I believe that the best way to distinguish between an average nerd and a nerd with inherent potential is to see how they react to magic in a project.
What do I mean by magic? Magic has happended when:
- a problem is solved by a seemingly unrelated action (e.g. changing the order of unrelated actions stops a system failure).
- a chunk of code is copied en masse into a new project and nobody understands how (or even why) it works.
- a recurring but seemingly random crash disappears.
When magic happens the more average nerd simply shrugs, maybe thanks the coding gods, and then simply moves onto the next piece of work. A quality nerd will get nervous. She will try work out why the magic worked. Many theories will be tried out. Experiments will be run. Co-workers will be consulted. In short, the better the nerd, the more effort expended on rational investigation rather than simply accepting good luck.
As I said earlier, I have found the reaction to magic in software to be a fantastic indicator of nerdly quality and leadership potential. What about you? Do you believe in magic? Do you think its a good indicator of nerdly quality?
Definitely. A nerd proactively wanting to figure out the “magic” is a sign of willingness to learn and improve in general. Those are probably the same nerds that actually use their spare time for reading up on their profession instead of just playing video games…
God knows I’ve done both. A lot.