Yes, I aggree, a few driven people is probably enough. There is a really interesting book called 'in praise of slow' which has the idea as its main point
I don't think the post is say that you CAN be the next Jeff Dean, Norvig, Linus, Stallman, Carmack, Wolfram etc. etc. by not coding outside of work. I think they are saying that it's OK not code outside of work, its OK not to be in this very top percent of the profession.
What is a 'True Professional' in the context? I don't think you can compare the top 0.01% of any profession to the rest and say this small percentage are the 'True' professionals and the rest are not. Pretty sure my accountant is not doing accounting in his spare time, he is no less a professional for not doing so.
I think this goes deeper than coding, we live in a world of “Give it you’re all”, but really the only thing we should be giving it all for is what makes us happy.
Over the last 25 years of coding, I’ve always stuck to the 9-5 (ish), 5 days a weeks. I’m not rich, but do alright and I’m fairly happy. I actually have time to do things that are not coding outside of work.
The world needs driven people that give it their ‘all’, but we shouldn’t give those a hard time that just give their ‘bit’
Sounds to me like keeping up with the Jones' but in a different way. "Oh you've been to 20 counties? Well I've done one, but covered it 20 times deeper" Does any of it really matter? You experience life for you, not anyone else, if you get more out of speed running every country you can than spending a year in Provence- then that is the way to go.
Both are good, both are bad, both are nothing to keep score over.
Yes, readability is good, it makes any scripting easier. SQL is no exception. Hand in hand with this is calling things what they are and good comments for the 'why' rather than the 'what' parts of a statement.
So I'm I right in thinking that there is a call to 'punish' some people due to their (albeit unpopular with many) political views? That doesn't seem very progressive or civilised...undemocratic even.
I think I might be missing the point of the article. It just seemed to be a bit of a rant (not very pleasant one at that). Is the author saying that people that perform well are born that way, so shouldn't be rewarded?