A maker is a person who likes to make and create things. They like building an idea from scratch and founding startups. Most developers are makers. They enjoy the process of designing, developing, experimenting and building a minimal viable product (MVP). A mender is a person who likes to maintain a product. They help it to growth and change to meet their customers needs over time. About 10% of developers are menders. They enjoy updating, refactoring, testing and remodeling your code. You can depend on menders to help you grow and maintain your products.
What kind of developer are you?
You are a maker if you:
- Enjoy tackling a problem and creating a brand new solution
- Like to experiment with new ideas and techniques
- Get bored if you have to repeat the same tasks
- Find refactoring code, fixing bugs and handling customer support requests to be boring
You are a mender if you;
- Find refactoring code, fixing bugs and handling customer support requests to be interesting
- Enjoy fine tuning or updating existing code
- Get stressed if you have to tackle a new problem and build a solution from scratch
- Like to work best without hard deadlines
Not sure? Andrea Goulet of CorgieBytes explains the difference.
Staying motivated as a maker or mender
Developers love to write code. Makers and menders are motivated by different things. To create your best code, you need to know what motivates you.
As a maker, you work the best when you can experiment, create prototypes and develop ideas under a deadline. Makers are like home builders. They design, build and move onto the next house.
Menders work best when they have a number of tasks to complete. They enjoy deep diving into the code and fixing bugs and refactoring it. Menders are like home remodelers. They tweak, rearrange and fix what it wrong with an existing house.
When you write code, you have to maintain it. You can make your code more reliable and secure. Legacy Code Rocks is a podcast for menders or anyone who has to maintain code.