Musings of a software engineer, dad, and geek at heart.

Use this behind-the-curtain insight of 10x developers to accelerate your career

There are many traits common to great engineers.

While chatting with a senior developer looking for advice to advance to staff, I realized some of those traits are obvious and others are so natural they're hidden in plain sight.

I've had the opportunity to build, lead, and contribute to high performing teams across organizations of all shapes and sizes. As I've progressed over the last ... too many years ... one particular Wizard of Oz-like insight stands out above the rest.

Behind every great engineer is a sounding board made up of their peers

Despite the old stereotypes, true 10x developers don't work in isolation. They collaborate. They engage the hive mind. They feed off the energy and thought processes of those around them.

And the most effective way to do that? With a sounding board of their peers.

Top tier developers cultivate a sharp group of other engineers, with varied perspectives. Through collaboration over complex problems you:

Now that you want one, how do you build it?
Seeding a sounding board is shockingly simple. You just ask for help, in the right way.

As engineers, we all love a good complex problem to solve. It's literally what we're here for. Find one, give an honest first pass, and then ask someone who's opinion you respect to provide an extra set of eyes.

That's it. But that honest first pass is important. This isn't LetMeGoogleThatForYou time.

You want to be known for bringing the interesting problems, valuing other engineers opinions, and not wasting their time.

If you don't already have a sounding board in your corner, fix that. Today. It's too powerful of a tool to skip.

This Day 6 #ship30for30 #atomicEssay was shipped with this twitter thread:

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