Lecture Notes: Flexing and Identity in Programming

Key Themes

• Flexing in Programming: Highlighting the practice of one-upmanship among developers.
• Imposter Syndrome vs. Superiority Complex: The two extremes of self-perception among programmers.

Story Anecdote

• Architecting scalable infrastructure.
• Interaction with a staff engineer who points out a bug in the code despite having 100% test coverage.
• The engineer fixes the issue rapidly and optimizes the code.
• Narrator realizes they have been "flexed" upon.

10 Practical Ways to Flex in Programming

1. The Complexity Flex

• Quote: "An idiot admires complexity, a genius admires simplicity."
• Take simple JavaScript functions, refactor into complex patterns (abstract factory, singleton, adapter, decorator, proxy).
• Result: Impress colleagues who don't understand complexity, especially non-coding CTOs.

2. The Money Flex

• Level 1: Junior developer making 50k, flexing on old colleagues at Arby's making 45k.
• Level 2: Senior dev next door making 225k, flexing on juniors.
• Level 3: Netflix engineer making 900k, flexing on others in tech.
• Level 4: Early Uber engineer, net worth 25 mil, now flexes on social media.
• Level 5: Billionaire crypto bro flexes on all.

3. The YouTube Premium Flex

• Own YouTube premium to avoid ads, save time, and access exclusive features (YouTube music).

4. The Vim Flex

• Choosing Vim to elevate status above users of VS Code, IntelliJ, Emacs.
• Sub-flex: Being able to exit Vim effortlessly.
• Ultimate Flex: Operating system choice. Mac for appearance of wealth, Linux (Red Hat or Arch) for real status, Windows for balanced life.

5. The GitHub Flex

• Impressive commit history and profile.
• Profile loaded with awards/badges.
• Chainsaw PR Flex: Finding young projects, optimizing by cutting lines, making tests pass, and sending impressive PRs.

6. The Influencer Flex

• Paying for platform visibility (e.g., Twitter Blue).
• Creating outrageous hot takes for visibility and engagement.

7. Ex-FANG Engineer Flex

• Highlighting experience at major tech companies in discussions.

8. Domain Ownership Flex

• Valuable domains as investments.

9. The Ultimate Flex: Leaving Tech

• Disconnecting from tech to find deeper, more meaningful existence.

Conclusion

• Story ends with realization of ultimate humility and liberation in the face of life's insignificance.