Re:How to be a -10x Engineer
by NikolaNovak on Tuesday April 04, 2023 @12:31PM
(#35442236)
FWIW :)
I used to despise the incredible amount of time we could spend on a single powerpoint slide sometimes.
Then one day when going over same slide for the 5th time with my boss and mentor, I realized:
* This slide will be seen by a person in power
* they will make a decision based upon that slide
* I would like to spend 3 hours explaining them the intricacies of my project/architecture/problem/whatever
* But they have 10/100/1000 other projects, and they have 20/10/5/1 minute to devote to me before they make a decision
* A slide or set of slides might therefore have an impact across 1/10/100 people over week/month/years due to a decision based on a slide or set of slides
* therefore, it can at times be rationally logical to spend a lot of time word-smithing a slide in order to help the right decision
As programmers, we understand that we might spend 10min/hour/days/weeks on a small but crucial piece of code, because we need the computer to understand it and do the exactly right thing in a complicated scenario; and we do not consider it a waste of time (though our management might! It's a curiously symmetrical situation :-)
Sometimes, slides are exactly that, but for people - distilled information to enable executive stakeholder to do the correct thing.
Same with other items - diagrams? They can be phenomenally useful! A good diagram can spread understanding of goal and ensure we all build the right thing. Bad diagram can set 100 smart people on divergent paths!
I used to despise the incredible amount of time we could spend on a single powerpoint slide sometimes.
Then one day when going over same slide for the 5th time with my boss and mentor, I realized:
* This slide will be seen by a person in power
* they will make a decision based upon that slide
* I would like to spend 3 hours explaining them the intricacies of my project/architecture/problem/whatever
* But they have 10/100/1000 other projects, and they have 20/10/5/1 minute to devote to me before they make a decision
* A slide or set of slides might therefore have an impact across 1/10/100 people over week/month/years due to a decision based on a slide or set of slides
* therefore, it can at times be rationally logical to spend a lot of time word-smithing a slide in order to help the right decision
As programmers, we understand that we might spend 10min/hour/days/weeks on a small but crucial piece of code, because we need the computer to understand it and do the exactly right thing in a complicated scenario; and we do not consider it a waste of time (though our management might! It's a curiously symmetrical situation :-)
Sometimes, slides are exactly that, but for people - distilled information to enable executive stakeholder to do the correct thing.
Same with other items - diagrams? They can be phenomenally useful! A good diagram can spread understanding of goal and ensure we all build the right thing. Bad diagram can set 100 smart people on divergent paths!