Young Reacts #39
"What a Senior Staff Software Engineer Actually Does" and "What’s Your Hour in ‘Silicon Valley Time’?"
During my first open 1:1 with a junior engineer, I was asked what makes a senior engineer. I answered at a high-level: you need to have a more significant, positive impact either through technical leadership, product vision, or people management. This answer provides a starting point but maybe not a tactical guide. What a Senior Staff Software Engineer Actually Does fills that gap.
On top of these two articles, I also highly recommend What’s Your Hour in ‘Silicon Valley Time’?.
People ❤️
What a Senior Staff Software Engineer Actually Does (Part 1 and Part 2)
The differences are 1) how you spend your time, and 2) how you approach your tasks. Focus on things that empower others.
Composing better emails
Tips in the article are applicable if you communicate asynchronously. Even if you use Slack.
Developers are system changers
I am sharing this because I want to warn against this kind of narrative. There is nothing special about developers. Everyone can change a system and should be empowered to do so. Software is just one type of system that happens to scale better.
Business 💸
What’s Your Hour in ‘Silicon Valley Time’?
A company’s (perceived) momentum is cyclic, not one time only. Companies rise and fall, and the few will rise again.
What Is a Tech Company?
The line between tech and non-tech is very much blurred now. A useful set of criteria such as zero marginal cost to cut through PR-created hypes.
Web 🌐
Time to First Byte: What It Is and Why It Matters
Time to First Byte (TTFB) provides a lower bound for your website performance. The article has a comprehensive list of factors that go into TTFB.
Server Timing in the Wild
If the article above convinced you to look into the performance more closely, this article could give you an excellent way to measure your progress.
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