Better Software Engineering From Forming Your Own Opinions

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Hey folks, I'm just on call this week in the morning, so I'm not driving into work and I figured I should probably record a few videos. Um, so a couple topics I wanted to do and they're both regarding communication. So in both of these cases, I'll do two videos, but I feel like um it's not going to feel like it's directly software engineering. And I just wanted to have that disclaimer at the beginning because I feel like it really is. It's just uh it's just that you might not kind of see it on the surface. So, as I talk through this stuff, um the lens that I would like you to try and have is how it's applicable like at in the workplace or like working with others and that kind of thing. Um my dogs are barking and I don't know why cuz there's no reason for that.

Um, so there's two scenarios that I'm thinking through and I saw them both on LinkedIn and this is why I said it's probably not going to feel like software engineering, but there's a there's a point here. And um, the first one, so I guess let me back up. In both of these cases, this is one of these scenarios where like uh I made a video on this before, like I feel like it's important to try and do some critical thinking. And um and in both of these cases, I feel like some of it's missed a little bit. So, in in one case, I saw someone actually they're they work at Microsoft uh the software engineer. I don't know who they are, but they're they're on LinkedIn and I saw them post and the post was like, you know, if you if you're on Instagram or

face if you open up Instagram or Facebook at work like or whatever like or WhatsApp like you've already lost the promotion and then they go on and write this post and then I'm like well in my first thing that comes to mind is that's stupid um for me and I re like that's my inside thought and I'm like Okay, let's think about this for a second. I realize what they're probably trying to say, which is like I think their meta point was if you feel like you have time to be doing like other random stuff at work and not focused on doing work, like you're probably not focused on the right things. But what they've effectively done is try to social media it up and get people hooked in. Uh they got me making a video on it right now, right? So clearly it's uh it's rage bait enough.

Um but I don't actually think that people I don't think that people think through this stuff enough. And so what I mean by that is in the comments I'm reading responses that people are writing and they're very much like oh agreed like you know like these apps are you know awful blah blah blah. And I'm like okay like hold on folks. and I went to go write this comment and I'm like whatever, I'm not going to bother. I'm just gonna I'll make a video because I'm I'm on call and I'm waiting to get paged. Um, no one's going to page me though. And I wanted to write like guess what? Like the app that my wife and I happen to use is Instagram. That's how we talk. Like we don't text each other like our phone numbers. We don't send each other emails. We use Instagram and we message that way.

So, you're telling me if I open up Instagram at work because my wife's messaging me that I'm not going to get promoted? Like, it's, you know what I mean? It's it's missing it. Um, and that might not have been exactly what the author meant, but like the fact that I see someone write that and then I have uh in the responses a bunch of people going, "Yeah, like totally like I agree with this." And um it's it's weird like cuz I'm I'm kind of nervous that people don't end up thinking through things all the way. And the problem with this is that there's a lot more in my opinion a lot more people turning to social media to learn about software development to learn about like what it's like to be in the workplace. You have people that work at companies like Microsoft or other big companies where people are like I want to do that.

And then they read posts like this and they're like, "Okay, well, better not ever open up social media." Like, man, this is a software engineer saying this. And like, guess what? Guess who's not in charge of promotions? Them. Um, like I I'm an engineering manager and I do get to put people up for promotions. And if I had people on my team that were opening up Instagram or Facebook at work, I don't give a Like if that's all they did, if they were just at their computer like scrolling Instagram or like on their phone just like, you know, watching reels all day, I probably would need to have a conversation with them about that. But like that if they were doing their work and getting their stuff done and then they're like, "Cool, like I want to take a break and I want to go watch some cat videos for a few minutes or something." I don't care.

Do it. Like go take a walk and scroll on your phone. I don't care. Like that's not it's not going to not get you promoted. That would be the absolute wrong thing to not promote someone like over something like that. But again, I think the message that this person's trying to convey, and I feel like it's completely lost, is that like, hey, if you're if you got time to be if you're dedicating your your time to not like working on stuff and all that you're doing is that kind of thing, then sure. But that's not it's not what they wrote. So anyway, just first example, I got to got to see what's going on. You get the mini house tour. Oh, my wife came home. I'll just close my my office door. You can see my blackout curtains. Okay, back to back to the desk. Um, okay.

The other one I wanted to talk about is another sort of uh LinkedIn scenario. And um what was this one about? Oh, um, someone was talking about their perspective on hiring and I think this person actually does do hiring. So, they shared a perspective that's actually very similar to mine. And so what they had said was something along the lines of um and I'm not I don't have it pulled up on my phone, but something along the lines of like, hey, when like if I'm interviewing you, the things that I'm looking for are not like your um your expertise in like a language or a tech stack. They're like they're focused on basically like you know, are you eager to learn? Do you collaborate well?

like like these kinds of things because their point and again I agree with this their point was more like if you're a like a good person to work with you'll learn these other things like we can teach you a programming language we can teach you a tech stack and I agree with that um but their post was written as they said like if I am interviewing you these are the things that I am looking for so it's like they they explicitly say in their post like this is how I look at things. Now, I have from this person, uh, I see them post a lot and a lot of the time I'm I'm not a huge fan of like how they, um, they sometimes put opinions as like this is gospel or this is fact. And they didn't do it in this case. And I was like, hey, like I think that that makes sense.

And someone else commented and they're like, "Well, no, no, like you you need to have these these technical skills and and all of that." And what what people are doing or they're confusing in this case is like this person did not state that you don't need technical skills. They didn't state that. They didn't say that there's no benefit to that. They said these are the things that I look for when I interview. That's their post. But you can see how this gets tricky, right? Because in the first example I gave you, I as the reader, I like I strongly disagree with what they wrote and I'm going to have a bias against what they wrote. And in the second example, I agree with what they wrote and I'm having a bias for people that are disagreeing in the comments.

But I think my my meta point and I the reason I wanted to put this together is like um I think you got to take it with a grain of salt everything that you read on the internet. You have people that are expressing opinions on things and um they're not necessarily in a position where they can talk about that. So for example, the person who's talking about, you know, you're not going to get promoted if you open up a social media app, they're not in charge of promoting people. I wouldn't I just wouldn't listen to that advice from that person. And for the person that was saying uh like sort of disagreeing with the the person who actually does interview people, it's not that they're opinion invalid, but they're also they don't hire people like so I don't know. I would personally probably look to the people that are in the position where uh they can speak about these things.

But in in all cases, right, like try to keep an open mind, try to do some critical thinking because this is the kind of stuff that when it comes up at work, and this is I'm going to make my follow-up video on this. You want to be in a position, and when I say position, I mean like an environment, right? You want to be in an environment where you can question things, where you c you can feel comfortable doing that. Just because you have someone more senior than you that says, "Hey, do X." Like it doesn't mean okay well don't ask questions don't understand things just get X done check the box hand over the result and say okay what's next like that is not software engineering that's just doing tasks right so um I think you want to be in an environment where you

can ask questions you can do some critical thinking in my opinion that is the expectation um and if you're not in an environment like this like either it's a bad environment to be in or you can work on trying to improve it, right? Depends how much time and energy you want to put into these things. But sort of the the takeaway point and wanted to do two videos on this. So the next one I'm going to talk about this idea of like how do you take things past just like the service level and in my opinion it's not like the only like it's not the only ingredient for engineering but I think it's like a critical skill or critical set of things you need to do in order to take things from like I'm just going to complete tasks to like I'm trying to have an engineering mindset when I approach this stuff.

So anyway, that's the video. I'll do the next one. And uh friendly reminder, if you want questions answered, just leave them below in the comments. Uh or you can go to code.com, submit questions anonymously. I got other YouTube channels you can check out as well. Uh was super stoked to see um I believe his name is Max. one of the viewers, uh, I think he's from over in Europe, I think based on what I briefly saw on his LinkedIn profile, he shared a link to a code commute video, and he said, "This channel is criminally unsubscribed to." And I was like, "That's super cool." So, um, it does uh a lot for me if you share stuff. I appreciate that uh a tremendous amount. Um, you know, running YouTube channels and stuff is I mean, it's easy for me to sit here and film things and talk about them, but it's hard to like actually get traction.

So, uh, sharing and stuff always helps and I appreciate it a lot. So, thanks so much for being here and I will see you in the next video. It's very related to this one. See you.