It is funny how you can draw similarities between two different ideas but still point out their similarities. At first thought, Baseball players and people that work on .NET are usually on two totally different ends of the spectrum, but let me explain why they might be the same.
Similarity – Baseball is at a stage where players have now been around for 20 some years, just like some of the heavy hitters (pun intended) in .NET have been around Windows for some time now.
Difference – Baseball players like to play catch. Developers tend to always be playing catch up, even when a project manager thinks there is plenty of times.
Similarity – The great baseball players try to get together to form better teams or work out groups. We have seen many times in .NET that there are banks of great developers that band together to create an environment that is right for them.
Difference – Baseball players hit things for a living. If a .NET developer hit things for a living, they would probably be sued.
Similarity – Baseball players tend to strike out quite a bit. So do .NET developers, or any computer person for that matter.
Difference – People pay good money to see baseball players at work. I will guarantee that no person in their right mind will come to watch me at work. Ever!
Similarity – Once baseball players get to a certain age they let the younger guys fill in for them and they start to step out of the lime light. Once a .NET developer gets to a certain age, they usually start to move to a manager role (see any similarity yet?), or they start to step out of the lead role and let some younger person take over.
Difference – Baseball players usually only last a couple of years. Most developers last much longer than that.
The point of all of this is that eventually the top dogs in the .NET world will move on and the question will be: who are the rookies today? Is it you? I plan on keeping my batting average as high as I can, you should too. Hope to see you in 20 years when I will reflect on where I have gotten. Hope this one was a little more fun than my usual technical entries. Please add ideas you have on the subject and let me know.
— Brendon Schwartz