What kind of engineer, indeed.

Several of my friends and colleagues have tweeted and otherwise commented about a post on the extremely knowledgeable Nick Zakas' blog.

I have a lot of respect for Mr. Zakas, and often enjoy his blog posts, learning something each time I visit, and this post was no exception. Unfortunately, there is also a point with which I don't agree...but it's not really Mr. Zakas' point. He says,

If you stop and think about it, writing code is something that a lot of people do. You can hire someone cheaply out of college to write code and it may not be as good as an experienced software engineer, but if it’s close enough, that’s usually all you need. So if your programming acumen is the only thing that you focus on, you aren't improving your position in the company. What matters far more are the soft skills that you have along the way. Do people enjoy working with you? Do you add something over and above your coding skill?

First, to Mr. Zakas' point, there are a lot of people who can code...but there is a potentially significant difference between "close enough" and "correct". With "close enough" your revenue most likely will not be zero, but it will also likely not be as much as it would with "correct"...and in some situations, "close enough" may be nowhere near close enough. If we're talking about a web page that responds in 8 seconds instead of 4 or 6, that may be one thing (though you might want to see my earlier post about speed in websites, Faster, faster, faster) but if we're talking about real-time or life-critical software, is "good enough" really good enough.

Still, Mr. Zakas is correct in that our reputation is important...but therein lies my problem, and it's demonstrated to a degree by those Peter Hinssen refers to in Will the real CIO please stand up - individuals who associate responses to the phrase 'IT departments' which are "wonderfully colorful comments such as 'arrogant', 'out of touch with reality', 'language of their own' and - increasingly often - 'hopelessly out of date'."

Are there engineers who are reasonably considered "arrogant" or "out of touch"? Certainly, and, I suppose if Mr. Zakas' post were geared toward those engineers alone, we might not have anything to discuss. Note, however, that Mr. Hinssen's post discusses the prevailing attitude. If we see "arrogance" and "hopelessly out of date" as the status quo, then I would posit that Mr. Zakas' advice to adjust our attitude addresses a symptom of the underlying problem without addressing any of the underlying issues.

In part, the prevailing attitude - that we are arrogant and out of touch - is our fault as software engineers. Whether we write software for the World Wide Web, smartphones, or desktops - we have, to some degree, failed to convey our value to the organization. Often we do speak a language of our own, and life would be much easier (from the perspective of those who see us as arrogant and out of touch) if we would just communicate more/better/the right way - if we would stop being so out of touch - if we would stop seeing ourselves as so valuable to the organization - after all, the contribution of an engineer is not that significant because "writing code is something that a lot of people do" (emphasis mine).

As a User Interface Engineer (or web developer, if you'd like), I often hear comments similar to this - comments about how someone's teenage relative can build a good web page. While there are, of course, prodigies, the amount of engineering that is required to create the best web page is significantly greater than the skill level held by general practitioners, as is the amount of engineering required to create the best software for other media. I would posit, therefore, that our challenge is not as much improving our soft skills (though every engineer I've met would benefit from such development), but rather conveying our value to the organization in a meaningful way. To that end, as a counterpoint to Mr. Zakas, I would commend a quote that Baskin-Robbins used to hang in their stores: "there is hardly anything in the world that someone can't make a little worse and sell a little cheaper - and people who consider price alone are this man's lawful prey."¹ 

There are a number of issues that might be discussed when an organization perpetuates a culture similar to Mr. Zakas' comment above (that people who code are a commodity) or similar to those Mr. Hinssen references; however, one of the most significant is that organizations which learn to accept "close enough" when it's less expensive incur technical debt that becomes deadly. Further, the effect such an attitude has on morale within the IT department can be equally as deadly as mounting technical debt.

There is, in my estimation, another side to this story. In the face of significant potential issues, such as creating code that's "good enough" under one estimation and not another, mounting technical debt without having resources to address it, and demotivating personnel, there is also the thought that perhaps the perception of engineers as weak in soft skills, arrogant, and out of touch, is mistaken. Perhaps, just perhaps, those engineers are instead are significantly different than other employees.

Perhaps these engineers are not arrogant and out of touch. Perhaps there are weaknesses related to their soft skills, but if we, instead of operating from the assumption that what these engineers do is something that a lot of people can do, operate from the assumption that what these engineers do is something that few people can do, and that they are therefore in a different realm than others, might we see their "arrogance" as an indication they have a different understanding of their capabilities and the situation? Might the perception that they are "out of touch" be due to the manner in which they, in their different world, relate to those outside  of their area of expertise.

Let us consider then, the possibility that their "arrogance" and being "out of touch" are, at worst, simple weaknesses in their soft skills. What is the best advice? Certainly Mr. Zakas' advice is good, and traditional - work on your weaknesses. However, is that really the best way in which these engineers can contribute? In this consideration, I would offer the following advice that Dr. Donald Clifton gave his son: "your weaknesses will never develop while your strengths will develop infinitely."²

Let me be clear - the best advice the creator of the Clifton StrengthsFinder, Gallup's own online psychological assessment, could offer his son, was to build his life and work around his strengths rather than try to fix his weaknesses. For Dr. Clifton's son, and many engineers, Mr. Zakas' words, and in fact the words of those who brand us as "arrogant" and "out of touch" would have them "fix their weaknesses".

In this, I would posit that rather than engineers spending time fixing their weaknesses, that they spend time using and developing their strengths, and that management (at all levels) spend time seeing and celebrating diversity and the value it brings. I understand this is unconventional wisdom, but perhaps, just perhaps, this is a new age - an age in which each of us can contribute to our fullest.

What kind of engineer do I want to be? One that develops my strengths infinitely.

1. This quote is attributed to John Ruskin, though there is some debate about whether or not that attribution is valid.
2. Reported in a post by his son.