My Take on Working Styles: Alex vs Jiri
Alright, so I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how different people get things done. This really hit home for me during that project we wrapped up last quarter. It basically came down to two main guys I had to work closely with: Alex and Jiri. It was… an experience, let me tell you.
Dealing with Alex first.
Okay, so Alex. Super smart guy, no doubt about it. But getting things moving felt like pulling teeth sometimes. Everything had to be planned out to the smallest detail. We’d start with a task, and Alex would want meetings. Lots of meetings. To discuss the plan, then to refine the plan, then to double-check the plan. Don’t get me wrong, planning is good. But this felt excessive.
- We needed to spec out a new feature.
- Alex created a ten-page document outlining every possible edge case.
- Then we had three meetings, each two hours long, just to go over that document.
- By the time we actually started coding, I felt like we’d lost a week.
His code was clean, I’ll give him that. Rock solid. But the pace was just glacial. It felt like we were building a battleship when all we needed was a speedboat. There were moments I just wanted to grab the keyboard and type something, anything, just to see progress.
Then came Jiri.
Jiri was the polar opposite. You give Jiri a task, and boom, he’s off. He jumps right in. Coding first, asking questions later. Sometimes much later. It was exciting at first, seeing things happen so quickly. He’d whip up a prototype in like, a day. Impressive stuff.
But then came the problems.
- Things broke. Often.
- Stuff wasn’t thought through. Basic requirements missed.
- We spent ages debugging things that a little planning could have avoided.
- His code… well, sometimes it looked like spaghetti junction. Hard to follow, harder to fix.
I remember one time he pushed an update that took down the whole staging server. Just like that. No warning. He’d just “tried something out”. Took us half a day to untangle that mess.
So, What’s the Deal?
Honestly, working with both on the same project was whiplash. One day you’re stuck in planning paralysis with Alex, the next you’re putting out fires caused by Jiri’s speed-demon approach. It made me realize there’s no single “right” way, I guess. But man, it was tough navigating those extremes.
With Alex, you get stability but slow progress. You feel safe, but bored and sometimes frustrated by the lack of momentum. With Jiri, you get speed and excitement, but also chaos and a lot of rework. You feel energized, but also constantly on edge.
My final thoughts?
It really taught me the value of balance. I found myself wishing I could somehow merge them. Take Alex’s carefulness and Jiri’s drive. Maybe lock them in a room until they figured it out? Kidding… mostly.
In the end, the project got done. It was stressful, bumpy, but we crossed the finish line. It just made me appreciate teams where people maybe aren’t geniuses at either extreme, but find that middle ground. A bit of planning, a bit of action. Seems simple, but seeing Alex and Jiri operate made me realize how hard that balance can be to strike in real life.
