One of the things that fascinates me about software engineering, is how there is no metric to determine who is the best software engineer.

The guy who worked at FAANG?
The guy who started his own company and created their own product?
The guy who owns a RGB and two monitors setup?

The one who's asked the most questions from other devs. 8-)

...or maybe delivers the most (accepted) answers... refering to Jon Skeet ;)

For defining such a metric you have to define the result of being good first. Is it business value? Or is it user satisfaction? Are safety and security incidents just costs of doing business that can be substituted by gains in other metrics or is it a higher goals to avoid having them?

Same applies to any other occupation.

How likely you have to update the code later because something breaks it or because there was a security issue.

@electrineer Kind of but not all.

The best businessman will generate the most money.

The best teacher will have the most toppers.

The best footballer will have the most number of goals.

I'm saying there is A metric for these jobs which is somewhat acceptable by most.

@Sid2006 I don't agree with any of those. Certainly some of them mean that they are good or at least not terrible, but there are too many other factors that affect the outcome, and the outcome itself isn't the only favourable one that should be considered.

Worked at FAANG doesn't sound like a great achievement, quite the opposite if you ask me.

Not part of FAANG, but there was a video "a day in the life of a Twitter employee" where a employee of Twitter worked and did nothing.

@happygimp0 I agree with the FAANG one, but I mentioned it because I'm tired of programmers on YouTube trying to give them credibility because they worked in FAANG.

The one who has the most points on devrant

Candidate: https://youtu.be/expgMekxlvU
Chris Sawyer

The one who balances doing thier job well enough to keep it without getting burnt out and losing their passion for the craft