"When I joined Google ~14 years ago, I thought the job was about writing great code. I was partly right. But the longer I've stayed, the more I've realized that the engineers who thrive aren't necessarily the best programmers - they're the ones who've figured out how to navigate everything around the code: the people, the politics, the alignment, the ambiguity."
"It's seductive to fall in love with a technology and go looking for places to apply it. I've done it. Everyone has. But the engineers who create the most value work backwards: they become obsessed with understanding user problems deeply, and let solutions emerge from that understanding. User obsession means spending time in support tickets, talking to users, watching users struggle, asking "why" until you hit bedrock. The engineer who truly understands the problem often finds that the elegant solution is simpler than anyone expected."
Successful engineers focus on solving real user problems rather than prioritizing technology. They immerse themselves in support tickets, user conversations, and observation to uncover root causes and simpler solutions. Starting from a preferred solution or technology tends to create unnecessary complexity. Engineers who thrive learn to navigate people, politics, alignment, and ambiguity around the code. Influence, alignment, and collaboration matter more than being technically right. These principles are about recurring patterns across projects and teams and remain valuable despite constantly changing technologies.
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