High-IQ Programmers: the Problems

You've got really smart programmers. Problem solved, right? NOT! They can have issues, too. Just different ones.

Smart Programmers

Everyone knows that programming is hard. Everyone knows that really smart programmers can be many times more productive than average programmers. Everyone knows that your project's chance of success go way up if you have smart programmers working on it. But not everyone knows that there is a collection of flaws to which really smart programmers are particularly susceptible.

The reason is pretty simple. Programmers are people, and people have problems! But different kinds of people often have different kinds of problems, and truly exceptional people may have problems many of us are not familiar with. A person who's really tall can have problems with bonking his head on entries that most of us don't have. A person who's really famous can have problems having a quiet meal in a restaurant most of us don't have. And there can be a dark side of a really smart programmer's most admirable qualities.

The "Problem" of being good at solving really hard problems

My new book on Software People (here's a description, and here's the book on Amazon) has a whole section on the problems endemic to high-IQ programmers. Here is an excerpt:

Are good at solving hard problems. The ability to solve hard problems distinguishes them from other people. They ignore simple problems. They disdain working on them. When a simple problem can’t be avoided, they go to great lengths to turn it into a hard problem. People who are good at solving hard problems like hard problems, and can find them in places where other people see no problems at all. Sometimes this is a good thing, like when you encounter a genuinely hard problem that can’t be avoided. Smart people get bored easily. Smooth, straight roads are boring. Some smart people will actively change directions and seek out a problem they suspect will be hard because it is hard. Often, smart people seeking hard problems overlook sophisticatedly simple solutions because they are simple, or spend loads of time solving a really hard problem that actually didn’t need to be solved.

If you've got a hard problem, you darned well better have people who are good at solving problems that are hard. Otherwise, you're screwed. But it happens often enough that programmers who are good at solving hard problems are really proud of that fact (why shouldn't they be?). Their self-identity is tied up in that ability. 

What you really want is a programmer who is capable of solving really hard problems, but feels no need to demonstrate that ability unless it's really needed. I've definitely met people like this, but boy are they rare! You're talking about a super-nerd who is amazingly humble.

Climbing a Mountain

Suppose there's a mountain your team has to ascend. There's only one good mountain-climber in your group, and he's an amazing one -- famous for his ability to tackle near-impossible climbs. You and your team are standing at the foot of a mountain. Naturally, you turn to your expert.

Your expert, being an expert, scopes out the mountain. He sees lots of things that the normal people in your group miss. He spots a hard-to-see, tricky path that avoids the tough parts and makes the ascent a piece of cake. He also sees a route that starts out looking smooth, but has a pulse-pounding section that no one could make without his expert knowledge, experience and guidance. And then there are the other routes.

The expert has to choose between these two reactions at the end of the climb:

1. Boy, what an easy climb! That mountain wasn't so tough after all!
2. We got to the top, but we almost died on the way. If it hadn't been for X's amazing skills, we would be calling for helicopters to remove the injured and the dead at this point. Thanks, X!

Choice number 1: X's amazing skills are nearly invisible, because it "wasn't so hard after all" -- but only because X uniquely saw the hard-to-see route that avoided the difficulties.

Choice number 2: X's amazing skills are on full display, demonstrated in vivid 3-D to the team members, as he accomplishes something no normal mortal could pull off.

Hmmmm. Choice 1: make a hard thing simple, which only I could do, but in the end, everyone is left with the impression of how simple and easy it was. Choice 2: take a tough-but-possible route, in which my amazing powers are on full display. The smart person may not even be aware of how his guts and ego are pulling him to Choice #2. It's just human nature.

Conclusion

There's lots more in the Software People book, where this came from. On the one hand, outstanding software people are people. On the other hand, they have issues that are unique to their smartness. You want smart people on your team. Definitely. But you also want to help your smart people be even better than they already are by confronting and overcoming their unique problems.