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After hiring numerous developers during the last month I have concluded that a big portion of the difference between the competent devs and the incompetent ones is that the competent ones are always learning. It isn't necessarily an IQ thing, it is largely an attitude thing. For example some devs with 10+ years experience type extremely slow on a keyboard and don't use any keyboard shortcuts. They can't use git from the terminal and simply fail basic tasks outside their narrow niche. Their attitude is that they just learned how to complete certain tasks and they do those tasks on repeat.
The best ones are trying new things and learning. The better devs often have some strange flavour of linux, like obscure programming languages etc. This isn't because these tools are productive, it is because they learned these tools out of curiosity. To be a solid developer one has to be curious, trying to do things in new ways, trying to understand why things are the way they are and trying to improve.
The Indians have a bad rep because they are the epitome of developers who became developers wthout any passion. Their parents told them to be developers and they grew up in a country in which making money is a priority. They learned a Java version in college and every problem can be solved with the one tool they know. They often work hard but the attitude is solve the task with the simplest possible solution without much engineering skill. When all you have is a hammer the world looks like it is made of nails.
There are of course passionate devs in India but they are fewer as so many people with no interest were pushed in. The irony of Indian devs is that they don't focus on the art side of development but on the hustle side. In practice the people who make a lot of money are those who focus on programming as an art. The lack of Indian open source projects Indians in more niche communities such as functional programming etc says a lot about the attitude.
The best career advice for devs is to not just do what you know but to try new things and learn. Constantly try to do things faster, better, with other tools and from another perspective.
notices your username is
functorchecks out
Trust a category theorist to give that particular bit of advice...
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