Code Is Influence.

If you are a developer, you are an Influencer.

And you need to know this.

Consider these scenarios:

Musicians vs. Listeners (Music)
Seeders vs. Leechers (Torrents)
Teachers vs. Students (Education)
Writers vs. Readers (Writing)

Pause.

Think for a while.

What do you see?

An imbalance.

What do these imbalances reveal? They hint at disparities.

Is it like 20% vs. 80%? Or 10% vs. 90%?

Maybe even larger.

Why does it matter?

Because the minority is responsible for creating and sharing value for the majority.

Now you might ask, "But Vishnu, how does this relate to me?"

Look at this example:

Developers vs. Users (Tech)

It highlights a fundamental point.

𝐴𝑠 𝑎 𝑑𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑙𝑜𝑝𝑒𝑟, 𝑦𝑜𝑢’𝑟𝑒 𝑎𝑙𝑚𝑜𝑠𝑡 𝑎𝑙𝑤𝑎𝑦𝑠 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑜𝑟𝑖𝑡𝑦.
𝐴𝑛𝑑 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑎𝑖𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑎 1-𝑡𝑜-𝑚𝑎𝑛𝑦 𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜.

𝑌𝑜𝑢 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑤𝑟𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎 𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑐𝑜𝑑𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 ℎ𝑎𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑝𝑜𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑎𝑙 𝑡𝑜 𝑏𝑒 𝑑𝑒𝑝𝑙𝑜𝑦𝑒𝑑 𝑖𝑛 1000’𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑝𝑙𝑎𝑐𝑒𝑠, 𝑢𝑠𝑒𝑑 𝑏𝑦 10000'𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑝𝑒𝑜𝑝𝑙𝑒.

You are an influencer!

There is more to it.

This imbalance gives you as a developer, an immense power.

And the cliche kicks in:

With great power comes great responsibility.

So, to be worthy of that power,

𝐵𝑒 𝑎 𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑝𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑏𝑙𝑒 𝑑𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑙𝑜𝑝𝑒𝑟!

You must be mindful of the impact your work has on others.

You must be willing to go beyond the usual and spend time learning and improving.

You must respect your users.

Just don’t waste time arguing about what a good developer should be.

Be one.

Originally shared on LinkedIn