Stop Killing Developer Experience
And how company policies can scare developers away
In todays job market the developer experience (DX) is very important topic. Most talented developers might value good DX even more than the benefits or the industry they are working at. Still some companies try hard to kill the whole thing with stupid policies. And by doing that, they are losing employee retention and attractiveness of the company.
It all starts with the tools. It should be reasonable enough for the developers to choose what kind of computer and OS to use. But this is not the way everywhere. Especially older businesses, that are breaking into the IT world, are too keen to corporate Windows world with Eclipse being the only thing you can install on your machine.
Tools scale also to physical plane. Nobody wants to use old greasy keyboard that the last developer left in the corner of the office. Or try to program with screen smaller than your grandmas television from the 70’s. Developers want powerful enough machines and good physical tools. Lumberjack cannot cut trees with a butterknife, can he?
