How to motivate a programmer to master the basic skills of the profession, in addition to the programming language?

Question

Personnel Management

You may have come across a situation where a colleague at work often contacts you to help him write a regular expression or SQL query, or fix an API request, because he does not understand HTTP well and does not understand what is written in the specifications. Or, for example, he got confused with chmod, because he does not understand how unix permissions work, or cannot understand what is written in man rsync. You help him once, twice, three times, and then politely advise him to educate himself. A lot of time passes, but nothing changes. After the hundredth time and a much more insistent advice to go read the manuals, or at least learn to read them, you stumble upon a reaction like "don't teach me how to live, better help financially." Your colleague explicitly states that for his specialization (say, web developer) it is not necessary to know all this, and that everyone with whom he worked before thinks so. It is worse when you have to play the role of a team leader in a team that you did not recruit. You have to spend a lot of time explaining to the employee every nuance of the terms of reference, sending the task for revision many times over, checking the result of the employee’s work in detail, instead of doing your other tasks. You can’t fire and hire another employee, you can’t argue to higher management, which is very far from IT, why an employee needs to do advanced training. All the rest of the people around also cannot understand: either the employee has the Dunning-Kruger effect, or you are carping too much. Let's add to this the "conflict of generations" ... when you have to play the role of a team leader in a team that you did not recruit. You have to spend a lot of time explaining to the employee every nuance of the terms of reference, sending the task for revision many times over, checking the result of the employee’s work in detail, instead of doing your other tasks. You can’t fire and hire another employee, you can’t argue to higher management, which is very far from IT, why an employee needs to do advanced training. All the rest of the people around also cannot understand: either the employee has the Dunning-Kruger effect, or you are carping too much. Let's add to this the "conflict of generations" ... when you have to play the role of a team leader in a team that you did not recruit. You have to spend a lot of time explaining to the employee every nuance of the terms of reference, sending the task for revision many times over, checking the result of the employee’s work in detail, instead of doing your other tasks. You can’t fire and hire another employee, you can’t argue to higher management, which is very far from IT, why an employee needs to do advanced training. All the rest of the people around also cannot understand: either the employee has the Dunning-Kruger effect, or you are carping too much. Let's add to this the "conflict of generations" ... send the task for revision many times over, check the result of the employee’s work in detail, instead of doing their other tasks. You can’t fire and hire another employee, you can’t argue to higher management, which is very far from IT, why an employee needs to do advanced training. All the rest of the people around also cannot understand: either the employee has the Dunning-Kruger effect, or you are carping too much. Let's add to this the "conflict of generations" ... send the task for revision many times over, check the result of the employee’s work in detail, instead of doing their other tasks. You can’t fire and hire another employee, you can’t argue to higher management, which is very far from IT, why an employee needs to do advanced training. All the rest of the people around also cannot understand: either the employee has the Dunning-Kruger effect, or you are carping too much. Let's add to this the "conflict of generations" ... All the rest of the people around also cannot understand: either the employee has the Dunning-Kruger effect, or you are carping too much. Let's add to this the "conflict of generations" ... All the rest of the people around also cannot understand: either the employee has the Dunning-Kruger effect, or you are carping too much. Let's add to this the "conflict of generations" ...

It cannot be said that the employee is stupid. He just had a peculiar experience, and he has nothing to compare it with. My question is how, without casualties and destruction, to motivate him to develop and broaden his horizons, to show missed opportunities? What to give him to read, what authoritative opinions to refer to? Is it possible to find somewhere a credible list of knowledge and skills that are mandatory for a programmer of any specialization?

PS: I would be very grateful for links to authoritative opinions on what basic knowledge and skills a programmer needs, and why. In general, any competent analysis with good argumentation is interesting. It is clear that you can talk to a person. But I would like to have something in stock besides imhi and administrative resource. I always have time to discuss the dismissal with the CEO, this is an extreme option and unpromising.

PPS: The described case is not identical to the real state of affairs. Rather, it is a collective image, slightly exaggerated and simplified. I won't go into details.

Answer 1

Your colleague directly states that for his specialization (say, a web developer) it is not necessary to know all this, and that everyone with whom he worked before thinks so

Let him go to work where he worked before.
The market is full of people. And yes, there are people who lack knowledge. But if your employee directly refuses to learn things (and you have listed things, most of which I would no longer attribute to the qualification of a programmer, but to the qualification of an advanced user), then such people should be refused.
Actually, such people are the result of the fact that everyone goes to courses for money, and people capable of learning are lost among the crowd of lazy mediocrity.

Answer 2

Not sure whether to write this as an answer or a comment.
There is some knowledge that is regularly needed in the work - we can assume that this is necessary for the position.
If a person refuses to learn this, then it makes sense to replace the employee.
I see it as:
1) not understanding chmod at all and not wanting to understand = bad
2) for the first time in my life I come across some sticky bit when working with chmod; not understanding what the hell is going on, being dumb and then asking for help = okay, this is a growth process
. I had a lead experience of 3 years. Team of about 10 developers. During all this time, three people were "fired" for various reasons. And at the same time, everything - it’s very fun to relax with them, there is something to talk about, cool guys. And I really didn't want to work with them. It happens.

Answer 3

Maybe I will take a position that is not very popular, but what can I do?)
You have taken a completely impassable position. Take a look from the other side.
If there are mandatory collisions with SQL, Linux, etc. in the work of the Front-end, and this is not reflected in the vacancy (or how did he get there??), then the programmer can quite reasonably make claims.
Of course, it's good for you if he learns all this. I believe that this knowledge can be obtained in a couple of evenings. But, on the other hand, he came to the company for a clearly described position and it is quite clear that he will not expand his qualifications and range of responsibilities without increasing the salary. He understands that there will be more and more such "podkidonov". And so, it drips on your head so that you either raise the issue of new responsibilities and salaries or influence the distribution of tasks or the development process in general.
A small case from my practice when I got my first job.
I came to the company, the necessary skills are written in the vacancy, ok, I think I can do it. The interview went well. The team is fire, the atmosphere too.
And then it started ... I am a Front-end developer, but the "front-end part of projects" will not start without openServer. I’m already silent that I was the only front in the company .. So, these projects did not work on one config. In addition, they did not work without databases. To move the button, you had to run several utilities, change the config. By the way, in order to be able to see the result of the work (even the smallest one), it was necessary to edit the .php files. Multiply all this by a complete lack of experience with PHP and all related software and switching between half a dozen projects daily and you get a twitchy Front who no longer quite understands what he is doing here. During my time there, I even learned how to write bash scripts.
As a specialist, I then received a good boost in skills, but working there was difficult and very stressful. A lot of time was spent on studying how something works, and there was little left for the tasks themselves.
Listen to him and try not to take the position of the barrier, they say, I'm sticking out, and why are you going?! Solve everything f2f and try to hear what he wants.
By the way, he may not learn it out of principle. If you "squeeze" him, then he will "squeeze" you.

Answer 4

As Saboteur already said, a lot of those things that you describe are not programmer-level knowledge, this is an advanced user. In this case, a Linux user. In fact, there is probably no such way that will prove something to such a "colleague". If the situation is hopeless, and it is impossible to remove him from the team, and he does not want to study, then you can try to shame him. I used to work as enikeem. As we know, this is mostly work with people. These people work with computers, and sometimes they don’t know the basic things related to their work, and they think that the local administrator should help them do it. Well, for example, someone who has ever been an Enikey has probably come across a situation where a user asks for help with a report in Excel and similar garbage. And the answer - "I don't know how to do it in Excel" causes them wild bewilderment. I have always shamed such people with the fact that they, as an employee holding this position, should be able to do this, but for some reason they cannot. Maybe you are not suitable for a professional? Well, of course, the dialogue was longer and softer on my part, but that's the message. After that, such employees usually still learned how to do this or that operation in Excel. In your case, you can try to do this. If you have some kind of June in your project, when a colleague comes up to you again with a banal question, say - "I'm a little busy now, come back in 15 minutes." During these 15 minutes, tell your June what you need to answer, and then send your "colleague" to the June. After a beginner joon chews on the material that you should know, I personally would feel ashamed and forced me to study. Try it, it might work. that they, as an employee holding this position, should be able to do this, but for some reason they do not know how. Maybe you are not suitable for a professional? Well, of course, the dialogue was longer and softer on my part, but that's the message. After that, such employees usually still learned how to do this or that operation in Excel. In your case, you can try to do this. If you have some kind of June in your project, when a colleague comes up to you again with a banal question, say - "I'm a little busy now, come back in 15 minutes." During these 15 minutes, tell your June what you need to answer, and then send your "colleague" to the June. After a beginner joon chews on the material that you should know, I personally would feel ashamed and forced me to study. Try it, it might work. that they, as an employee holding this position, should be able to do this, but for some reason they do not know how. Maybe you are not suitable for a professional? Well, of course, the dialogue was longer and softer on my part, but that's the message. After that, such employees usually still learned how to do this or that operation in Excel. In your case, you can try to do this. If you have some kind of June in your project, when a colleague comes up to you again with a banal question, say - "I'm a little busy now, come back in 15 minutes." During these 15 minutes, tell your June what you need to answer, and then send your "colleague" to the June. After a beginner joon chews on the material that you should know, I personally would feel ashamed and forced me to study. Try it, it might work. but for some reason they can't. Maybe you are not suitable for a professional? Well, of course, the dialogue was longer and softer on my part, but that's the message. After that, such employees usually still learned how to do this or that operation in Excel. In your case, you can try to do this. If you have some kind of June in your project, when a colleague comes up to you again with a banal question, say - "I'm a little busy now, come back in 15 minutes." During these 15 minutes, tell your June what you need to answer, and then send your "colleague" to the June. After a beginner joon chews on the material that you should know, I personally would feel ashamed and forced me to study. Try it, it might work. but for some reason they can't. Maybe you are not suitable for a professional? Well, of course, the dialogue was longer and softer on my part, but that's the message. After that, such employees usually still learned how to do this or that operation in Excel. In your case, you can try to do this. If you have some kind of June in your project, when a colleague comes up to you again with a banal question, say - "I'm a little busy now, come back in 15 minutes." During these 15 minutes, tell your June what you need to answer, and then send your "colleague" to the June. After a beginner joon chews on the material that you should know, I personally would feel ashamed and forced me to study. Try it, it might work. After that, such employees usually still learned how to do this or that operation in Excel. In your case, you can try to do this. If you have some kind of June in your project, when a colleague comes up to you again with a banal question, say - "I'm a little busy now, come back in 15 minutes." During these 15 minutes, tell your June what you need to answer, and then send your "colleague" to the June. After a beginner joon chews on the material that you should know, I personally would feel ashamed and forced me to study. Try it, it might work. After that, such employees usually still learned how to do this or that operation in Excel. In your case, you can try to do this. If you have some kind of June in your project, when a colleague comes up to you again with a banal question, say - "I'm a little busy now, come back in 15 minutes." During these 15 minutes, tell your June what you need to answer, and then send your "colleague" to the June. After a beginner joon chews on the material that you should know, I personally would feel ashamed and forced me to study. Try it, it might work.

Answer 5

Let's add to this the "conflict of generations" ...

haha. Is he older than you or anyone else?
there is this: "who understood life - quit work" (c)
in physics, the body always occupies the position with the least expenditure of energy
; your employee is definitely convenient in terms of salary and is not afraid of being fired - and you don’t
tolerate anything for him or use a project management approach

Answer 6

IMHO the programmer is in itself a concept constantly in the doctrine.
What if you don't know the answer to his question?

Answer 7

If he distracts you from work, what motivations can there be? It's not possible to tell all the time. If you have time to "chew" all sorts of underprogrammers, then something is wrong with your work. For example, I don’t have time to explain and help everyone how to connect the API. If I do this, I will not be able to complete my work on time. And that means I will lose a lot of money. You weren’t hired as a teacher, and not as an assistant to the morons. It is assumed that a person comes to work with all the necessary knowledge. Of course, there is knowledge that is purely specific to a particular company, but knowledge of linux and http is not included in this.