As a senior engineer, this hits home for me so hard.
I use the documentation hack all the time. Junior engineers are frequently amazed by how much I know. My secret is that I know where the documentation is and when I learn something, I add it to the docs. Half the time I answer a question I have to look it up again in the docs.
My frustration is that most engineers seem allergic to updating docs. I think this is some combination of (1) don't know docs exist (2) feel confident they can write authoritatively (3) falsely believe that docs that aren't 100% correct are useless (4) don't like to write or don't feel rewarded for writing. For different engineers, it's a different combo, but the net result is still that the docs don't get updated as much as they could if everyone pitched in.
The "create a Wiki page" suggestion is one I used for quite a while. You just keep reminding people that some of the answers are written down out there, and they only have to look. But try as I might, many people just won't participate. Not sure why that is.
My suspicion is that it's part of an, "If I don't have to be involved then I'm not special" fear, but I can't read people's minds.
I don't think the "force multiplier" aspect is what's in doubt here. Its that most productivity metrics for senior developers over-emphasize shipping software they wrote (i.e kloc written) not so much how Susan, Alice and Joe were unblocked and shipped their commitments.
You're both acting as a people-manager unblocking and growing your team's skills but only getting comped for aspects of an IC which you start to get less and less time for.
I routinely see HR departments pathetically fail in recognizing this and end up losing seasoned engineers cause let's face it, if you're worth your salt you can switch companies easily and just do the IC work and get properly comped for it.
In my life my perceived productivity drops when I'm assigned many projects, each one takes more calendar days because I have to make progress on multiple fronts, switching time, multiple more meetings with PMs and stakeholders per week BUT due to my experience the end result is closer to what the stakeholders have in mind and my projects run in production with fewer issues. I've discussed this with my leadership and they understand and are fine with longer timelines that result in higher quality work.
wait until you're in an agile team, you will get a new assignment based on "priorities" almost daily after your stand-up meeting, after a while everyone will be burnt out, not by the raw workload but by the changing tech directions constantly, a context-switch that is so frequently nobody got anything done, and it is purely painful
[+] [-] nickm12|5 years ago|reply
I use the documentation hack all the time. Junior engineers are frequently amazed by how much I know. My secret is that I know where the documentation is and when I learn something, I add it to the docs. Half the time I answer a question I have to look it up again in the docs.
My frustration is that most engineers seem allergic to updating docs. I think this is some combination of (1) don't know docs exist (2) feel confident they can write authoritatively (3) falsely believe that docs that aren't 100% correct are useless (4) don't like to write or don't feel rewarded for writing. For different engineers, it's a different combo, but the net result is still that the docs don't get updated as much as they could if everyone pitched in.
[+] [-] ausjke|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] hinkley|5 years ago|reply
My suspicion is that it's part of an, "If I don't have to be involved then I'm not special" fear, but I can't read people's minds.
[+] [-] filereaper|5 years ago|reply
You're both acting as a people-manager unblocking and growing your team's skills but only getting comped for aspects of an IC which you start to get less and less time for.
I routinely see HR departments pathetically fail in recognizing this and end up losing seasoned engineers cause let's face it, if you're worth your salt you can switch companies easily and just do the IC work and get properly comped for it.
[+] [-] mharroun|5 years ago|reply
I hope to god he has a competent lead or manager who understands and encourages they stay on point.
[+] [-] satisfaction|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ausjke|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] draw_down|5 years ago|reply
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