Readings

I've found the following readings to help me on a meta level understand what and how I do what I do. Maybe even how to do it better.

System's design explains the world written 2020/12/27

• Holistic thinking is hard to measure as its effects might only come out in the long run
• This type of thinking, of projecting onto the future, is a key skill for life, let alone engineering

Dropbox's Career Ladder on a framework for measuring impact in a company, written 2021/07/12

Dropbox's Framework provides the classic breakdown of responsibilities per typical level.

• It's interesting to me how different companies evaluate and weight soft skills vs hard skills.
• Comparing to Etsy's framework there's a lot less emphasis on thoughtful communication.

The Senior Shift by Camille Fournier on titles and impact, written 2022/10/15

I haven't yet read Camille Fournier's book, The Manager's Path, but I liked the few quick bullet points in this short article:

• People who are more senior may not be more technical than you.
• This is okay!

A debugging manifesto by Julia Evans on debugging processes, written 2022/12/08

Julia Evans has a trove of information, explained in a visually fun and interesting way, and has the background to talk about it.

Some things I would like to do more:

• Trust that I will get myself unstuck
• Enjoy the debugging adventure - I always do learn something!

Normalization of deviance about company culture, written in 2015

This was shared with me by my previous coworker, Devin, when I first joined and was thrown by the lack of debugging tools available in the space in which I was working.

• Don't lose sight of what worked well before!
• It takes work to make something seem like it just "works". Like design, the best examples are invisible
• One of your assets as a new joiner to a company is that you'll provide a fresh perspective on the processes: what works, and what is frustrating