3 Techniques for Software Engineers to Practice Writing So That They Can Improve Their Thinking Ability
Thinking clearly is the most important skill for software engineers today.
The best way to develop your ability to think is to write.
Here’s why you should develop a daily writing habit and 3 ideas on how to get started as a software engineer.
AI will replace the coding, you just need to think for it.
There is still a need to learn how to code. But software engineers will do less and less of it as AI improves its ability to generate working code. The most important skill, and what you should invest your time into today, is getting better at thinking.
Imagine AI as a toddler who knows how to code but doesn’t want to listen.
To effectively use AI to code, you need to understand the problem well enough to break it down into small, well scoped blocks. You need to provide it with clear constraints. Tell it exactly what the inputs are and what outputs you expect. Define the tests for it.
The ability to think well will help you write better prompts that get AI to do what you intended.
Writing is the best way to develop your thinking ability.
It’s an exercise for your mind. Thinking and writing are hard work, but it gets easier with practice. Once you start to develop this ability it feels like a superpower.
To begin a writing habit as a software engineer try one of these:
- Weekly Snippets. Recap what you did this week and share your priorities for next week. Share this on your companies internal blog or via Slack. Google does it, give it a try.
- Meeting Notes. Open a doc and take notes during a technical meeting. Quick edit them to make big ideas and next steps clear. Then share those notes with everyone.
- Share Learnings. You’ve learned a lot this past month, past year. Think of a few problems you no longer have or things you are better at and share what you learned.
You don’t have to write daily (though once you do, you might not stop), but try to find a way to write more during your work day.
