Software industry archetypes : nautical edition

· by Steve · Read in about 1 min · (170 Words)

For no particular reason except that a few of these occurred to me while relaxing this week on our ample coastline…

The free diver

Plumbs dangerous depths with little or no assistance or safety gear, far from the glow of natural light.

Examples: Kernel programmers, graphics programmers

The jet skier

Skims along the surface covering a lot of ground: agile but also capricious, never staying too long. Try not to get caught in their wake.

Examples: hipster coders, social startups, people who think Node.js is old-skool

The angler

Happy to sit comfortably in the good local fishing spots, with traditional bait, content in the knowledge that plenty of fish will be passing and enough will bite.

Examples: business application specialists

The whaler

Travel the high seas looking for the largest prey, bringing it down with expensive specialist equipment.

High-end consulting firms tendering for massive projects, government/military

The Eco-warriors

Fighting the good fight for the betterment of the world (as they see it).

Examples: die-hard GPL advocates

Got any others? 😀