The Archetypes of a Mature Software Developer
This document proposes a path of self-development for a Software
Engineer. The methodology is based very closely on the book King
Warrior Magician Lover.
An Introduction to "King Warrior Magician Lover" by Robert Moore
According to this blog:
Another way of approaching the cure for the modern male malaise comes from the book King, Warrior, Magician, Lover: Rediscovering the Archetypes of the Mature Masculine, by Jungian psychologist Robert Moore and mythologist Douglas Gillette. Moore argues that masculinity is made up of four archetypal male energies which serve different purposes. All men, whether born in the U.S. or Africa, are born with these archetypal energies. The authors argue that to become a complete man, a man must work to develop all four archetypes.
KWML defines 4 balanced and mature archetypes. For each of the mature and balanced energies there are 2 other unbalanced versions, for a total of 12 mature archetypes. For each mature archetype there is the immature version, for a total of 24 archetypes.
KWML presents a framework for understanding a males' development and it can be used to guide self-development. On this article, I apply KWML to the professional development of a software developer. The core concepts are the same, except that the discussion is framed in terms of situations familiar to life of a software developer. Additionally to the 24 archetypes proposed by Moore, this work discusses 2 extra archetypes.
The Archetypes of a Software Developer
Magician
The Magician earns his power from the disciplined study of hard topics. He knows names, he references ancient books, he has mastered the ways of nature, and he yields this power to the good of the tribe.
When cast as a Software Engineer, the Magician knows of tools no one else knows. He brings Mathematics into software development. He is a true Computer Scientist. He proves solutions to be wrong before ever considering writing the software. He pin points the flawed assumptions on a proposed solution. He knows what it would take to make it faster and safer.
Unbalanced Energies
The AdHoc (Rejects the Energy)
The AdHoc sees no use for theory nor books. He has learned a collection of tricks which he can apply to get the job done. He disdains those that spend time on books.
The Dark Magician
Similar to the Magician, the Dark Magician is an advanced practitioner of hard earned knowledge. However, the Dark Magician is very little concerned with the tribe. In fact, he will apply knowledge to steal from tribe.
As a Software Engineer, he will break into systems, change passwords, and ask for ransom. He will not share his knowledge because he wants no competition. He will live out of the hard work of others.
Warrior
The Warrior fights for a cause and he has mastered will power. He is effective at prioritizing his action, and he acts not but in defense of a noble cause.
When incarnated as a Software Engineer, he delivers correct, on time, and on budget. The defends the greater good of his customers, and his customers' customers. He will not spend any time longer than strictly necessary on a task. He will find optimal compromises between competing goals, and he will deliver what was promised. His word is his highest asset. He said he would do, and he does.
King
Core skills:
- Planning
- Negotiating
- Taking care of the realm
- Taking care of others
- Blessing others
- Managing Others
Lover
Core skills:
- Communication (spoken and written)
- Creativity
- Can talk to non developers
- Care for others and nature
Mature and Immature Energies
The mature energies are characterized by the power they yield as well as the focus of their attention. The mature software engineer is capable of severely impacting the world through his work, and he yields that power to the greater good of the community. The immature is limited to playing with toy projects, and he is afraid of what is out there in the world. Furthermore, not only is the immature developer incapable of changing the world, he is not interested.
All of the 12 mature energies can be cast down to an immature version. This work however, does not detail the process. A few examples are given below.
The immature Warrior is the Hero. The hero is interested into big
deeds and becoming famous. He is not good at measuring his own
strengths, and he often gets burned by overestimating it.
The immature Magician is the Prodigious Child. He cannot wait to
show off the new trick he has pulled. One often hear him bragging
stuff like "Look! I wrote my compiler". He doesn't know what to do
with his tricks. He is fine as long as he can show them off. He thinks
the world will eventually recognize his great abilities.
The Doppelganger
It should be clear by now that the best of all possible developers expresses consistently the mature and balanced energies of the King, Warrior, Magician, and Lover.
Attention should be paid to consistently. Yielding the 4 energies is no easy task, and in the path to mastery, a developer will be inconsistent in their usage. As we will describe later, all energies can be trained in isolation, which could produce an inconsistent developer who oscillates in between one and another, failing to express simultaneously all energies. Perhaps in one scenario he is perfectly balanced, but not in another. Maybe he is balanced at his work life, but not at his personal life. The state of inconsistency is the core characteristic of the Doppelganger.
The Integrated
The Integrated yields all four mature and balanced energies, and in a consistent manner thorough all life situations. All his actions are marked by mastery of will power, nature, altruistic feelings, and care for realm.
Developing the Archetypes
Which archetype is best? I propose the Hybrid is the most powerful of them all. Because the Hybrid can get things done, he effectively changes the world. Because the Hybrid can dig deep into knowledge, he can boost his impact and explore territory that few dared. The Hybrid can both build a light saber, and yield it masterfully to defeat evil.
I propose as well that many of us have the capacity to become a Hybrid. If you are not a Hybrid now, I propose you identify your weak archetype, and work on actions to develop that energy.
What follows is my suggestion of activities to strengthen the energy you are missing.
Leveling up the Warrior
- Read "A Message to Garcia"
- Go out in the world and meet people that need your help
- Build a list of promises you have made to people, and work on delivering all of them. ALL of them.
- Get interested into serious matters outside programming. Family, politics, economics, exercise. You need to get your stuff done because there is simply not enough time.
- Dig as dig as possible in one of your interests. Try to become world class in it. Consider repeating the effort for your next favorite interest. Realize there is not enough time on a lifetime.
- Read the collection of texts bellow. These text try to capture what I think is part of the essence of these archetypes. These texts alone are unbalanced and dangerous. Don't take them ALONE. Add them to the energies you already master, and they might foster the energies that you are lacking.
- Storm of steel
- Battle Leadership
- Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae
- Boyd
- On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society
- On Combat: The Psychology and Physiology of Deadly Conflict in War and in Peace
- On War: The Collected Columns of William S. Lind 2003-2009
- 4th Generation Warfare Handbook
- Warfighting
- Spec Ops: Case Studies in Special Operations Warfare: Theory and Practice
- Links on TRT:
https://www.t-nation.com/pharma/complete-guide-to-t-replacement https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/sexual-health/in-depth/testosterone-therapy/art-20045728 https://www.t-nation.com/pharma/4-things-you-dont-know-about-trt https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/a-harvard-expert-shares-his-thoughts-on-testosterone-replacement-therapy-2009031141 http://www.musculardevelopment.com/mdtv/interviews/14364-the-lowdown-on-drugs-part-4-kevin-levrone-shawn-ray-and-dorian-yates-speak-out.html#.WVBPSPryu2x
Leveling up the King
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A Collection of Tales
Warrior
Text I - The Dark Warrior
You need to get it done by the time you promised. You are never prepared enough. No book will tell you all you need. Even if there is such book, you cannot apprehend all you will need. Only the heat of battle will do it. There is not enough armor to shield yourself and others. You will hurt yourself. You might hurt your peers. But you will get where you need at the time you said you would.
It won't be fancy. You won't be proud on the specifics of how you did it. You will be proud of getting there.
People will be scared to hire your work, but they will anyway. No one else will deliver. They need it done and fancy is nice but not a must.
You will find the best shield you have, the sharpest blade you have, and you will push. Once you have trespassed the enemy you will look behind and there will be blood. You are bleeding. You unnecessarily hit your knee on a stone on your way. Half your shield is gone. Your blade was turned into pieces. Your whole body aches. You might have lost an eye. But the enemy? The enemy has been defeated.
You go back home, bring the gold to the village, and you ask the ancient "what is next?".
Comments
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Text II - Do not accept defeat
There are hard problems out there. There are impossible problems out there. No machine and no amount of time will solve the general case of these problems. But these are not the problems you are hired to solve.
Your customer has a problem that honestly maybe he could hire an Indian to do it manually and repeatedly. All your customer really needs is an email, spreadsheets, and a disciplined process. The industry probably solved all those problems way before there were computers. But they decided to hire you to solve these problems. There is no excuse to not get it done. There is no excuse to ship it late, over budget, or with bugs. No excuse man.
Your capacity of abstraction prepares you to work with way harder problems, but it doesn't mean it will be easy for your team to deliver your customer's "easy" problem. Capacity for abstraction is not enough. It takes will power. Will freaking power. You need to solve problems no one told you about. Most of these problems are simply annoyance - details of the technology you chose and that will likely not be relevant next year. You will be embarrassed to explain how long it took to get A connected to B. Still, you will spend a lot of energy on it.
Anyways, in case you fail, the only to blame is your will power. There is plenty of technology out there. You have an excellent team. There are harder problems being solved by dumber people. There are dumber teams solving faster than you. If you fail it is because you lacked the will power to make it happen. Your manager might blame on unpredictable events. Your client might accept, grant you extra time, and perhaps even pay for it. But you will know: you failed.
Late is defeat. Over budget is defeat. Broken is defeat.
You will burn the building to ashes and salt the land before you accept defeat.
Comments
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Text III - Pray to Saint Joseph, Patron of Workers
O Glorious St. Joseph, model of all those who are devoted to labor, obtain for me the grace to work conscientiously, putting the call of duty above my natural inclinations, to work with gratitude and joy, in a spirit of penance for the remission of my sins, considering it an honor to employ and develop by means of labor the gifts received from God, to work with order, peace, moderation and patience, without ever shrinking from weariness and difficulties, to work above all with purity of intention and detachment from self, having always death before my eyes and the account that I must render of time lost, of talents wasted, of good omitted, of vain complacency in success, so fatal to the work of God. All for Jesus, all through Mary, all after thine example, O Patriarch, St. Joseph. Such shall be my motto in life and in death. Amen.
King
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Lover
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