“It doesn’t work”, “it’s not possible” – the last words anyone wants to hear from an engineer. Think about how many times you’ve said this, or thought about saying this – to later find out – it works and it definitely is possible? Those hurt!
As engineers, we’re often tasked with dealing with the unknowns – new technologies, poorly documented integrations, incomplete requirements, complex architecture – it’s issues like these that split engineers into two tiers: the ones that can figure out anything and ones that need hand-holding. Often times, the gap really comes down to a few key differences:
- Ability to break things down
- Perseverance
- Will to get out of the comfort zone
No, not the best knowledge of cool syntactic tricks, or cool one-liners. Sorry.
Let’s go through all of the above points one-by-one.
Ability to break things down
When facing something new and complex, it gets overwhelming fast – too many questions, too many unknowns – tackling all of this in your head at once can cause cognitive overload and trigger your brain’s instinct to quit – “This is not possible”, “It can’t work”, “I can’t do this” – Wrong – you most definitely can. All you need to do is break it down. And write it down.
How to improve this skill?
Next time you feel overwhelmed – get yourself some notes – in my case, I prefer charting things out (Recommended too: FigJam/Whimsical/Miro).
- Write down the knowns
- Write down the unknowns
Now start thinking about each unknown individually, and start writing down steps on how you figure this out, e.g:
- Read documentation
- Attempt Implementation
- Debug
- Reach out to support
- Open an issue on github
- Reach out to maintainers
- Call Linus Torvalds
Make sure you exhaust all options here to get to the correct answer – if the last resort is calling Linus Torvalds at full moon – write it down – depending on the stakes of the problem you’re working on – that might well be a worthwhile path!
Do whatever you have to do to make sure your brain doesn’t trick you into the “this is not possible” zone – most everything is – given you can contribute enough resources and effort.
Perseverance
Don’t give up. Just don’t. Stuck? Talk to a peer, talk to an LLM – anything to get you unstuck. Still can’t solve it? You might need a break – write down where you currently stand, what remains to be done. Go get some coffee and come back with a fresh mind.
I’ve had the privilege of working with some really brilliant minds – most of the time they get stuck – they just need a small nudge – a good question, a well placed log, a fresh pair of eyes. End of the day – they figure out anything – sometimes they just need to be reminded that they can.
The best minds I’ve seen are able to do all of the above themselves – without any external guidance or help – they know they can, and they push, persevere until they get it done.
How to improve?
Don’t give up. Just don’t. Don’t let your mind think you can’t do it – it might be extremely difficult – it might take you months – but don’t get into a habit of saying “I can’t” – instead say – “This will be hard, but I can do this”, “this won’t be easy, but I’ll get it done”. Because you definitely can.
Bonus point: protect your focus time – if you can’t focus – you’ll never get complex work done.
Get out of the comfort zone
You’ve probably heard this a million times – it’s a valid point for problem solving as well. Getting complex work done requires you to often delve into areas that aren’t on your resume or job description – don’t back away – this is how you grow. Take it head on.
It can be daunting to reach out to external stakeholders to figure out an issue that’s not documented, it can be challenging to put on a product hat and investigate the business case that you think has an issue related to your work – but this is how you get things done – not by waiting for external validation or guidance – but instead taking every complexity you find head on.
Can it be scary? Sometimes. Is it fun? Maybe. But one thing is for sure – if you want to get complex work done – you’ll often have to step out of your box.
Still think it’s impossible?
Okay, you’ve tried everything above – still can’t figure things out – bummer. You’re about to say “Can’t do this, it’s impossible” – Pause. Stop. Go through everything you’ve tried and think – hey, did I really try everything I could have? Give it a couple minutes. Most probably you have not.
Go back to it, get it done – because you can.
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