Tall Poppy Syndrome: How to Succeed in Tech Without Being Cut Down

7 points

3 years ago

So, DevOpsDays Austin 2023 is over, and I was very glad to see some old friends again, and to get a chance to meet some new ones. I would like to note that the best talk I saw was one from Brooke Jamieson, who is a Senior Developer Advocate at AWS. It was entitled "Tall Poppy Syndrome: How to Succeed in Tech Without Being Cut Down".

Unfortunately, DevOpsDays Austin 2023 was not recording talks this year, but it turns out that Brooke gave the same talk about a week ago at DevOpsDays Rockies, and I found the link for their recording at https://youtu.be/bZGc7xp8H1E

I'm curious -- how many people on HN have heard of Tall Poppy Syndrome? Have you ever been Tall Poppied? Have you ever Tall Poppied anyone? If you have gotten a promotion or even just some accolades, what have you done to ensure that you've left the ladder down for the next person? What have you done to actively help the next person get up the ladder?

These are all questions that I'm going to be asking myself as I review my 30+ year career so far.

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