Slashdot Mirror
How 'Rock Star' Became a Business Buzzword
HughPickens.com writes: Carina Chocano writes in the NYT that once, a long time ago, a rock star was a free-spirited, convention-flouting artist/rebel/hero/Dionysian fertility god who fronted a world-famous band, sold millions of records and headlined stadium concerts where people were trampled in frenzies of cultlike fervor. Now 'rock star'' has made a complete about-face and in its new incarnation, it is more likely to refer to a programmer, salesperson, social-media strategist, business-to-business telemarketer, recruiter, management consultant or celebrity pastry chef than to a person in a band. The term has become shorthand for a virtuosity so exalted it borders on genius — only for some repetitive, detail-oriented task. According to Chocano, posting a listing for a job for which only ''rock stars'' need apply casts an H.R. manager as a kind of corporate Svengali; "That nobody is looking for a front-end developer who is addicted to heroin or who bites the heads off doves in conference rooms goes without saying. Pretty much anyone can be a ''rock star'' these days — except actual rock stars, who are encouraged to think of themselves as brands."
who bites the heads off doves
Ozzy Osbourne bit the head off a bat
Alice Cooper did not decapitate a chicken, but was savvy enough to make sure nobody said otherwise.
There was not dove, though.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
And this one didn't (actual security news) http://slashdot.org/submission... ?
Someone answer me that please.
Why is everyone in porn a 'porn star'? Not everyone can be a star. Why are there no porn character actors?
If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
...that no longer refers to rock stars.
There is really no substantive meaning to any of "rock star" / "force of nature" / "superhero" / "leet haxor", really, beyond that stroking someone's ego is going to get them to give more and accept less - either by being told they're one of the above, or believing they'll become one if only they dream a little harder.
Ego branding for the sake of hiring egotistical developers and analysts. Therein lies the rub.
A "rock star" can be a real thing. It could be someone who continually, and repeatedly, produces great work that impacts the entire community. These people exist most don't want the branding. But companies can't hire them; they're too expensive.
So the "rock star" became the one-hit wonder person. Someone who released a nifty script on github and gave a con talk on it. Two years ago.
Slowly, over time, that rock star status has turned into "most influential". That is, those with the most twitter followers, regardless of how good they are at their craft. Don't know anything beyond basic Ruby coding and lack knowledge of security programming... but have 50K followers? Rock Star! HIRED!
Considering oneself a rock star in order to apply for such a job breaks the whole "No Asshole Rule" for hiring.
This seems to be the trend nowadays... recruiters only want the Michaelangelo or DaVinci of developers, even if they're designing some shitty spreadsheet or HR app. Just like you don't absolutely need Elan Musk himself only doing your car repairs, you don't need the best developers on the planet making your fruit stand's webpage. They bitch and bitch about how they have a "shortage of developers" but have impossibly high requirements for new hires. Get some realistic standards and get out of the business buzzword "developer ninja" or "coding rockstar" mentality.
have a cigar.
You're gonna go far, fly high,
You're never gonna die,
You're gonna make it if you try;
They're gonna love you.
Well I've always had a deep respect,
And I mean that most sincerely.
The band is just fantastic,
that is really what I think.
Oh by the way, which one's Pink?
And did we tell you the name of the game, boy,
We call it Riding the Gravy Train.
We're just knocked out.
We heard about the sell out.
You gotta get an album out.
You owe it to the people.
We're so happy we can hardly count.
Everybody else is just green,
Have you seen the chart?
It's a helluva start,
It could be made into a monster
If we all pull together as a team.
And did we tell you the name of the game, boy,
We call it Riding the Gravy Train.
As somebody that in some respects would qualify as a "Rock Star", people looking for one are an immediate red flag. Not only are they buzzword-users, they likely messed something up to a serious degree and are now looking for a person to clean up that mess. Quite often, that will not be possible with the border conditions given, and the pay will often suck in addition.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
The worst part isn't the rebranding. It is none of these f... businesses seeking for rock stars will ever pay the money a rock star deserves. That's just hilarious to read a position description asking for a rock star programmer or whatever, it usually means you will be paid peanuts and you are expected to do miracles in exchange. The HR people are the worst dumbasses on this planet. Never apply for such a position.
Achille Talon
Hop!
Like how actual rock "rock stars" are usually only slightly more talented, either artistically or technically, than the next musician, but sell orders of magnitude more because of their brand. I always felt calling someone a "rockstar" was a bit of a left-handed compliment, indicating the person is overrated. This is especially true for academia. Does anyone really think a "rockstar professor" is actually better than other people in the field? Usually it just means they are a fame hound willing to churn out mass market books and always ready to be a talking head on tv at a moments notice.
Realizing id reached a heightened plane of potential, I started branding myself as a rockstar ages ago. I've even got my own talent manager. My clients, or fan-danglers as i call them, are generally anxious to get their hands on a 30something white guy with a slight gut and a penchant for autistic levels of Linux coding. Walking into the office I'm greeted with a bevy of young project managers and middle managers, their brows pregnant with sweat and their minds crucified by my presence. Dorris, the 68 year old long-timer will look up from the copier in awe and exclaim, "we are out of cyan again." Im just that majestic.
Often times, after my rockstar power lunch consisting of a double-stuffed chipotle burrito, I'll pick up a leg and crank loose a show stopping acapella solo from my album 'winds of a burrito timeless.' "jesus" my coworkers will amaze, "holy christ what was that!?" they'll remark. Its all in a days work for a rockstar like me and on special days, ill sometimes visit the rehearsal studio down the hall for the porcelain remix. Its a rough life as a rockstar, but someones got to eat 9 donuts from the breakroom every thursday and, well, i guess im just a special kind of person.
Good people go to bed earlier.
im assuming this is reference to ATDI's big day off set?
HR can't even tell a good programmer from a bad one, much less a rock star. And pretty much every ad asking for one is not offering a rock star's salary. I've never met a rock star programmer personally, though a couple guys who used to hang out on undernet IRC's #linux channel were probably close. I've met a lot of people who thought they were rock stars, but they weren't. I've also worked at only one employer who needed programmers that talented. Sadly, they didn't have any, and weren't offering particularly attractive salaries.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
The article is inane.
First, there is no such thing as a "rock star front-end developer". The front-end space is actually constrained enough that it's possible to know all of it, and act within the limits of those constraints all the way up to the boundaries and no further. So it's a pretty rote work position for a developer.
Second, their definition of what constitutes a "rock star" is inane, in that it's a stereotype of the behaviours of people who have achieved "rock stardom", and not a description of their capabilities. The issue is one of capability, and a "rock star" musician, like it or not, is capable of doing things which others are not capable of doing. It's rather as simple as that, and hence the migration of the analogy into other areas of human endeavor.
Having a developer who is a "rock star" is a significant competitive advantage, in that they will be capable of doing things which others are not capable of doing. This is a competitive advantage, in that it acts as a barrier to entry to your market, because it means that your competitor simply can not hire someone that is capable of competing on your level no matter how much they pay, short of hiring your "rock star" away from you.
This is the equivalent of "first mover advantage", without the pressure of having to execute quickly in order to maintain that advantage. You don't have to spend crap-tons of money on "ramp speed" and "burn rate" and "time to market", and "runway"; as a result, the VC feeding frenzy ends up owning less of a chunk of your company, and you get to be rich instead of making *them* rich (or while *also* making them rich, but not as rich).
So yes, it pays to hire "rock stars" for strategic things (and again, front end web design is strategic, but from end web coding is not; designers can be "rock stars", but front-end developers can not).
So yeah: there are some stupid categories in which to advertise that the person you hire be a "rock star"; there are many others where it's not actually silly, it's smart, or it's even imperative to have one.
Yes: it's really frustrating to recruiters, and to job sites like DICE, when someone asks for a "rock star", and they are incapable of delivering one to their customer, because they have none in inventory. Lump it. Be more desirable to "rock stars", and you will be able to build an inventory; but whining about it in NY Times articles is not going to get you that inventory.
"Rock star" when put in the context of business bullshit means nothing. Nothing! That fact that this is even discussed is nothing more than diluted nerd egotism.
Damn, that was a bad career move....
putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
When someone uses the phrase “rock star” in a context other than music or energy drinks, it translates to me as “insufferable prima donna.” I don’t want rock stars, I want solid session musicians.
In S. Florida being a rock star referred to girls who were rock cocaine addicts. They were the type who were so deluded and burned out that they thought they were something special rather than skanks. It also made note of the type of neural devastation in coke addicts that causes them to not be steady on their feet such that they dance around a bit while trying to stand still. That drug is such a horror story that my feeling is that an automatic death penalty should apply on the first offence of either using, possessing or dealing in that junk. Many of watched people die in the most humiliating ways due to the effects of coke upon users. The reason that cures do not work is that a coke addict will create more coke addicts before their addiction ends. One addict can easily create several new addicts and some will create dozens. The treat and release game simply is a failure.
You got a link? I'll analyze it and get back to you.
I've never heard the term "rock star" being used to describe anyone but the member of a successful rock band (or of the front of a T-shirt).
This seems to be a US based colloquialism, and not an international one...
A "rock star" is just someone who is so talented and so rare that many companies and organizations are willing to bend or break the normal rules to attract them and keep them around.
We've always had them, now we just have a name for them.
* The high school sports star who gets a position on the starting lineup of a major college team the first game of his Freshman year
* The freshly-minted Ph.D. who wants a professorship (vs. a business career) and gets to bypass the normal tenure process
* The police-academy graduate whose talent is so obvious that he bypasses the normal promotion rules
* The soldier who is rushed through the ranks or sent to Officer Training School without the normal formal per-requisites
* The businessman who through obvious super-talent gets the ear of investors far easier than most entrepreneurs
* The high school golfer who gets sponsorships so he can bypass "Q-school" (golf's "qualifying school" - you normally need to go here for awhile in order to play in top-level tournaments)
* The high school baseball player who gets drafted into pro ball at age 18 and who winds up in the Major Leagues at age 19
* The garage-band rock musician with the talent (and luck) to become a literal "rock star"
* The programmer who is obviously in the top-few-percentiles of productivity of his peers and obviously several times as productive as his peers and who can command the salary and perks that go along with that productivity.
* The "not only a jack of all trades but a master of many" who may be merely "well above average" in his primary role but he brings so much related talent to the table that he can command the same super-sized salary and perks as the programmer I just mentioned. An example would be a manager with well-above-average management skills who is still at least an above-average designer and above-average coder and who finds the time to keep up with all the latest relevant tech.
These people existed long before we started calling them "rock stars".
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
They're not rock stars until they've trashed hotel rooms and died tragically (usually choking on vomit).
Here are some examples of rock stars:
Johnny Thunders:
https://youtu.be/bBV-FYy8lww
Jimi:
https://youtu.be/xAWtuxhdUDE
And the template for them all:
https://youtu.be/xGH91AN7Vms?t...
Maybe "rock star" is not something to strive for.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Moooo?
Moooooooo?
Moo!
"Rock star programmer" just makes me think diva, someone who is hard to deal with, because they think highly of themselves. Generally these people are not awful. They are either average or good, but they normally not good enough to put up with their pride. "Rock star" also makes me think of programmers who subscribe to the latest trends.
Would you call these people "rock stars": Dennis Ritchie, Brian Kernighan, Rob Pike, Larry Wall, Linus Tovalds? The good programmers don't make me think rock star. They make me think expert, master, craftsman, or journeyman. In other words, someone who works quietly, turning out software that quietly does the job reliably.
+1 INSIGHTFUL!
The same way that things went from being "neat" or "cool" became "awesome," and how a few years back all "fails" became "epic fails." Nowadays one can't be a "good" coder, or an "excellent" coder. One must be a "rock star." People who aren't rock stars aren't merely "below the median," they are "fucking retards."
My city has been trying to get some dubious development lately (casinos and the Olympics). The politicians and developers, seeking to get voter approval for revised laws, tax breaks, and other asshattery, love to throw around terms like "world class." I saw an ad on the subway that used the phrase three times. It's like listening to Donald Trump imitators throw around superlatives "the classiest, most gold-plated, marble-encrusted codpiece you ever saw."
In the early and mid '90s, I advocated for managing software developers as creative people, rather than as an engineers. There are arguments for and against that position. A lot of my argument for that position focused around the observation that in most conventional engineering problems, what the problem you were solving and what the pieces you were using to solve the problem and how they fit together was pretty well-defined. This is rarely the case with most software projects.
When I was shopping various projects to VCs around 1994 and 1995 I often used the term "software band" to describe the kind of development organization I wanted to build. Usually right before being escorted out of the building...
It seems disappointing to me that we now use the term "Rock Star" to describe a person who is merely extremely capable, but seem to have forgotten that there might have to be a very different management approach to get the most out of such a person. My own suspicion is that there are a lot of latent rock stars out there, that if they were just aimed properly would be able to do awesome things. Maybe that is a pipe dream.
middle management or account are still boring jobs!
If as a coder, your job is ever repetitive, you are not a rockstar. Rockstars make reusable and scalable solutions and automate drudgery, hence why they are as productive as dozens of other coders of less ability.
...yet another word/phrase has been borrowed by dumbasses, and made to mean something it didn't originally mean. Thanks.
Most if not all of human activities are repetitive.
Recruitment needs to dies- it's a joke. employees should be recruited by bypassing them altogether - children nothing more
Someone please mention this as outmoded bullcrap.
'Rock star' is a very useful term.
Jobseeking side, it's useful to filter out hipster, clueless, experimental and flatout scammer (as in all work and no pay) workplaces.
Recruiter side, it's useful to filter out narcissistic, deluded and gullible (again clueless) candidates.
"Blah blah blah." - [citation needed]
Simple American hyperbole, to the power of narcissism.
Americans use "awesome" for trivial things, so it's natural that anyone merely competent at a task would be called a "rock star".
-Styopa
We had a "rock star" programmer at my job for a while. Both he and I were hired on directly at the same time. He was a smart guy, and could accomplish some interesting things quickly, but he was a TERRIBLE member of the development TEAM.
I'd been working as a consultant on the project for the better part of 4 years, and had redesigned the system from the ground up on the second of those years. Consultants were brought on to rebuild it again in Rails rather than CakePHP, and to update things along the way. It was originally built on a massive MySQL database, with a relational design chosen for the easiest coupling with Cake. The consulting firm turned white when I explained to them everything that was going on in the system, and the realized how badly they'd underestimated the effort required to migrate the system to Rails, and all agreed that PostgreSQL was the way to go. The "rock star" wanted to use MongoDB, and was insistent on this throughout his entire tenure.
One of the projects given to the "rock star" while I maintained the CakePHP site and migrated to Rails was to build an email parser so that sales lead requests could be automatically entered into our system from the email format being sent to us by one provider. The "rock star" decided to write it in C++. None of the other developers had ever used C++, and I hadn't touched it in about 6 years by that point. The system was in Ruby, for chrissake. He didn't write it in C++ because it would be more efficient, or because it would be easier to support. He did it that way because he wanted to. After he left, someone else rewrote it in Ruby in a fraction of the time, and everyone was able to support it for the remaining period of time that we worked with that provider.
Other developers were brought on during that time. At one point, one of these new developers needed to make a change to some of the code that the "rock star" had written. Instead of discussing the changes with the new guy, the "rock star" marched out to where he was sitting next to the operations time, and loudly admonished him for daring to make changes to his work. The words spoken were "don't touch my f*cking code". To this day, we still have a cautionary meme image printed out with a SFW version of the phrase over the picture of an asshole wrestler dude, as a warning to the rest of the team to not be "that guy".
"Rock star" programmers are what is desired by companies run by the Alpha Male Frat Boy CEO stereotype, and people who identify themselves as "rock star" programmers aren't too far off from that either. These people suck to work with, and are terrible for long term development, support, and general health of the company or the development team. I was thrilled when ours left, though it would have been nice if he'd given more than two DAYS notice, and not while I was out of state on vacation. Don't Be That Guy.
I don’t want rock stars, I want solid session musicians.
This is probably the best analogy yet.
Sweet informative mod.
See subject: & I actually ADMIRE him? John McAfee. The guy's pretty cool imo + enjoys "bucking the system" (he can afford to do it is most likely why) yet helping others as well in doing so.
* E.G.-> His "How to uninstall McAfee Antivirus" video on youtube... lol!
APK
P.S.=> Still - there's no "greatest (insert genre/career/whatever here)" @ anything - just guys intensely focused on a particular area they've made a strength. In other words, the acquisition of wisdom & experience in said area(s), but none are "absolute virtuousos" either... especially in programming. It's TOO damn big! apk
Kudo's to the person who wrote this post. It is nice to see something thoughtful, adroit, and well written. I love the description "once, a long time ago, a rock star was a free-spirited, convention-flouting artist/rebel/hero/Dionysian fertility god".
I usually ask the HR person if it means they want a programmer with smack problem and will be dead by 27...