What Matters Most in Tech? Awards, Media Praise, or Peer Respect

Question

What&rsquo;s the biggest honor someone in tech can receive that isn&rsquo;t money, a job title, or company success?Is it being inducted into a Hall of Fame like the Internet Hall of Fame?Winning a major industry award from groups like ACM?Being profiled by top outlets such as Wired or TechCrunch?Or is it something less formal &mdash; like earning deep respect from peers and being cited as an inspiration by other builders?What do you think is the highest non-financial honor in tech?

JacobArthurs · Accepted Answer

Peer respect, without a doubt.An award means a committee agreed you were impressive. Having engineers who've actually shipped things at scale cite your work unprompted means people with taste and context consider you credible.

Chachingfm · Answer

Depending on the person.

toomuchtodo · Answer

&ldquo;What are you optimizing for, materially and emotionally?&rdquo; Status? Validation? Material comfort?Many can provide advice on what to chase and optimize for, only you can decide for you.

What Matters Most in Tech? Awards, Media Praise, or Peer Respect

Peer respect, without a doubt.
An award means a committee agreed you were impressive. Having engineers who've actually shipped things at scale cite your work unprompted means people with taste and context consider you credible.

Depending on the person.

“What are you optimizing for, materially and emotionally?” Status? Validation? Material comfort?
Many can provide advice on what to chase and optimize for, only you can decide for you.