In need of a muse

You often hear about artists having a muse, someone or something that inspires them and pushes them to excel at their craft.  I think that concept applies to programmers as well, although I've never heard someone use it in that context before.

muse

 noun

Definition of MUSE

1

capitalized :  any of the nine sister goddesses in Greek mythology presiding over song and poetry and the arts and sciences

2

:  a source of inspiration; especially :  a guiding genius

(Source: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/muse)

I've had a few coworkers over the years whose excellence and creativity pushed me to try harder and push further than I expected myself capable.  I do have a fair bit of intrinsic motivation that sees me through in their absence, but sometimes I wonder how much more I could be if those folks were still around to push me further.  I don't know exactly what it is that makes the relationship so special, and why it doesn't seem to exist for most coworkers.  In those special cases, the coworker just seems to get where you're coming from, but rather than serving as an echo chamber helps you refine and improve your ideas.

The first muse I can remember really pushed me to understand the performance characteristics of the code I was producing.  He understood the internals of the programming language we were using better than I did, and the things he brought up in code reviews helped me to start really considering what my code was doing under the hood.

In another case multiple coworkers actively disliked my muse, but for me, he always cut through the BS and pushed me to do a better job, which is what I personally needed.  He was able to explain what I meant to others so that we actually made the tangible improvements I'd wanted to see but couldn't adequately sell.  He had great ideas but often would not get much beyond the minimum viable product before moving on.  But seeing what he started, I could easily envision where it needed to go and was able to more fully flesh things out.  And then he'd build on the ideas I added.  And so on.  I've always been fairly microcosmic in my approach, and he taught me to look a bit more at the macrocosm.

A different muse was able to talk me through my ideas and whittle out the weak points so I could both better understand them myself and better explain them to others.  He would often just ask "why" and that required me to think more objectively about the issue.  He pushed me to not give up on making improvements to the system even when I was initially shot down by management.  He taught me the value of teaching others, especially those with more decision-making authority, about the value of my ideas, that ideas don't always carry the same weight to others as they do to me solely based on their merits.  He pointed out the flaws in my logic and made me rethink some misguided decisions of my own.  He helped me put things in context.

Maybe calling them muses is inaccurate, but to me that's basically what they were.  I miss them.  I miss how great I felt learning and growing at such a rapid pace.  I miss the rapid feedback we gave each other.  I'm forever grateful for their influence.  I hope I was able to be for them even a fraction of what they were for me.

I'm not dissing my current coworkers; they are great and I'm glad to be on the team I am.  We really are doing some cool things, and the company is far better to work for than any of my previous employers. I guess I'm just feeling a little nostalgia for unreclaimable moments of great influence on my career and life.