Coders don’t work alone

The stereotypical image of a programmer is of someone who is very isolated and introverted – someone who works entirely alone on their projects, with only a cup of coffee and a ‘Glitch Mob’ album to keep them company. 

Maybe they also wear a trench coat, like Neo from the Matrix.

In reality, this picture is both true and not true at the same time.

While coders often do work in isolation and will spend a lot of time “in flow”, working on projects without raising their heads, it’s also true that they need to be part of a larger team. And if the coder isn’t part of a larger team? Then they’ll likely need to reach out to others in order to get help and support during certain aspects of their business. 

One programmer did not build Facebook (despite what The Social Network would have you believe). One programmer certainly does not design the look of Facebook, manage its servers and perform the necessary marketing to ensure it ends up with users. 

But what is key is that they know how to make pages “speak” to one another, understand how the UI is going to work, and how the files are going to be saved and categorized.

Likewise, they should know what the marketing team has in store, which colors get a good response from the focus groups, etc.

For any web development team, there needs to be synergy both within departments and across departments. 

This is where the term ‘full-stack developer’ becomes relevant.