hobby projects, knowledge of trivia, etc., and instead provide opportunities for more well-rounded engineers to shine. Just because you’re passionate about code doesn’t mean your coworkers need to be.

There are no easy answers, so what if we focus instead on making space for everyone to bring their unique gifts to the table?

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A version of this article originally appeared in the Compassionate Coding newsletter.