Great ask. I have 20 years of experience. In no particular order… - Read great code: e.g. Redis - Learn systems thinking: Book like Thinking in Systems, The S

Great ask. I have 20 years of experience. In no particular order… - Read great code: e.g. Redis - Learn systems thinking: Book like Thinking in Systems, The Systems Thinker, or similar. Learn how to structure your thinking. - Disagree well. Argue with data. Learn about people you work with to understand how they are wired and how they think (credit Ray Dalio’s excellent Principles book) - Learn, practice, and hone above average human skills! Don’t be an ass. Listen. Be slow to criticize. — Obsess about being awesome at communicating—1:1, group, written, presentations. - Learn algorithms and data structures well so you have a firm foundation upon which to design solutions. - Learn about how nature designs systems. Learn about fields outside yours (architecture, civil engineering, etc) to gain perspective on how they solve problems. - Ask many questions!