The Archetype

When creating the original protagonist, Robert Goren, for Law and Order: Criminal Intent, executive producer Dick Wolf wanted to create a modern revision of the iconic Sherlock Holmes character. The update they came up with was an astute detective in the psychological sense (could read people based on their psychological tendencies) but used his library card for everything he didn’t already know. So, a smart, intuitive, but avidly researching detective.

Applied to Developers

I recently discovered that this idea is what I have based what I consider a good developer to be. It's not just the sharp intuition, because from system to system and technology to technology, that changes. A remarkably brilliant developer on one stack barely treads water in another. It's also not just avid researching capabilities because knowing the answer is far superior to finding it in most daily scenarios.

What I Value

I'm grateful for those that I lean on for their intuition and those those that can find the right answer via quality research. It's also why I value shaping deep context (the comprehensively contextual knowledge of a thing) alongside astute research abilities when I am advising other devs.