13 Comments

One traceable skill a good number of software engineers who have fast tracked their careers is writing and I could not agree more with this article. I believe it's crucial at this time for engineers to become better communicators(written and oral) as this is one skill that would set us apart.

Thank you Ryan

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Agreed, I don’t think I’ve met any truly strong engineers that couldn’t at least write well. Thanks for reading Mitchel

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If AI can do more or most of the logic, thinking creatively about how to build software and solve user problems becomes much more important.

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Definitely. I imagine more and more people will become develop the "tech lead" skillset since AI will help us execute on small to medium sized features.

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Communicating can also help make your code more simple and easy to read. Having your code simple is important as you want your code to communicate what it does, so other developers can see it and adjust it if they want something changed (also reduce the likelihood of errors and bugs).

One of the ways you can improve your communication is by talking to strangers whenever you go somewhere. So if you are going out to eat, you can talk to the stranger next to you or behind you. If you're waiting in a line, you can talk to people in front of you or behind you. This does take guts and courage, but if you don't have time to go to Toastmasters or write, then this is a good way to practice since people are around us.

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> Communicating can also help make your code more simple and easy to read

Agreed, I see this directly in well-written comments that my teammates write

> One of the ways you can improve your communication is by talking to strangers whenever you go somewhere

Wow Ivan you're brave! An introvert like me would definitely shy away from these opportunities haha

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I love the shout out to Toastmasters!

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If anyone is looking for a great club in SF, San Francisco Toastmasters is really well run: https://www.sf-toastmasters.org/

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Totally agree with you on this one!

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Thanks for reading Tom :)

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Doing book clubs is also a fire way of practicing communicating ideas I think!

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I totally disagree. Code is million times more important. If one vs the other, I will always choose to work with good coders on code, rather than good communicators. I think you're far off with this view.

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No doubt code is important, but there are diminishing returns

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