Undervalued Engineering Skills: Writing Well • Hacker News Board

Re: Undervalued Engineering Skills: Writing Well

#281

Post by TeMPOraL » Fri, May 31, 2019, 9:56 PM UTC

EForEndeavour wrote: post #203

ianmcgowan wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's about emails, but I like this article[0] about how topics are covered in the military (where I imagine clear communication is important). "Military professionals lead their emails with a short, staccato statement known as the BLUF (Bottom Line Up Front). It declares the purpose of the email and action required.". I find this helpful.. [0] https://hbr.org/2016/11/how-to-write-email-with-military-pre...

The BLUF is exactly analogous to what the internet hivemind calls the tl;dr (too long; didn't read). I almost always see the tl;dr as the last line of a long post, when really, it makes a lot more sense to lead with it.

Seconded. I always put TL;DR at the beginning if it's meant as an actual summary. I sometimes put a TL;DR at the end, when it's meant as a humorous summary.

Re: Undervalued Engineering Skills: Writing Well

#282

Post by afarrell » Fri, May 31, 2019, 9:58 PM UTC

lpolovets wrote: post #188

Writing well is an undervalued skill in life, not just in engineering. When you work on a team of peers with similar skills in your field, whether that field is engineering or something else, being able to write well and communicate well become strong differentiators. FWIW, I'm pretty sure that writing (reasonably) well online is what got me a job in venture capital after ten years as an engineer. David Perell (host…

In what sense is it under-valued? There is a fabulously popular musical about how the ability to write well can propel you to the heights of leadership of a nation. In my experience, people believe that the ability to write well is key to professional success.

Where are the people who believe that writing is not a valuable skill?

Re: Undervalued Engineering Skills: Writing Well

#283

Post by JamesBarney » Fri, May 31, 2019, 10:00 PM UTC

afarrell wrote: post #282

lpolovets wrote: post #188

Writing well is an undervalued skill in life, not just in engineering. When you work on a team of peers with similar skills in your field, whether that field is engineering or something else, being able to write well and communicate well become strong differentiators. FWIW, I'm pretty sure that writing (reasonably) well online is what got me a job in venture capital after ten years as an engineer. David Perell (host…

In what sense is it under -valued? There is a fabulously popular musical about how the ability to write well can propel you to the heights of leadership of a nation. In my experience, people believe that the ability to write well is key to professional success. Where are the people who believe that writing is not a valuable skill?

In the sense I've never seen any interview require a writing sample from a dev.

Re: Undervalued Engineering Skills: Writing Well

#284

Post by psadri » Fri, May 31, 2019, 10:00 PM UTC

afarrell wrote: post #282

lpolovets wrote: post #188

Writing well is an undervalued skill in life, not just in engineering. When you work on a team of peers with similar skills in your field, whether that field is engineering or something else, being able to write well and communicate well become strong differentiators. FWIW, I'm pretty sure that writing (reasonably) well online is what got me a job in venture capital after ten years as an engineer. David Perell (host…

In what sense is it under -valued? There is a fabulously popular musical about how the ability to write well can propel you to the heights of leadership of a nation. In my experience, people believe that the ability to write well is key to professional success. Where are the people who believe that writing is not a valuable skill?

Apparently some engineers who believe writing code is all that matters (myself included at some point in time).

Re: Undervalued Engineering Skills: Writing Well

#285

Post by pistachios » Fri, May 31, 2019, 10:03 PM UTC

dboreham wrote: post #247

See also: critical thinking

What is a good book on this subject?

Re: Undervalued Engineering Skills: Writing Well

#286

Post by kovacs » Fri, May 31, 2019, 10:03 PM UTC

hyeomans wrote: post #45

beat wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And as a follow-on comment rather than an edit... There's nothing smarmy or dishonest about sales. Misleading sales is bad sales. The best salespeople are focused on fulfilling the customer's needs, not selling the product. The product sells itself once the customer understands that it fulfills their needs and offers them real benefits relative to the expense. And expense isn't just money. It's time. It's risk. It's…

Do you have any good resources on sales?

If you can only read one book on the topic I'd make it this one - https://www.amazon.com/Influence-Psychology-Persuasion-Rober...

It's not about sales it's about how people think, act, and make decisions. I would bet that most any book on sales will invariably touch on at least some of the topics covered in this book.

It's a fun read and I promise you will start to see these patterns being used in everyday life in verbal and non-verbal communication.

Re: Undervalued Engineering Skills: Writing Well

#287

Post by lpolovets » Fri, May 31, 2019, 10:07 PM UTC

afarrell wrote: post #282

lpolovets wrote: post #188

Writing well is an undervalued skill in life, not just in engineering. When you work on a team of peers with similar skills in your field, whether that field is engineering or something else, being able to write well and communicate well become strong differentiators. FWIW, I'm pretty sure that writing (reasonably) well online is what got me a job in venture capital after ten years as an engineer. David Perell (host…

In what sense is it under -valued? There is a fabulously popular musical about how the ability to write well can propel you to the heights of leadership of a nation. In my experience, people believe that the ability to write well is key to professional success. Where are the people who believe that writing is not a valuable skill?

I agree that when people talk about writing, it seems like they value it. But in practice I believe it's undervalued. I essentially don't know anyone that, given the choice of leveling up their writing skills vs their job-specific skills, actually focused on writing.

Re: Undervalued Engineering Skills: Writing Well

#288

Post by stale2002 » Fri, May 31, 2019, 10:16 PM UTC

afarrell wrote: post #282

lpolovets wrote: post #188

Writing well is an undervalued skill in life, not just in engineering. When you work on a team of peers with similar skills in your field, whether that field is engineering or something else, being able to write well and communicate well become strong differentiators. FWIW, I'm pretty sure that writing (reasonably) well online is what got me a job in venture capital after ten years as an engineer. David Perell (host…

In what sense is it under -valued? There is a fabulously popular musical about how the ability to write well can propel you to the heights of leadership of a nation. In my experience, people believe that the ability to write well is key to professional success. Where are the people who believe that writing is not a valuable skill?

It is undervalued in that a lot of engineers, especially early in their career/before they've worked at a real job, do not take it seriously enough.

Time and time again, I have heard jokes in college about the social ineptitude of engineers, and I have seen people not value basic social skills.

As people get older, these problems go away, but I really feel that we let new engineers down by letting them underappreciate social/writing skills.

Re: Undervalued Engineering Skills: Writing Well

#289

Post by cutenewt » Fri, May 31, 2019, 10:17 PM UTC

lpolovets wrote: post #188

Writing well is an undervalued skill in life, not just in engineering. When you work on a team of peers with similar skills in your field, whether that field is engineering or something else, being able to write well and communicate well become strong differentiators. FWIW, I'm pretty sure that writing (reasonably) well online is what got me a job in venture capital after ten years as an engineer. David Perell (host…

Thanks for sharing the Tweets. Two more great resources on how to write well:

https://www.amazon.com/Writing-Well-Classic-Guide-Nonfiction...

https://www.amazon.com/Help-Writers-Solutions-Problems-Write...

Re: Undervalued Engineering Skills: Writing Well

#290

Post by lpolovets » Fri, May 31, 2019, 10:24 PM UTC

frequentnapper wrote: post #272

lpolovets wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A few positive experiences I've had related to writing: 1) I used to write a lot on Quora. Being an engineer who can write made my future VC partners believe that I could do more than engineering. I'm pretty sure that building a decent readership base on Quora is what put me on my partners' radar in the first place. 2) Writing on my blog/Twitter/etc has helped put my name and my fund's name on more people's radars an…

How did you transition from Engineer to VC if you don't mind me asking?

Do you mean how I got into the industry? How I learned to be a VC once I was in the industry? Something else?