You have to make it easy to. Or put another way, you have to make it difficult to do the easy thing instead. That could mean putting your kindle next to your toilet, so every time you need to go to the bathroom, you’re spending time reading something educational instead of scrolling on twitter. That could mean making the one-time decision to delete YouTube from your phone, so you can’t use it as a crutch to fill the 5 minute gaps of boredom between meetings. That could mean choosing a business partner who’s smarter than you, so you’re constantly playing catchup to learn as much as them. That could mean taking 5 minutes at the end of your day to write down a prioritized to-do list you can attack the next morning. That could mean removing the TV from your bedroom, so you aren’t tempted to sacrifice crucial sleep for instant gratification. That could mean batching all your shallow work tasks (replying to emails, creating new sprint tickets, etc.) into a single time slot so they don’t interrupt your flow state. That could mean ANYTHING which makes it as easy as possible to work as hard as possible. Instead of wondering why you don’t feel motivated to do something difficult, ask yourself what's motivating you not to. Then remove those things.

Wonderful, I'm glad you liked some of those High Value Posts. I publish one every week, and you can always find the full collection here if you're in the mood for some binge reading. What else is there to discover? Here are some ideas: 1️⃣ Check out the members tab to see who else you might meet in here. You can DM them too! 2️⃣ Start engaging in group discussions about interesting topics. Like this one! 3️⃣ Introduce yourself in the comment section below👇 by telling us one skill you want to improve at. What are your biggest gaps as an engineer? It can be broad (like public speaking) or specific (like learning to use a new library). Thanks for being a part of Big Tech Devs. We're thrilled to have an accomplished SWE like yourself on board! 🤝

Great chefs write great code. Why? Because they taste before they serve. They're testing flavors and textures at every opportunity, constantly slipping into the shoes of their customers and improving their product. But I didn't realize until embarrassingly recently that “customer” can be a very loose term. In fact, so can “product”. Of course, obsessing over the customer experience will help you design a better UI for your website. But that same customer obsession can be applied to your team’s onboarding process, code reviews, GraphQL schema, and much more. Everything you create that gets consumed fits this formula. Product = function ➡️ customer = caller. Product = scrum ticket ➡️ customer = engineer. Product = analytics dashboard ➡️ customer = on-call support. Take a slide deck, for example. What ingredients would tailor it to your customer's liking? Will they be wolfing it down hastily between meetings, or consuming it slowly like a three-course meal? Should it be presented elegantly like a filet on white tablecloth, or casually like a burger through the car window? At it's core, this metaphor tells a heartwarming story: the lifeblood of creation is empathy. Taste the food before you put it on the plate. And if your tastebuds can't be trusted, find a good sous chef! P.S. This simple trick will get you at least 50% of the way toward building something truly exceptional. The other 50% requires incorporating feedback from – you guessed it – your actual customers. 😉 Which dish will you be taste testing on this week's menu? Comment below so we can all learn together. 👇 #softwareengineering #programming #coding

Let's use this thread to crowd-source high-level insights for our new members, so they can immediately start getting value from this community. I'll start! 👇

Hi there, and welcome to Big Tech Devs! 🙂 This community is for motivated SWEs looking to fast track their career growth and reach that next promotion. Inside you'll find lots of free resources to assist you on your journey, some of which have to be unlocked by "leveling up" through community engagement. We're actively creating and sharing new resources every week! Check out one of these "High Value Posts" to wet your beak before diving in further: ⭐️ How to Become the Top SWE at Your Company ⭐️ The Fastest Way to Drive Greater Business Impact ⭐️ 5 Proven Steps to Deliver Your First Major Project If you like what you see, read this post for next steps.