Soft Skill Importance == Tech Skill Importance

There is overwhelming evidence that things categorized as 'Soft Skills' are important, but I rarely see them being woven into coursework.

Occasionally I see them being addressed via good leadership or mentorship.

I've wondered if a 'Soft Skill Boot Camp' that comes before a 'Coding Boot Camp' would help folks succeed better (let me know in the comments if you like that idea).

Your health is your armor, and your resolve is your spear. Time to take on that dragon.

Resolve + Resilience + Action - Addiction = Motivation

It is incorrect to think people have wellsprings of motivation that magically fuel their ability to progress.

Resolve: The energy to do or not do a thing depends on how you have cultivated your resolve (I resolve to take care of my family). Maybe the issue with your motivation at work is that it does not align with your resolutions. Maybe you don't even have resolutions and are drifting.

Resilience: It also depends on your resilience. If you are in pain, you burn through motivation faster than when you are not in pain. Think about how you felt last time you had a cold/flu, and whether you felt motivated then. Your health is important.

Action: Motivation often follows action. Resolve to spend 5 minutes walking a day. Often you discover that you feel more motivated to walk at the end of the 5 minutes, than you did at the beginning. Same goes for learning complex tech.

Addiction: The Environment you are in is extremely important. We're surrounded by addictions that sap Motivation, including the device you are using to read this. If you resolved to stop looking at social media for one week, think about the impact that would have on your ability to focus on a task.

This article goes into a lot more detail.

Pruning a tree makes it strong.

Intelligent Progress == Wise Constraint

Check out how pruning makes trees stronger and more resilient.

Intellect builds features, wisdom cuts features. Balance between 'Yes' and 'No' is as important to a company as they are to a person. Constraint is also referred to as the 'mother of creativity'. It is okay to build the simplest version of something to 'test' if it deserves its more complicated version (as long as you are not breaking user trust).

Consider the following two Situations

Engineering as ticket-takers.

• Engineering team told to build Feature 1 -> Build
• Engineering team told to build Feature 2 -> Build
• Engineering team told to build Feature 3 -> Build

Vs.

Engineering part of Cross-functional team, with input into Solutions.

• Feature 1 solving user pain = No -> Cut
• Feature 2 solving user pain = No -> Cut
• Feature 3 solving user pain = Yes -> Build

It makes sense that you'd be frustrated, if you tried to jump over a mountain.

Many Small Steps > One Large Step

This is part of why Continuous Integration / Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) works so well.

It also works to learn this way.

It also works to solve problems this way.

Instead of learning Python and SQL at the same time, learn SQL by itself. Then learn Python. Then use them together.

The success or failure signal for a small step (single component) is much easier to differentiate than a large step (with many components).

Hear what a teacher has to say.

Sage's Bookshelf

This is the grab bag of cool things.

1. Leadership: "Our CTO wasn't a CTO" (This is a common issue across all highly technically specialized roles as they grow into leadership)
2. User Pain: "Does it cost a Beer, a Car, a Plane? Do we get a Beer, a Car, a Plane in return?" (I felt validated)
3. User Stories -> Tests: User Stories being tied directly to specific Tests (This helped me close the loop in my mind, and supports Test Driven Development (TDD))
4. Roles in AI: Where do you fall in the AI Field? (AI is really complex, lets not confuse roles and be clear on responsibilities- you wouldn't ask a Doctorate AI/ML individual focused on the science of building models to also create a fully production-ready app would you?)
5. Industry Trend: Software Engineering titles have (Almost) lost their Meaning (This is why making your efforts to improve public as an Engineer is important)
6. Startup Life: Why Everything Takes Longer and Longer in Growing Startups (Software is like an Iceberg)
7. Postgres: Why Does Everyone Run Ancient Postgres Versions? (Postgres? More like.. Postbest eyy)
8. IDE: Project IDX (I like that there is a Cloud IDE based on VSCode)
9. Nocode: MindStudio (Fancy)
10. AI: The impact of AI on Productivity (Data-based Decisions)

Feel free to leave me feedback in the comments, suggest a change, or share your own really cool thing! Your link could show up in the bookshelf, and I'll credit you as an honorary bookshelf contributor. 🙏

Building AI: Interested in help building AI & Software? Check out Rosenblatt AI via Website, or check out the Upwork. Let them know I sent you. :)

#startup #cto #ceo #fullstack #fullstackengineering #softwareengineering