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Ask HN: Which everyday skill is important to master as a software developer?

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Re: Ask HN: Which everyday skill is important to master as a software developer?

#11

Post by foepys »

thomascgalvin wrote: post #6

Writing, especially technical writing. There is an art to writing concise, accurate text that someone can easily follow. Very few people are capable of this, and those that can have a serious advantage in their career trajectory. It doesn't matter what you know, if you can't explain it to someone else.

This a very important skill, especially for lead devs.

To people downvoting this, think back when you were last annoyed by bad or even missing documentation. I bet this was very recently, if not today.

Re: Ask HN: Which everyday skill is important to master as a software developer?

#12

Post by Justsignedup »

thomascgalvin wrote: post #6

Writing, especially technical writing. There is an art to writing concise, accurate text that someone can easily follow. Very few people are capable of this, and those that can have a serious advantage in their career trajectory. It doesn't matter what you know, if you can't explain it to someone else.

this.

write a blog post about stupid pointless problems you solved. and make that blog post useful for anyone who came accross that problem.

It is useless. But it is good practice for you, because being able to write technical documents that are easy to follow is highly valuable.

Oh and get everyone you know to criticize it like a code review :)

Re: Ask HN: Which everyday skill is important to master as a software developer?

#13

Post by saganus »

thomascgalvin wrote: post #6

Writing, especially technical writing. There is an art to writing concise, accurate text that someone can easily follow. Very few people are capable of this, and those that can have a serious advantage in their career trajectory. It doesn't matter what you know, if you can't explain it to someone else.

Any recommendations on resources to learn/improve this skill?

I completely agree with you but it seems pretty hard to hone that skill if there's no one to give you feedback.

e.g. you write some internal docs but then no one lets you know how could they be more useful/understandable, until someone else comes and re-writes the docs.

Re: Ask HN: Which everyday skill is important to master as a software developer?

#16

Post by wly_cdgr »

saganus wrote: post #13
thomascgalvin wrote: post #6

Writing, especially technical writing. There is an art to writing concise, accurate text that someone can easily follow. Very few people are capable of this, and those that can have a serious advantage in their career trajectory. It doesn't matter what you know, if you can't explain it to someone else.

Any recommendations on resources to learn/improve this skill? I completely agree with you but it seems pretty hard to hone that skill if there's no one to give you feedback. e.g. you write some internal docs but then no one lets you know how could they be more useful/understandable, until someone else comes and re-writes the docs.

Do some teaching / tutoring. You will get useful feedback by observing whether your students understand your explanations.

Re: Ask HN: Which everyday skill is important to master as a software developer?

#18

Post by wly_cdgr »

Justsignedup wrote: post #10

Things that have made me a better programmer: - Mentoring - Outsourcing my thoughts to discussions with other engineers. Help leverage their knowledge, and help myself. - Thinking about error handling when integrating 2 systems. Expecting failure should be part of the solution. - Making systems that are designed in the "there are obviously no problems" vs "there are no obvious problems" which I have succeeded in vari…

What does project ownership mean to you?

Re: Ask HN: Which everyday skill is important to master as a software developer?

#19

Post by bwh2 »

saganus wrote: post #13
thomascgalvin wrote: post #6

Writing, especially technical writing. There is an art to writing concise, accurate text that someone can easily follow. Very few people are capable of this, and those that can have a serious advantage in their career trajectory. It doesn't matter what you know, if you can't explain it to someone else.

Any recommendations on resources to learn/improve this skill? I completely agree with you but it seems pretty hard to hone that skill if there's no one to give you feedback. e.g. you write some internal docs but then no one lets you know how could they be more useful/understandable, until someone else comes and re-writes the docs.

Read the book On Writing Well by William Zinsser.

Re: Ask HN: Which everyday skill is important to master as a software developer?

#20

Post by wly_cdgr »

tuckerpo wrote: post #7

Soft skills. Make a point to talk to almost everyone. Most companies are not meritocracies. If you wanna get ahead, you have to know how to schmooze.

They are not so unmeritocratic as all that. Soft skills are a key part of merit.
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