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All of the writing I did in a week as a software engineer · Caffeinspiration

alexanderell.is · 1,478 words · saved by 1 readers

The other day, I was thinking about less-obvious skills that I find helpful for working as a software engineer. Some skills are obvious, like understanding technical topics, learning new things, and thinking like a computer, but there’s a separate class of unobvious skills that an outsider may not immediately think of when they imagine a career in software.1 Empathy and communication are the main ones that come to mind.2 3 The other day, I was thinking through what communication looks like for my day job. Much of it is talking with other people, be it occasional on-site hallway conversations, 1:1s, meetings, or presentations. A great deal of it is also in writing, especially as I work from home. I have a general feeling that I do a lot of writing, but as an experiment, I thought it would be interesting to look at all of the writing I did in a given week. Quick caveat that I’m also pretty biased towards writing. I like to write, so I write more, so I get a lot of practice writing, so I

The other day, I was thinking about less-obvious skills that I find helpful for working as a software engineer. Some skills are obvious, like understanding technical topics, learning new things, and thinking like a computer, but there's a separate class of unobvious skills that an outsider may not immediately think of when they imagine a career in software. 1 Empathy and communication are the main ones that come to mind. 2 3 The other day, I was thinking through what communication looks like for my day job. Much of it is talking with other people, be it occasional on-site hallway conversations

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