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I know the exact moment in the interview I lost the job for a boutique app firm
in downtown Austin. They wanted to see some of my code, and, of course, they
understood I couldn't show them anything from my current or past companies. But
that shouldn't be an issue, certainly I can demonstrate any one of my numerous
side projects that I no-doubt have in progress.

But I have no side projects. I have no presence on github. I have no open-source
projects with which I whittle away my evenings. I have exactly zero pull
requests for any of the latest sexy codebases all the cool coders are in on. I
don't mess around with exercises in Haskel. And I loathe hackathons.

And when I said I have no side projects to show, what they heard - what
interviewers hear - is: I am not the best. I am not a passionate developer. I
don't spend the necessary time to keep on top of my education and skills. That
development is "just a job." 

And to some degree this is true. I am not the best. I have met some of the best,
and we are fundamentally different creatures. If I may make an analogy, back in
my distance running days I could consistently get in the top 5-10% of finishers,
but the differences between me and the elites was the difference between me and
the bottom 1%. I was a passionate runner. I ran 50+ miles a week. I pushed
myself to excel. To excel within the boundaries of the time and life-balance I
had set for myself. To achieve elite status would take a life sacrifice that I
wasn't willing to make. It would mean running at the expense of all other
experiences. 

There is a small group of people for whom code speaks. They discovered more than
a job, they discovered a calling. Code is a craft and they are artists. For
every one of those folks there are thousands of amazing, solid developers that
will write circles around 90% of the other CS graduates. But they aren't "the
best."

When companies say they want "passionate developers" that are coding in their
free time, when companies say they want "the best," I get nervous. It's a myopic
approach to team building. It's a subtle way of requesting human machines.

I've made it a point to add to my resume and online profiles the other things
about which I am passionate. The silly art project that I launched in Austin. My
dog business. Running, painting, writing. It's important to me that these
attributes be valued by my workplace. If they value it in me, then they value it
in others, and that speaks volumes about the company culture. 

The world is catching up to this reality, bit by bit. The Bay Area, Seattle, NYC
- these may be the hottest, hippest areas to have your startup or giant
conglomerate, but you severely limit your pool of potential candidates to a tiny
puddle of people that can live in these cities. I have four children. I own an
entire separate dog playcare business with my wife. I am an active member of the
local art community. There is no way I could ever live in one of these other
cities. And while some companies are realizing that I am not an edge case -
Facebook, Google, Amazon, they all have a significant presence in Austin
specifically because they've drained the talent elsewhere - too many places are
still convinced that "the best" lives to code. That "the best" is attracted to
your company because you have a nap room, work 80 hour weeks and have a ping
pong table. That "the best" is happy to drink into the Earth every Friday and
has absolutely no evening or weekend plans. Ever.

I did not get the job at the boutique app firm in downtown Austin. I have no
code side projects to show you. On Thursday evenings I go to a life drawing
studio and spend three hours with other artists sketching a variety of poses
from our model. Most evenings after I've made dinner and spent time with the
wife and kids, I sit down and knock out 2,000 words on my fifth novel (and like
the four abominations that preceded, it will sit in my Pile of Shame, never to
be seen by another human being.) Weekends I hike. I dive deep into art. I am a
passionate developer because I am a passionate person. But I have no code here
to show you.