How 'Rock Star' Became a Business Buzzword 80
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."
There was no dove (Score:1)
who bites the heads off doves
Ozzy Osbourne bit the head off a bat [usatoday.com]
Alice Cooper did not decapitate a chicken [thedailybeast.com], but was savvy enough to make sure nobody said otherwise.
There was not dove, though.
Anyone can be a rock star? (Score:5, Funny)
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There are porn character actors. They play the character of "the penis". It's quite literally the male equivalent of the old joke "What do you call all of that flesh around the vagina? The woman." What do you call all of that flesh around the stunt cock? A porn character actor.
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http://www.imdb.com/name/nm000... [imdb.com]
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every actor in a porn flick is "starring".
because there are so few actors in it, get it? if the name is on front of the box then you're a star.
Maybe they should (Score:2)
But loses its meaning quickly (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
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Recently interviewed one of these 'rock stars' contributed to over 20 projects. Blah blah blah. Could not even write psudo code with the prompt of 'dont worry if it is correct I just want to get the idea of if you can do it'. Fizz Buzz should not actually be a good way to filter people. But it is.
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If I see "rock star" in a recruitment email, it's deleted before I can read any further. I am not making this up, HR recruiters with a clue pay attention.
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+1 often it means long hours, promises of stock options, and a "Brogrammer" environment. I want cash and co-workers with a clue.
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Not to mention most "rock stars" are really just prima donnas who wrote some cool code back in the day and think they are the best programmer ever. They're impossible to deal with, and in general, write horrendous unmaintainable code. Sure they may be 10x as productive, but then everyone else has to waste 10x as much time unravelling all that code.
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No, using buzzwords to get idiot monkeys to work for Red Bull and stock options. "We need Rock Stars! We hired you so you are a Rock Star! Rock Stars don't work for money, they work for Red Bull and stock options!"
Come in here, dear boy (Score:1)
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
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+1 rock stars get screwed. Go ask Joni Mitchell or Courtney Love. In software terms, 'Rock Star' is often used to recruit the cluelessss to work for stock options...
If people look for a "Rock Star", walk away! (Score:3)
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.
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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.
Well, maybe they are overusing a buzzword, but more importantly, rockstars can recognize other rockstars and prefer to be among their own kind. Everybody wants superman but why would superman want to work for you? If they really are that good then money isn't a problem for them. Superman wants to roll with the Superfriends because it is annoying to constantly work with people who can't or won't be as effective/productive as Superman. I might not be a rockstar but I work with some heavy hitters. You cou
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Yes indeed. "A" players hire "A" players, but "B" players hire "C" players.
And job satisfaction is key for everybody that has the required talent and then went to the trouble to really polish these skills. Of course, "if you pay peanuts, you only get monkeys" still applies, but good engineers and scientists rarely aim to get rich.
The worst part isn't the rebranding (Score:5, Insightful)
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Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
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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.
You are. You truly, truly are.
HR? Fuck Those Guys. (Score:4, Insightful)
The article is inane. (Score:4, Interesting)
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.
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The front-end space is actually constrained enough that it's possible to know all of it,
Was true until a few years ago. Now frontend frameworks are multiplying faster than bunnies, and it's hard to know the names of every framework. Check out all the CSS frameworks [cssauthor.com] (and those are just the 50 most popular). Javascript is just as bad.
I don't know why we have so many frameworks lately, but I've met some developers who literally can do nothing but Angular.js. When they hear I can write straight HTML and Javascript, they are astounded. It's dishe
Not looking for heroin addicts? (Score:3)
Damn, that was a bad career move....
“rock star" (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:"rock star" (Score:2)
I don’t want rock stars, I want solid session musicians.
This is probably the best analogy yet.
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I don’t want rock stars, I want solid session musicians.
Can we keep the groupies and blow, though?
Shifting Sites (Score:1)
...in the US (Score:2)
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...
"Rock star" is a new term for an old concept (Score:1)
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
Criteria (Score:1)
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 [youtu.be]
Jimi:
https://youtu.be/xAWtuxhdUDE [youtu.be]
And the template for them all:
https://youtu.be/xGH91AN7Vms?t... [youtu.be]
Maybe "rock star" is not something to strive for.
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Choking on who's vomit?
I am not a rock star. (Score:4, Interesting)
"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.
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I could not agree more, but with one slight modification:
I do not think that "quietly" needs to fit. I think that RMS (who should be on your list), Linus and others who are among the pantheon of great programmers are not necessarily quiet. In fact, I don't want them to be. I want them to proclaim their lessons and techniques. I want to hear about how they go about their jobs. I want to learn from them.
That said, I completely agree with what I think was your sentiment in saying, "quietly". Perhaps humble or
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I could not agree more, but with one slight modification:
I do not think that "quietly" needs to fit. I think that RMS (who should be on your list), Linus and others who are among the pantheon of great programmers are not necessarily quiet. In fact, I don't want them to be. I want them to proclaim their lessons and techniques. I want to hear about how they go about their jobs. I want to learn from them.
That said, I completely agree with what I think was your sentiment in saying, "quietly". Perhaps humble or thoughtful is a better way to put it.
Yes, I accept your patch for my comment ;)
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:-)
It's just adjective inflation, nothing more (Score:2)
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 assha
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"Luxuuuuuurious. It's gold-plated, so you know it's luxuuuurious."
With social media "amazing" lost all meaning. Fucking everything became amazing. "Look at these amazing tea cozies!" No, they're not amazing. There's no such thing as an amazing tea cozy. They might be "nice." "Adequate." I could even go for something like "pretty" or "cute." But not "amazing."
When everything is amazing, nothing is amazing.
... probably just a coincidence (Score:2)
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 variou
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"This is rarely the case with most software projects."
I have often argued that software is RnD not Engineering. Engineering implies using standard techniques to solve a problem. RnD creates methods to solve problems in ways never done before or solve problems which have never been solved before. If software exists, use it. That is Engineering. If it does not exist it must be created and since it has not been solved before it is RnD.
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This is off topic but I have this urge: if software creators and computer scientists (SCCS) were to build bridges there would be far fewer still standing. The art of engineering is based on process and creativity to use it. There is also this another thing.
SCCS tendency to despise any methodology borders on silly. The fact is we all need methods and processes. Even the geniuses among us that work on the very cutting edge of technology need them (or perhaps especially they do
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This. See also: food chain.
Well yes (Score:2)
'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.
It's not that complicated (Score:3)
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".
Great post (Score:1)
Does that mean heroin addiction and under 28? (Score:1)