Oddly Zen

So, you wanna be a Rockstar?

(Rockstar Programmer, that is…?)

…But the difference is striking between those who became popular before 2007 and those who’ve gained their celebrity since then, says Clinton Nixon, a senior developer at Viget Labs, a Web design, development and consulting firm. All you have to do, he says, is visit the Web sites of older-style programming gurus such as Joel Spolsky or Paul Graham and compare those to the likes of Obie Fernandez, who used a commercial photographer who works with modeling studios to help create his Web image.

Then there’s Zed Shaw, whose profanity-laced blog is filled with arrogant retellings of his greatness — perhaps just an act, but in any case quite a show. Another programmer who comes across as ego-filled (whether authentic or not) is Kyle Brady, who literally calls himself a “rock star programmer” and admits to having a huge ego “but not without good cause.”

A bit quieter in approach but still wildly creative is a programmer by the bizarre name of “why the lucky,” who blogs about his love of hacking code and a wide variety of other things, including his involvement in a band called the Thirsty Cups.

—Mary Brandel, Rockstar Coders

It is a strange world we live in, indeed, where byte wranglers and pixel pushers are elevated to the status of hero or (should I even think it?) Godhead.

I hear you thinking it. You wanna be a Rockstar programmer, eh? Well, here’s my simple plan for doing it — just follow these steps (not even in this order) and you will have crowds of drooling, glazed donut-munching, barely literate code monkeys swooning over your every typed word, every nibble of gossip leaked to the community, every hint of sarcasm.

• Blog. This is essential; the more peeps you have hashing through your RSS, the more your eventual book deal will be worth.
• Contribute. Become part of an Open-Source community. Contribute code. Write tutorials. Speak at conferences. Get your name out there.
• Participate. Post to newsgroups about your chosen technology. Visit other technical websites and blogs and comment on posts; but have something insightful to add to the discussion.
• Write a book. Maybe filter your blogging into a book; or use community ideas to shape what might become known as the next Bible of your chosen technology.
• Innovate. Don’t wait for someone else to come up with said cooler-than-heck technology. Build it yourself. It is not impossible. Something that starts out just as an idea and a developer can gain steam and industry acceptance (Like JRuby, for instance).
• Dream it — then Do It! Nothing stands in the way of your dreams more than you… rather, your inaction, or inertia. Then again, that same principle can keep you barreling down the road when you have it on your side. Start off small, but don’t give up. Make that snowball become an avalanche!

I wish you the best of luck. There’s plenty of room for another Rockstar. You might as well be it.