I get that times are changing, but I still believe that if you choose not to write well, you just aren't being professional.
Undervalued Engineering Skills: Writing Well
111–120 of 385 posts
Re: Undervalued Engineering Skills: Writing Well
#112Especially for those who work remotely, I (English is my third language) can't overstate the importance of deliberately working on writing skills. As remotees, we are often judged by our words, whether we like it or not. A couple of recommendations:
• Many here might've already come across it, but is always worth bringing up: William Zinsser's, On Writing Well. In which, he urges us to write with "clarity, simplicity, brevity and humanity"; tells us "the intangibles that produce good writing—confidence, enjoyment, intention, integrity"; reminds us to "remember that what you write is often the only change you'll get to present yourself to someone whose business or money or good will you need"; and much more.
• The equally excellent book, Clear and Simple as the Truth[2]. In this rigorous work, Thomas and Turner describe a style of writing that rests "on the assumptions that it is possible to think disinterestedly, to know the results of disinterested thought, and to present them without fundamental distortion. In this view, thought precedes writing". And the book also has a chapter that is aptly titled, The Museum, a "guided tour through examples of writing, both exquisite and execrable".
The second book, I suggest to slow-read it over a period of several months to digest it (and perhaps even do the exercises in the chapter titled The Studio, if you're a non-native speaker), not least because, as a certain Roman Stoic urged us, to read attentively—not to be satisfied with "just getting the gist of it".
[1] https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7881675.William_Zinsse...
Re: Undervalued Engineering Skills: Writing Well
#113This is one thing I love about stripe. There are a ton of resources to write, and every employee is encouraged to communicate at a very high level.
Re: Undervalued Engineering Skills: Writing Well
#114Earlier quoted context omitted.
Most programmers simply do the tasks assigned to them, because most programmers don't know how to sell! If you can sell , then you get to decide what you should be working on, convince your manager (and team leads, and other managers, and business teams, and anyone else who might be a stakeholder or shot caller) that it is in their best interest to have you work on the thing you have recommended. Note that this can't…
Its not that I didn't understand your point. I just don't think this applies to most software engineers.
It circles back to my point, though. It doesn't apply to them because they don't try to sell their own ideas. If more engineers took the reins of their own work, I think they'd be happier and more successful.
Re: Undervalued Engineering Skills: Writing Well
#115Writing well can have several meanings. I've found that hilarious bug tickets are much better received and treated than dry ones. Maybe because they get many eyeballs (of the sort that makes all bug shallow). Here is one of the first ticket I wrote in my still current company: Then God appeared to wazoox and told him: "You will not spread your software on the face of the world without properly testing the new feature…
Please no.
Instead of a clear script, the developer now has first has to wade through word diarrhea to extract meaning.
> Then God appeared to wazoox and told him: "You will not spread your software on the face of the world without properly testing the new features, so as not to get into trouble with a rarely used tool that proves buggy with an important customer. I said, and so be it."
This could have been replaced with: "First test new features before sending to customer." ... ... I think.
What a way to waste time of your audience.
Re: Undervalued Engineering Skills: Writing Well
#116I actually have found that if you are an engineer who displays well-rounded skills in multiple disciplines, like business acumen, communication, writing and conflict management, this causes managers and non-engineers around you to view you as a threat, and they will work harder to undermine you and try to box you into a “engineer only” label. Above all, you won’t be rewarded for these other skills, despite how vital…
Ugh. In that case, you should move to someplace that values those skills.
Re: Undervalued Engineering Skills: Writing Well
#117I think people appreciate this about other people, so if there's a place where it is undervalued, it's when people evaluate themselves and their opportunities for improvement.
I remember Bjarne Stroustrup saying that an important sign that a person could become a good programmer was that they could write clearly in their native (natural) language. I can't find that quote, but I did find a 2013 interview [1] in which, forced to pick three key pieces of advice for budding programmers in their early twenties, his #2 was, "Learn to communicate well, verbally and in writing."
[1] https://yourstory.com/2013/12/bjarne-stroustrup-interview
Re: Undervalued Engineering Skills: Writing Well
#118Earlier quoted context omitted.
+1 would really love to read any style guides or writing class materials from Amazon, if anyone can share!
+1 on this. Any info on what the writing class covers ?
My (personal) tl;dr from it was:
- Some light style rules about having no qualifiers e.g. words like "really significant" were banned
- Keep language super concise and non-flowery. Don't try to sound clever, Keep It Simple, Stupid for language basically
- Structure arguments a bit like the Minto pyramid[0] was another one I was told while there
- No one cares how much work or effort went into your doc, or how clever it is, only the final artefact of your work/thought should make it into the doc no matter how concisely you can express it
[0] https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pyramid-Principle-Logic-Writing-Thi...
Re: Undervalued Engineering Skills: Writing Well
#119Did anyone else find this article to consist of ironically poor writing? The blog post contains of a lot of fragments, run-on-sentences, unnecessary pauses, mixed tenses, dangling clauses, use of the passive voices, and no Oxford comma!
Re: Undervalued Engineering Skills: Writing Well
#120Earlier quoted context omitted.
The participants had not read the agenda, docs and done their actions before the meeting?
I had the same initial reaction, but then again...doing it during the meeting, always, ensures that all participants are at least talking about the same thing. I’ve been in meetings where it doesn’t become clear until very late that someone is bullshitting and has not actually read the materials, or read them so lightly that their comments/opinions are not well directed. This is, imho, much worse than making sure eve…
I've been writing software professionally for about 20 years. I'm not sure I've ever been to a meeting where most of the attendees have prepared by reading relevant materials including documents attached to the meeting invite. Because of this experience, I have a very different expectation. I attach documents to the meeting invite so that people can know where to find it for reference during but mostly after the meeting.