Context:
I recently joined a team and we are working on a fairly large mobile app using RN, they started a month ago. And I noticed, they don't have any fucking tests and static typings like Typescript.

I have this pretentious team leader that acts like he's the BeSt dEveLopEr in ThE woRld, and act like he always know what he's doing. But in reality, he code like crap, the formatting is shit because the ESLint config is not working, he's not even aware of it until I've fixed it. He's using every BAD Practice available, unused variables and imports are scattered everywhere, etc. And the directory structure is crap and no consistency.

How can I convince this ignorant mofo to use tests and typescript? He believes that adding those will take us longer and cost more money to the client, based on my experience, this is not the case, it's only slow on the first 2 weeks and it is worth it in the long run.

@karlmarx by seizing the means of production? 😄

ok look, about the "ignorant mofo" i know all to well that incompetence can make one bitter and make you hate this teamleader personally. But that hateful feeling wont help you and will stand in your way in handling this.
What you need is some Nicolo Machiavelli - the prince and Sun Tzu - Art of war tactics. To become team leader yourself with a smile on your face and a dagger on your back. (figuratively speaking)

Otherwise it's not up to you to decide. It's good that you made sure that EsLint is in place. And you may find a way to implement tests. But i think your Teamleader won't accept TypeScript because he may doesn't know it and he is affraid to admit that he is not up to the task?

Why is he Teamleader and you aren't?
And why is he programming, when his job is to make you the team work to the best of their abilities?

@heyheni

Thanks for the tip 😄

He joined earlier than me, and he has "4 years" of experience on RN. But judging the way he code, it looks like he just learned it yesterday. While I have only 2 years of experience in RN but 4 years as JS engineer, but I practice/read a lot so I can confidently say I'm better than him.

Yeah, it's obvious that he does not know TS and how to write tests, he's reasoning is "it's hard to find devs that is good on TS and TDD", which is clearly a sign that he is a bad developer, because he don't want to put the effort to learn something, or improve his skills. He does not care about quality. He's been here for 1 or 2 months before me, but he only implemented a couple of screens. 🤣

Be really passive aggressive about it. Fill his office with books on DDD and type theory. Replace the pictures of his kids and family with pictures or Anders Hejlsberg and axel raushmayer. Put little whitenoise emitters in his office quietly reading typescript manuals to him. Hack his radio to only get podcasts about typescript and TDD Ted talks. Take the pages out of whatever book he has in his office and replace the innards with code complete.

Don't stop there though, get the rest of the team in on it. Act like you don't see any of it, and he's totally crazy. Really gaslight the motherfucker.

He will get the message eventually.

Nah, the chances of making him change are next to none. Make your opinions known around the place, do it the right way and eventually it will dawn on others that "hey, that guy knows what he's talking about". You team lead will move on to a different company and spread his spaghetti there.

I got rid of the lead architect where I am hired that way.

@SortOfTested seems like you've done this many times? 🤣.

I did a major clean up on the codebase today, and i asked him to review my PRs.

I received a message from him after the code review, and he is transferring the team lead role to me. He said that I'm better than him and I did a nice work cleaning the mess.

I said, if it's okay with the boss, I'll take the role.

Hello, Typescript and TDD 🤣

@karlmarx cool! now you may need some team leading knowledge.
This is not to be taken lightly. Please read some books on managing people. It will help you to get far in your career.

I know @sortoftested is not a fan of the author but i think the book "The making of a Manager" is a good introduction into making people work together efficiently.
https://amazon.com/Making-Manager-W...
The Making of a Manager: What to Do When ... - Amazon.com

@karlmarx Also what do you gonna do with your ex Teamleader?
You got two options

1. Make him an ally. Give him some hours of the week to learn new stuff. Heck even a 1 on 1 training session per week. Set goals on what to learn.
And maybe do that for the whole team if the boss allows it?

2. try to terminate his contract? Or make him leave by helping finding him a new job.

@heyheni thanks for the book recommendation, I'll definitely buy it! I'm also a TL on my previous work, but I don't have a formal training, so I rely mostly on instinct and trial and error. Haha

Terminating his contract is an aggresive move. I'll try to make him an ally, I'll give him a chance to improve.

Thank you all for the answers!

@heyheni
It's her generalisms and assumption that business practices are inherently ethical that gets me. She routinely overlooks the impact of her privilege (wealthy parents, stanford education) and capitalization (her employer pays a premium for talent) on the success of her teams.

Her articles on developers in particular grate on me beyond words. She attributes 90% of the cause for project and timeline failure on developer incapacity based on her weighted experience. She ignores any suggestion that experience might conceivably be a statistical outlier.

She's on the same stack as Sheryl Sandberg to my mind. Same background, same education, failing to understand the impact her background had on her success casting aspersions on things she doesn't understand based on a false equivalency. Total Marie Antoinette.

Tl;Dr her advice is great if you're from a wealthy family working in the top of the tech industry

@SortOfTested that may be, and it sounds indeed horrible. But her book is fine with me.

Do you have recommendations for other guides on being a manager / businesses leader, that helped you becoming where you are today?

@heyheni
Subscribe to the Harvard business review, the information, the economist and the Atlantic. The new Yorker vaccillates on and off this list for me. Phoenix project, trusted advisor, MMM, the Amazon values definitions.

Generally speaking, it's also valuable to understand the mechanics of businesses in different verticals. Study tax schemes in different countries, HR strategies, asset management, supply and logistics, as well as general financials.

All of that is necessary to understand the forces at work and plot the necessary path through them for relevant efficiencies. People dynamics is just one small part of effective management.

@SortOfTested thank you for that solid advice. 👍

@heyheni
My amygdala thanks you for the trigger warning 😘