It’s funny, getting that ‘senior’ tag stuck next to your name. Happened to me a while back. You spend years grinding, learning, shipping stuff, and then one day, boom, you’re the old hand. Sounds great, right? More respect, maybe more say. But honestly? It felt kinda… heavy.
I remember this one project, maybe two years ago. We were hitting a wall with performance on this old system. Real clunky thing. I’d built parts of it ages ago, knew its quirks. My gut reaction was, “Okay, let’s tweak this, optimize that,” the usual senior playbook stuff I’d done a dozen times.
The Junior’s Crazy Idea
Then this kid, fresh out of college practically, pipes up in a meeting. He starts talking about using this totally different approach. Something I’d only vaguely heard about, sounded like way too much work, maybe even risky. My first thought, I gotta admit, was a big internal ‘nope’. Too complicated. Not how we do things here. We don’t have time for experiments. All that typical senior resistance bubbling up.
I almost shut him down right there. It’s easy to do when you’re the ‘senior’ one. Just pull rank, basically. Say something like, “Interesting idea, but let’s stick to what works for now.” Polite, but it kills the conversation. Kills the openness.
But something stopped me. Maybe it was seeing the look on his face, eager and a bit nervous. Maybe I remembered times when I was the junior with a crazy idea. So, I just… shut my mouth. I decided to actually listen. Properly listen, not just wait for my turn to talk.
Trying It Out
Okay, listening was one thing. Actually trying it? That felt different. I had to consciously push back against my own instincts. My brain was screaming, “Stick to the plan! It’s safer!”
We decided to give his idea a small test run. A little proof-of-concept. Took a couple of days. Here’s what I did:
- I sat down with him, asked dumb questions until I understood the basics.
- I helped set up a small, isolated environment to test it.
- I deliberately stepped back and let him drive most of the coding for the test.
- I forced myself to just observe and help, not take over.
It wasn’t easy. There were moments I wanted to jump in and say, “No, do it this way!” But I held back. The point wasn’t just about his idea, it was about me being open to something new, even if it came from someone with way less ‘experience’ on paper.
What Happened Next
Guess what? His crazy idea? It actually worked. Like, surprisingly well. The performance jump in our little test was way better than any of the tweaks I had planned. We ended up adopting a version of his approach for the main system. Took some effort, yeah, but the result was worth it.
It was a good reminder. That ‘senior’ title doesn’t mean you have all the answers. Sometimes it means you need to be the most open person in the room, because you’ve got the most baggage, the most “this is how we’ve always done it” thinking to overcome.
I’ve seen other seniors, guys I used to work with at older gigs. Smart people, really sharp. But they got stuck. Became rigid. Any new tech, new process? “Nah, waste of time.” Their projects started lagging, their skills got rusty. Eventually, they just kinda… faded out. Became the grumpy old-timers nobody wanted on their team. It’s a slow process, but it happens if you’re not careful, if you close yourself off.
So yeah, ‘senior open’. It’s not just a title or a buzzword. For me, it’s about actively fighting that urge to shut down, to stick with the comfortable. It’s about forcing yourself to listen, to try, even when your gut screams no. It’s about realizing that sometimes the best ideas come from the places you least expect. Keeps you sharp. Keeps you relevant. Honestly, just keeps things interesting.
