Thread by @vishweshji

I’ve worked with some of the smartest engineers at Mindtickle
, Slack, Microsoft, Astro, Acompli, Quickoffice and so on.

I got to observe what makes them stand out in their performance.

Here is a 🧵 on “7 Habits of highly effective engineers” that I have seen around me.

1. They know when to slow down -

This is highly underrated but most important habit IMO. They always focus on impact than effort, focus on sustainable productivity, play long term game

They know how not to get burnt out 🙌🏻

2. They are fearless in diving into code they don’t know - they not only know how to write code but master the art of reading code and finding patterns in it.

Priceless skill 🙏🏻

3. They invest in tools - they make their life simple using great tools, custom scripts, custom dashboards, calendar, reminders, desk setup (peripherals), notification settings etc.

Again things that will maximize their impact and save them time.

They know value of time ⌚

4. They are Sherlock in debugging - most engineers will look at obvious places even though sometimes they know issue is not there. While Sherlock would say: “When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”

5. They are Generalists by choice - they would build high level knowledge of how things work end-, to the extent where it will help them read, debug code and make pragmatic decisions.

Of course they have their own speciality but they are not afraid to be generalist.

6. Listening and writing skills - they always listen for context and write with context.

They can build greater understanding of problems and also have great empathy towards stakeholders due to their good listening abilities.

They also know how to write precise notes.

7. Grit - as @angeladuckw says Grit is passion and perseverance for very long-term goals. Grit is having stamina. Grit is sticking with your future, day in, day out, not just for the week, not just for the month, but for years, and working really hard to make that future reality.

Bonus - I have seen some amazing engineers maintain "work logs" or as @b0rk calls them “brag document” and share with their managers.
This is unique and helped me as a manager a lot.

More on this here - jvns.ca/blog/brag-docu…

Of course there are many more traits I’ve observed which I will keep tweeting.

Would love to hear from you all some unique traits in engineers around you.

Agree with these points? Want to let more engineers know and learn from this?

1. Retweet the first tweet below.

2. Share your thoughts!

https://twitter.com/vishweshji/status/1439572736485957633?s=21