https://v5.chriskrycho.com/journal/writing-productivity/

Sym*poly*mathesy

by Chris Krycho

Being a Fast, Cogent Writer Is Useful

It is also something you can get better at!

Assumed audience: People, especially engineers, who might be
unpersuaded about the value of investing in improving their personal
productivity and velocity on things like writing.

I have been thinking about Dan Luu's post Some reasons to work on
productivity and velocity for years.

    I certainly agree that working on the right thing is important,
    but increasing velocity doesn't stop you from working on the
    right thing. If anything, each of these is a force multiplier for
    the other. Having strong execution skills becomes more impactful
    if you're good at picking the right problem and vice versa.

An example:

One thing writing quickly unlocks for me is the ability to use code
review as a major teaching tool. At a former job, some colleagues
would actually go stalk my GitHub to learn from my reviews! That was
because those reviews were not just "LGTM" or "Please do __ instead."
They came with explanations of why something was better, or questions
about someone's goals. I often outlined tradeoffs in approach. I
would leave links to other relevant materials for them to read.

If that sounds like it would take far too long, well... no, because I
have practiced writing quickly and clearly for literally decades now.
I could review a non-trivial change and give it non-trivial feedback
in 20 - 30 minutes, and use that to level up the whole org over time.
I say "the whole org" because when there was something actually
substantive or important in one of those reviews, I would sometimes
share the review for other people to read. (Only after getting
permission from the person whose code I was reviewing, though; that's
important!)

Takeaway -- engineers, do yourself and all of your teammates a huge
favor and learn how to write quickly and cogently. That means
practicing it! But the dividends are huge.

I posted a version of this to social media yesterday. But social
media is ephemeral, so I always try to pull anything substantive like
this back over into my website.

Posted:

This entry was published in Journal on February 9, 2024.

Spotted a typo? Submit a correction!

Topics:

  * writing
  * teaching
  * working effectively
  * leadership

Respond:

Thoughts, comments, or questions? Shoot me an email (it's way better
than traditional comments)!

About:

I'm Chris Krycho--a follower of Christ, a husband, and a dad. I'm a
software engineer by trade; a theologian by vocation; and a writer,
runner and cyclist, composer, and erstwhile podcaster by hobby.

Support:

If you especially like what I'm doing here, you can buy me a book, or
click the affiliate links in book reviews!

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