Improve Your Communication
Unless you work on your side projects alone and don't want to tell anyone about them, you need to be able to tell others what you did, what you want to do, and why.
10x engineers
There's a lot of talk about 10x engineers. The jury is still out on whether some of us can be 10x more efficient in writing software, but one way I'm sure 10x engineers exist is by elevating others (the more the "others" are, the higher the multiplier is).
If you've gained experience that improves you in an area, teaching and mentoring those who lack that skill can multiply the group's efficiency. However, you need good communication skills to do that, whether through articles, videos, or presentations.
The more people you share your learnings with, the higher the efficiency multiplier, so if you share your knowledge on the Internet, you've just elevated the whole world.
Clear communication makes everything faster
Getting your points across precisely is another force multiplier in teams. Whether you write messages in your company's chat app or comment on a pull request, expressing yourself unambiguously saves everyone the back-and-forth of figuring out what you meant.
Worse, if a message is misunderstood, it can lead to trouble when a decision is made on it ("Oh, you meant to delete all the messages after the cut-off date, not before it 😅")
Just as the best products need marketing, your best ideas need to be expressed clearly to cooperate effectively with others. Those products won't sell themselves, and others can't be expected to read your mind.
Getting your way
No matter at what level of the company you work at, what you say and how you say it matters.
- To use a particular library in a project, you must make a compelling case for it
- In code reviews (the ultimate art form) and "implementation meetings", if you can explain why a particular method is better, your idea is more likely to get accepted.
- When negotiating your salary, you must come up with reasons to earn more and present them.
- If your prompts are clear and straightforward (or if you can tweak them slightly), you're more likely to receive valuable help from AI assistants.
Communication is everywhere, and wielding it effectively is a force multiplier.
Forms of communication
Which form of communication should you strive to improve in?
As we're used to saying in software engineering, it depends. If you have to show a bug to your colleagues, the best way is to record a video. If you plan your tasks for the next iteration, write them down. If there's a misunderstanding about a code review and a lot of back-and-forth, you can suggest having a quick call (keeping in mind that you might break the coding flow of others).
All forms have their function, but I'm partial to the written form. It's brief, information-dense, and easy to parse and search (and for you, the author, to modify).
Individuals have different learning preferences, but the most complex, abstract ideas and topics, which we often deal with, are probably best explained in writing.
Last but not least, writing is a lubricant for the mind, so when you write to others, you're forced to think it through yourself and find holes in your understanding.
You might know the Einstein quote: "If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough." Similarly, if you can't write it understandably to others, you still have to work out some details.
All of the above makes the quality of communicating in writing higher than in other forms.
How to improve?
The path to improving is the same as with most things in life: you copy the masters and practice deliberately.
If you want to improve your writing, read great authors. My favorite non-fiction writer is Matt Ridley, and my favorite fiction author is Neil Gaiman, but there is no shortage of those who can craft words.
Furthermore, there are great books on the art and science of writing that are well worth your time (see the "Further resources" section for recommendations).
Unlike most forms of deliberate practice, this one is very pleasurable. As you read great books, you learn about the world and pick up the art of writing by osmosis. Sadly, absorbing is only (less than) half the story: you must practice writing yourself.
But how?
Your daily writing workout
Do a little daily by starting your work day with a 10-15 minute writing session. It doesn't seem like a lot, but if you stick to it, you'll end up with a lot of practice (and material) over the years.
The subject doesn't matter: it can be anything you want to organize your thoughts about or something you want to share with others. Publishing what you write is a definite plus: if you write to others, you don't let yourself get away with sloppy writing.
Don't get disheartened if you don't like what comes out first.
Think about how that works with software: when you look back at the code you wrote years ago, you cringe, showing how much you've improved since then.
The same holds for writing. You'll often find your writing dull and sluggish, but you'll get better over time, which you only realize when you read what you wrote at the beginning of your writing career.
For most writing goals (e.g., writing a blog post per week), you'll probably have to schedule longer sessions, but tiny bits of regular "exercise" always trump waiting for inspiration or being in the right mood.
Don't wait for the muse; treat writing as a workout. Inspiration will strike you when you're writing — and if you have the time, allow it to take you where it leads.
In Summary
Expressing your thoughts clearly has enormous benefits:
- It's a force multiplier for your team
- It reduces the time the team needs to understand you and reduces the number of interruptions, which is another productivity multiplier
- You'll need to make your case for lots of different things daily, and if you communicate better, you'll have more success
- It's debatable, but writing is our profession's supreme form of communication. It's information-dense, parseable, and easy to update
- To improve your writing, read good authors and schedule short writing sessions three to five days a week
