How to Become the Top SWE at Your Company: 1 Simple Formula

Mar '24 (edited) • 📈 Growth & Development

Most people believe you have to be more technically capable than any other engineer to be considered "the best," but they’re mistaken.

Doing so is highly unlikely, because in the world of software engineers, you'll be competing against a LOT of brilliant, analytical minds. And for the most part, they're all focused on improving at the same technical skills, like writing code and designing distributed systems.

But thankfully, there's a different path you can follow. To see it, we must first understand the concept of "skill stacking," coined by Scott Adams and popularized by Naval Ravikant. Consider this example:

If you want to be the best coder amongst 1000 engineers at your company, you have to be in the top 0.1%. That's a tall order. You might dedicate your life to that task and still never get there.

But if you want to be the best coder who can also design distributed systems AND lead teams to implement them, you need only be in the top 10% of each skill. Mathematically,

1000 x 0.1^3 = 1000 x 0.001 = 1

Or, a higher proficiency in one skill might compensate for lower proficiency in another. E.g.

1000 x 0.2 x 0.1 x 0.05 = 1

You get the idea. The more things you're good at, the easier it is to be considered "the best" at that unique combination of talents.

Thankfully, being a great software engineer isn't confined to a single skill stack. Chances are, all SWEs will overlap on some stereotypical capabilities, like the ones bolded on your resume. But some of us will be better writers, persuasive speakers, or UX designers than others.

What's the key insight?

Look for complimentary skills that others in your shoes are unlikely to possess. Become proficient in these, and you'll set yourself apart in a league of your own.

But we can take this one step further.

If you truly want to become the #1 SWE at your company, you won't be able to do it alone. You'll be leading teams of engineers, which means your ability to ensure their success will be part of your own skill stack.

So how do we give your teams the highest chance of succeeding?

We compose them of engineers with unique and complimentary skill stacks of their own. Intuitively, you already knew this.

For example, it's pretty obvious that a web development team would be better off having a combination of expert backend and frontend engineers, than a bunch of average full-stack ones. That's not to say that being full-stack is bad though – it is, after all, its own combination of talents.

Now take this simplistic example and apply it to the full breadth of skills a SWE might possess.

You'll probably want at least one or two engineers who are great at improving the monitoring of your systems, and others that really understand the infrastructure upon which they rely. You'd also benefit from having a couple engineers who are talented writers and presenters, so they're able to interface with other teams about technically complex topics. And so on.

Whether you're designing your own skill stack or composing teams of them, think about which unique combinations of talents will set you apart.

Then go cultivate those skills with intention.

You can be great at many of them, not the best at any particular one, and still emerge at the top.

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