A Field Guide to GitHub Developer Archetypes

GitHub has amazing software, but in this article, we're talking about the people behind the software. And where better to start than with the most foundational archetype?

The Noob

This user profile is characterized by a distinct lack of activity. No repositories, no code committed. Why? Because they can't tell the difference between Git, GitHub, and Git Bash. This is what happens when you confuse actual programming with passively watching tutorials.

"What do you mean, 'developer environment,' bro? I just code on FreeCodeCamp. I need GitHub so I can do open source."

You either die a noob or live long enough to become the junior dev.

The Junior Developer

The journey continues. The junior dev's profile features a life story in the README.md file and a contribution graph that is primarily updated by editing that same README.md.

Their repositories consist of numerous projects from online tutorials that don't actually work or are perpetually unfinished courses. The lo-fi is on, the soy latte is made, the motivational Reddit post is written, and LeetCode is grinded, all before receiving another job rejection email.

The JavaScript Enjoyer

Eventually, the young junior dev evolves into the JavaScript Enjoyer. This developer has an evolving GitHub account that mirrors framework trends: in 2012, it was Ember.js; in 2016, it was Vue; in 2018, it was React. But now, we're reinventing runtimes.

Put on the floral shirt, whip out the MacBook, and post the Twitter hot take. You can now use the T3 stack, which, of course, stands for Twitter rage bait, Twitch streaming, and thumbnail farming.

"Yes, bro, I know TypeScript is a linter, not a language."

These are the same people who say Vim is inefficient but then proceed to push their massive multi-gigabyte VS Code config to a public repository.

The Backend Elitist

Just as Naruto has Sasuke, India has Pakistan, and Joe Rogan has basic facts, the enemy of the JavaScript Enjoyer is the Backend Elitist.

"CSS? Is that a performance test?" "What do you mean, 'single-threaded'?" "What do you mean, 'dynamic typing'?" "Hey girl, I'd like you to balance my load."

The Backend Elitist has a contribution graph greener than a hydroponic slab. Despite the sweet FAANG job, their physical setup often looks surprisingly chaotic. They use GitHub as their primary cloud storage, and when the repositories aren't private, it's just another performance test. Whether they're writing in OCaml or edging to Zig, the Backend Elitist is often roommates with the Vimmer.

The Vimmer

Move out of the way, alt-right pipeline; we have to study the Vim script, Lua, split keyboard, and mustache pipeline. The Vimmer lives in a paradox where their only GitHub contributions are their own config, a Neovim plugin, or the occasional 3D game engine written entirely in Rust. You know, super basic stuff.

The Linux Maximalist

This developer deploys Gentoo on a Friday and switches to NixOS for Saturday. Don't you dare touch their dotfiles. Their repositories are a random assortment of projects in C, and if they're doing web development, it's HTML only. You might also spot a waifu body pillow in the background of their Zoom call.

What am I saying? They're not even on GitHub. They're actually self-hosted, living on a farm somewhere in Ohio.

The Chad

It's always a random engineer or college kid somewhere in India, Ohio, or Brazil. This individual has no time for a README because they are too busy actually writing code. They are either contributing to and maintaining core libraries, and the rest of their repositories are just the finished versions of courses you've been meaning to start.

You order coffee from a café; he orders coffee straight from the terminal.

$ sudo apt-get install coffee

This is the guy your girlfriend told you not to worry about. He's also from Brazil, by the way.

The Open Source Maintainer

Cricket has Tendulkar, the UFC has Khabib, and football has Ronaldo Nazário. For software engineering, we have open source maintainers—the GOATs of our field. GitHub has all kinds of people, from noobs to students to influencers (just kidding, influencers don't actually code).