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<h1 style='display: inline' id='staff-engineer-book-notes'>"Staff Engineer" book notes</h1><br />
<br />
<span class='quote'>Published at 2024-10-24T20:57:44+03:00</span><br />
<br />
<span>These are my personal takeaways after reading "Staff Engineer" by Will Larson. Note that the book contains much more knowledge wisdom and that these notes only contain points I personally found worth writing down. This is mainly for my own use, but you might find it helpful too.</span><br />
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<h2 style='display: inline' id='table-of-contents'>Table of Contents</h2><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><a href='#staff-engineer-book-notes'>"Staff Engineer" book notes</a></li>
<li>⇢ <a href='#not-a-faster-senior-engineer'>Not a faster Senior Engineer</a></li>
<li>⇢ <a href='#the-balance'>The Balance</a></li>
<li>⇢ <a href='#more-things'>More things</a></li>
</ul><br />
<h2 style='display: inline' id='not-a-faster-senior-engineer'>Not a faster Senior Engineer</h2><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>A Staff engineer is more than just a faster Senior.</li>
<li>A staff engineer is not a senior engineer but a bit better. (But I want to be a senior engineer but a bit better).</li>
</ul><br />
<span>It&#39;s important to know what work or which role most energizes you. A Staff engineer is not a more senior engineer. A Staff engineer also fits into another archetype.</span><br />
<br />
<span>As a staff engineer, you are always expected to go beyond your comfort zone and learn new things.</span><br />
<br />
<span>Your job sometimes will feel like an SEM and sometimes strangely similar to your senior roles.</span><br />
<br />
<span>A Staff engineer is, like a Manager, a leader. However, being a Manager is a specific job. Leaders can apply to any job, especially to Staff engineers.</span><br />
<br />
<h2 style='display: inline' id='the-balance'>The Balance</h2><br />
<br />
<span>The more senior you become, the more responsibility you will have to cope with them in less time. Balance your speed of progress with your personal life, don&#39;t work late hours and don&#39;t skip these personal care events.</span><br />
<br />
<span>Do fewer things but do them better. Everything done will accelerate the organization. Everything else will drag it down—quality over quantity.</span><br />
<br />
<span>Don&#39;t work at ten things and progress slowly; focus on one thing and finish it.</span><br />
<br />
<span>Only spend some of the time firefighting. Have time for deep thinking. Only deep think some of the time. Otherwise, you lose touch with reality.</span><br />
<br />
<span>Sebactical: Take at least six months. Otherwise, it won&#39;t be as restored.</span><br />
<br />
<h2 style='display: inline' id='more-things'>More things</h2><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Provide simple but widely used tools. Complex and powerful tools will have power users but only a very few. All others will not use the tool.</li>
<li>In meetings, when someone is inactive, try to pull him in. Pull in max one person at a time. Don&#39;t open the discussion to multiple people.</li>
<li>Get used to writing things down and repeating yourself. You will scale yourself much more.</li>
<li>Title inflation: skills correspond to work, but the titles don&#39;t.</li>
</ul><br />
<span>E-Mail your comments to <span class='inlinecode'>paul@nospam.buetow.org</span> :-)</span><br />
<br />
<span>Other book notes of mine are:</span><br />
<br />
<a class='textlink' href='./the-pragmatic-programmer.html'>2023-03-16 "The Pragmatic Programmer" book notes</a><br />
<a class='textlink' href='./never-split-the-difference.html'>2023-04-01 "Never split the difference" book notes</a><br />
<a class='textlink' href='./the-obstacle-is-the-way.html'>2023-05-06 "The Obstacle is the Way" book notes</a><br />
<a class='textlink' href='./career-guide-and-soft-skills.html'>2023-07-17 "Software Developmers Career Guide and Soft Skills" book notes</a><br />
<a class='textlink' href='./mind-management.html'>2023-11-11 "Mind Management" book notes</a><br />
<a class='textlink' href='./slow-productivity.html'>2024-05-01 "Slow Productivity" book notes</a><br />
<a class='textlink' href='./the-stoic-challenge.html'>2024-07-07 "The Stoic Challenge" book notes</a><br />
<a class='textlink' href='./staff-engineer.html'>2024-10-24 "Staff Engineer" book notes (You are currently reading this)</a><br />
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