6 ms·

My favorite line in the post, and one that inspires my own efforts lately: > How to be a 10x engineer: help ten other engineers be twice as good. Producing hig

My favorite line in the post, and one that inspires my own efforts lately: > How to be a 10x engineer: help ten other engineers be twice as good. Producing high-quality educational materials enables you to be a 300x engineer.

Jtsummers 6y ago
That sentiment (though I didn't think of it in quite this fashion) is why I set up a bi-weekly project management meeting at my last office, and tried to set up something similar for technical people. The PM meeting was not a status reporting meeting. It had no management beyond the PMs (that is, no supervisors proper). The entire purpose was to facilitate sharing information across project boundaries (technical, procedural, or even just a chance to vent). I considered it to have "paid for itself" after two PMs discovered that another PM had already solved a procedural problem (how to get something done, not a technical problem) that they'd been stumbling over for months. That was also the day the PMs stopped complaining about the (non-mandatory) meeting that I'd set up for them. Another time, a PM discovered that another project had exactly the test capabilities they needed (but because of physical separation was totally unaware of this test lab tucked into a corner). Saved a lot of time and money that day, and the project ended up ahead of schedule in that aspect (not sure if they kept that lead, I left shortly after). I wish I'd been able to get the technical meeting going, but management wasn't willing to give people the hour I asked for and "lunch & learn" only works for the motivated when you aren't getting paid and you aren't getting training credits towards some certification.
- klenwell 6y ago
  > That sentiment (though I didn't think of it in quite this fashion) is why I set up a bi-weekly project management meeting at my last office, and tried to set up something similar for technical people. At my last office, I set up something very similar for our org with similar success. Your PM procedural problem case is a perfect example down to the complaining about having to attend a meeting they weren't required to attend. Enter new management. After 8 weeks of ice-breaking meetings in triplicate and taking cues from all the wrong people, the first concrete thing they did that touched me was cancel that meeting. I found new employment shortly thereafter. It's now an essential part of my repertoire. For technical people? Well that's mostly my team. We have a Trello board where anyone on team can drop RFC cards. Members of my team meet every couple weeks to review and discuss. It's visible to the whole org if anyone else is interested. (Generally, they aren't.)
  - Jtsummers 6y ago
    I wanted the technical meeting because that was actually the weak spot for the org. Each team was isolated from each other to a greater than necessary degree. And no team was really "world class". But several had a phenomenal grasp of some aspect of development that the others lacked. I wanted to breakdown the, largely, artificial barrier between teams and better spread this knowledge and capability. In the end, I quit before I could realize that, and what did happen (after I left) was more like you describe. Several teams basically did what you describe and set up their own internal learning and instruction approaches. But that doesn't help across the org, the bad teams are still bad. And the problem, mostly, wasn't the people but the time. They needed an opportunity to step back and think, and the firefighting they'd gotten stuck in was neverending. An hour every couple of weeks to hear and learn from others would've benefited them greatly.
Thaxll 6y ago
Writing a book does not add value to your employer, enabling engineers in the world is one thing but it does not affect your day to day job or people arround you.
- ticmasta 6y ago
  yes, why would an employer want employees who have the capability to write a book on the payroll? That's time that could be spent heads-down coding! </s>
  - Thaxll 6y ago
    I'm answering to the 300x engineer quote, an x engineer is in the scope of an employer.
    - Cthulhu_ 6y ago
      An employer would LOVE to have a 300x engineer on board. I mean take someone like Martin Fowler who wrote a number of highly influential book and a great website. Every time you look for him, you'll find his company or employer, ThoughtWorks. He and his work have put that company on the map as one of the top consultancy firms; he and his work educate everyone that works for that company, they follow his teachings and mindset, and become "10x" because of it. Companies would be DESPERATE to hire him. Maybe not the kind of employers you think of, no, and maybe you wouldn't hire him for his 'output', but that's a very superficial way to look at it.
chasd00 6y ago
i logged in only to mention "How to be a 10x engineer: help ten other engineers be twice as good." is fantastic! That's going in one of my sigs.
imtringued 6y ago
I agree with the former statement but once you have reached a 300x productivity multiplier you are no longer an engineer. You're primarily a teacher who communicates via books.

Jtsummers 6y ago

That sentiment (though I didn't think of it in quite this fashion) is why I set up a bi-weekly project management meeting at my last office, and tried to set up something similar for technical people. The PM meeting was not a status reporting meeting. It had no management beyond the PMs (that is, no supervisors proper). The entire purpose was to facilitate sharing information across project boundaries (technical, procedural, or even just a chance to vent). I considered it to have "paid for itself" after two PMs discovered that another PM had already solved a procedural problem (how to get something done, not a technical problem) that they'd been stumbling over for months. That was also the day the PMs stopped complaining about the (non-mandatory) meeting that I'd set up for them. Another time, a PM discovered that another project had exactly the test capabilities they needed (but because of physical separation was totally unaware of this test lab tucked into a corner). Saved a lot of time and money that day, and the project ended up ahead of schedule in that aspect (not sure if they kept that lead, I left shortly after). I wish I'd been able to get the technical meeting going, but management wasn't willing to give people the hour I asked for and "lunch & learn" only works for the motivated when you aren't getting paid and you aren't getting training credits towards some certification.

klenwell 6y ago
> That sentiment (though I didn't think of it in quite this fashion) is why I set up a bi-weekly project management meeting at my last office, and tried to set up something similar for technical people. At my last office, I set up something very similar for our org with similar success. Your PM procedural problem case is a perfect example down to the complaining about having to attend a meeting they weren't required to attend. Enter new management. After 8 weeks of ice-breaking meetings in triplicate and taking cues from all the wrong people, the first concrete thing they did that touched me was cancel that meeting. I found new employment shortly thereafter. It's now an essential part of my repertoire. For technical people? Well that's mostly my team. We have a Trello board where anyone on team can drop RFC cards. Members of my team meet every couple weeks to review and discuss. It's visible to the whole org if anyone else is interested. (Generally, they aren't.)
- Jtsummers 6y ago
  I wanted the technical meeting because that was actually the weak spot for the org. Each team was isolated from each other to a greater than necessary degree. And no team was really "world class". But several had a phenomenal grasp of some aspect of development that the others lacked. I wanted to breakdown the, largely, artificial barrier between teams and better spread this knowledge and capability. In the end, I quit before I could realize that, and what did happen (after I left) was more like you describe. Several teams basically did what you describe and set up their own internal learning and instruction approaches. But that doesn't help across the org, the bad teams are still bad. And the problem, mostly, wasn't the people but the time. They needed an opportunity to step back and think, and the firefighting they'd gotten stuck in was neverending. An hour every couple of weeks to hear and learn from others would've benefited them greatly.

Thaxll 6y ago

Writing a book does not add value to your employer, enabling engineers in the world is one thing but it does not affect your day to day job or people arround you.

ticmasta 6y ago
yes, why would an employer want employees who have the capability to write a book on the payroll? That's time that could be spent heads-down coding! </s>
- Thaxll 6y ago
  I'm answering to the 300x engineer quote, an x engineer is in the scope of an employer.
  - Cthulhu_ 6y ago
    An employer would LOVE to have a 300x engineer on board. I mean take someone like Martin Fowler who wrote a number of highly influential book and a great website. Every time you look for him, you'll find his company or employer, ThoughtWorks. He and his work have put that company on the map as one of the top consultancy firms; he and his work educate everyone that works for that company, they follow his teachings and mindset, and become "10x" because of it. Companies would be DESPERATE to hire him. Maybe not the kind of employers you think of, no, and maybe you wouldn't hire him for his 'output', but that's a very superficial way to look at it.

chasd00 6y ago

i logged in only to mention "How to be a 10x engineer: help ten other engineers be twice as good." is fantastic! That's going in one of my sigs.

imtringued 6y ago

I agree with the former statement but once you have reached a 300x productivity multiplier you are no longer an engineer. You're primarily a teacher who communicates via books.