Are you Hungry Enough?

February 9th, 2024 (12 months ago) • 1 minute

One of the questions I asked my manager today was, "Are people in our team hungry enough?" Inspired by the movie Hunger on Netflix, this topic stemmed from a conversation I had with G, where he mentioned a learning plateau.

He thought about it briefly and then said, 'No'.

He mentioned that people often focus too much on the problem itself and on how to solve it, but not on reaching out and understanding what other problems are out there and which one to solve. He advised that we should be more proactive in reaching out, i.e., talking to other teams and stakeholders to understand where the team stands and how we can best help them with limited resources.

These are the things that get you to do impactful work (or, in another way, to be promoted). Technical prowess is important, but it falls behind in terms of the softer side of engineering, i.e., communication, empathy, and understanding the business.