Never Be a Five

Roughly once a month we have a group meeting. It's really the only time where the entire web platform team is in the same room, so we cover big topics at a high level. One of the major discussion points yesterday centered around an unsolicited, unscheduled review of our group by our corporate masters. It rated our performance in key areas on a scale of 1-5 (5 being perfect, 1 being "why haven't you been fired yet?"):

• Hosting & infrastructure
• Quality of developers
• Project management & delivery
• Etc.

The rating "quality of developers" got a 4. For a minute, I was a little shocked and offended. If there is one thing our group is known for and prides itself on, it is the quality of our development team. I work on one of the best development teams I've ever known, and my opinion is not atypical. I hear on a weekly basis how above-par we are as a group. The web platform team is "leet", as they say.

Four is good - great, even. Three being "average-competitive", it's highly desirable to be a 4. That being the case, why do I care so badly about being a 5? Is it realistic to want to be a 5? Is it that much of a shock to be told you're only really good when you thought you were the best?

Like I said, my reaction lasted for a minute. But then I asked myself, "is it possible to be a 4 and also be the best?" I think it is. When I say best, I definitely don't mean best in the world. There's always someone better. But "best" in a very localized sense can be different for everyone and still be useful. Like my track coach told me so many times, you're only racing against yourself. The other people out there on the track with you are just useful tools to help benchmark your progress, but the competition is internal.

Anyone who has done any kind of race, especially track, knows that you get your best times when you consistently run with people a little bit better than yourself. The person ahead of you is an attainable goal. If you're alone, you have no baseline with which to construct the bounds of potential achievement. If you're half a mile behind the nearest competitor, any effort would be wasted. If I'm a 5, I've peaked. Any improvement from there on is sheer luck. Personally, I don't want to peak yet.

Never be comfortable. If you think you're on top of the world, it's impossible to go any higher. You've established a mental model of your profession that prevents you from truly aspiring to improve. Instead, if you think you're a 5, make yourself a 4. Keep besting yourself. Spend some time and effort identifying some aspect of development you don't fully understand. Actively seek to work with people who make you feel a little stupid. It's only as uncomfortable as you make it. Be a 4, forever.