Capture Now, Improve Later
It's pretty common for great mid-career engineers to go MIA when they're supposed to share a design document, or just when you expect them to make a pull request with a feature, after they've already demonstrated a quick tracer bullet / proof of concept implementation.
Usually, the culprit is they want it to be perfect. They don't want to "Waste team's time on review if it's not fully ready yet", or they don't feel safe working in the open or making mistakes.
As an eng leader, you, on the other hand, are likely coaching them to share their work early and iterate quickly, include the team as much as possible. That fosters trust, collaboration, and all that.
Surprising absolutely no one, I have a "Do as I say not as I do" situation in that regard with writing. I want to write a few great posts a year, putting in writing the list of big milestones in my own growth, solid advice for people in similar positions. But it doesn't just work that way.
And since this website is, well, a custom app — nothing stops me from making some posts placeholders. The kernel of thought might be here, captured quickly, but some additional context might be required — and it's fine to fill in the blanks later.
Repeat after me. I will document my work as I go. I will post my raw rough drafts, incomplete and imperfect, because that's valuable, it captures the thinking process, and my learning path. I will not kill my creativity chasing perfection, because I will never be satisfied.
— Natik Gadzhi (@natikgadzhi.bsky.social) Dec 22, 2024 at 11:05 AM