Fast coders know their languages, frameworks and tools like the back of their hand. They eat docs for breakfast, have a knack for memorizing it, and an even str

Fast coders know their languages, frameworks and tools like the back of their hand. They eat docs for breakfast, have a knack for memorizing it, and an even stronger knack for making sense of it. Sounds like a job add at the Startup From Hell. Fast is a subjective term. How would you quantify? LOC/hour ? Words per minute? There is no such thing as a "fast coder". You could differentiate from "mostly beginner" and "somewhat experienced" but that's about it, and even that is subjective. I find "coder" a demeaning term and prefer programmer or developer. Do you know a programmer that recommends himself as a "fast coder" ? (Other than a job starved dev, in a low income country, to a low budget - low quality dev shop ?) As DHH says, the main factor of velocity is feature negotiation: shaving off the 20% of stuff that takes 80% of time.