career growth

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Why Improve Your Writing?
2 months ago
- Writing advances your career by making your work visible, as demonstrated by notable programmers like Dennis Ritchie, Grace Hopper, Joel Spolsky, and Jeff Dean who were also exceptional writers.
- Writing scales infinitely; documenting answers once allows them to be reused countless times without extra effort, which is valuable for onboarding and selling a business.
- Writing deepens your understanding by forcing you to think through concepts, expose weak reasoning, and identify opportunities for improvement, even in familiar processes.
- Writing helps you find clients and users by showcasing your work, such as through blog posts or documentation that attract organic attention without cost.
- AI cannot replace the personal benefits of writing, such as standing out, deepening understanding, or spotting flaws in reasoning, though it can assist as an editor.
Creating Your Own Opportunities
2 months ago
- Engineers often complain about not getting growth opportunities from managers, but complaining rarely helps.
- Even the best manager has limits; sometimes they have boring but necessary projects.
- Create your own opportunities instead of waiting for them; example of turning a simple UI task into a reusable design system library.
- Identify leverage points where a little extra effort creates much more impact.
- Doing only your assigned job rarely leads to promotion; going beyond is noticed.
- Managers may not have bandwidth or see gaps; your daily work gives you a unique vantage point.
- Do extra work for yourself (skills, reputation), not just for the company—choose high-leverage work within existing hours.
- Not all gaps are worth filling; good opportunities are visible, help others, and compound over time.
- First complete your actual responsibilities, then look for adjacent improvements no one owns.
- Bring ideas to your manager; they are often thrilled when you propose solutions.
- This advice assumes a decent workplace; if your effort is exploited, this won't help.
The New Normal
2 months ago
- The 'new normal' is a phenomenon where your perception of normality changes due to the people around you, altering your ambitions and chances of achieving them.
- Event 1 (Serendipity): At age 12, Mitchell joined a BBS for writing game cheats, leading to a business selling cheats for $25/month, earning $400/month as a freshman.
- Event 2 (Opportunity): His programming passion and popular PHP blog led to a job as a Ruby on Rails developer, shifting his focus to building web applications for startups.
- Event 3 (Choice): He chose to move to San Francisco, work at Kiip, and surround himself with tech entrepreneurs, making it normal to pursue passion and start companies.
- Event 4 (Confidence): He left Kiip to start HashiCorp due to Vagrant's popularity, gaining confidence from his new normal to take the leap into entrepreneurship.
If You Can't Be Replaced You Can't Be Promoted
2 months ago
- Succession planning involves preparing someone to take over your role by ensuring they know all aspects of your job and are trusted by key partners.
- For career growth, being irreplaceable can hinder promotions; delegating responsibilities through succession planning allows you to take on more complex work.
- Early succession planning is crucial, as demonstrated by the author hiring a successor upon starting a new role, leading to a planned promotion and smooth transition.
- Effective succession requires your successor to be familiar with all job duties, know and be trusted by stakeholders, and have hands-on experience in major tasks.
- Everyone, regardless of role, should engage in succession planning to enable career advancement and avoid becoming a single point of failure.
- Stepping into routine or boring tasks of a manager's role can position you as the natural successor, offering growth opportunities and visibility.

career growth

Why Improve Your Writing?

Creating Your Own Opportunities

The New Normal

If You Can't Be Replaced You Can't Be Promoted