> They are paying you to generate revenue (or save costs). One of the senior engineers in my company once told me, "business is the dog, technology its tail",

> They are paying you to generate revenue (or save costs). One of the senior engineers in my company once told me, "business is the dog, technology its tail", not the other way around. While I later argued with a completely different set of engineers that the analogy isn't great, the gist of the idea remains valid: we shouldn't be building beautiful technology just for the sake of it. Rather, we should be building technology that will serve the business best, while balancing out short-term and long-term gains. > Dealing with Humans (incompetent and otherwise) is actually what most of us get paid for This is so true as well. I often realize that the problems I solve at work aren't exactly rocket-science. However, I have learned a bit about effectively interacting with humans, and that is probably more important to my company than my pure technical skills. I didn't have any of these skills and I am still learning. However, I'd HIGHLY recommend the following "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change" for anyone wanting to learn soft skills.