Being a developer means being a good communicator/writer

I just remembered how my life changed from the time I was working alone on some random, personal stuff to a guy leading a team and working in pair with other developers.

What struck me is that I haven’t much progress in terms of technical skill. I didn’t rust either, it’s just if you’re a skilled developer and you have already some experience you hit a level when you’re comfortable with almost anything that’s thrown at you. Unless it’s really complex - like solving some mathematical big data stuff that requires a new model for processing data.

What hit me though is that I find myself writing more than coding, or at least my writing having more influence than my actual coding. And it’s not that I’m TL so I have to communicate more, but maybe because I improved my communication I became TL.

I know I didn’t appreciate writing and communication before. But now I understand how crucial it is. Let’s imagine you create an open source library that you want other people to use.

What are you going to start with?

Hacking great code?

Or hacking great documentation that will allow others to start?

Yeah, the answer is simple yet so many people start with hacking great code that no one cares to use because it sits somewhere in unknown corner of github gathering dust.

And if they’d only have started with communicating better the project could take off.

Even now when I know I have to be better communicator I’m tempted to start with coding.

I understand that for some of you it’s really hard. For me it’s is - being an introvert and being mostly focused on my inner word I sometimes struggle expressing my ideas. But I beat myself to do it. Even if it means creating some random, shitty, unfinished, muddy stuff that’s hard to understand ;-)

There’s still room for improvement, but at least I’m trying. I’m no better than you.

So start with a simple stuff - instead of hacking yet another method - check if you have documented your code well enough that some newbie will understand it, do others know what you are doing? Why not to tell them? Did something today, share it with others.

It doesn’t have to be anything outstanding. This post isn’t but I shared it with you and I bet you took sth in return for reading it.