How can I accomplish things such that it leaves longer-lasting value?

Question

When I build something, I get the task done and then move on. However, I feel the best engineers are able to create deeper value. If someone has a question about that topic in the future, they make the info easier to find. So everyone benefits from this resource first, before pinging the engineer.

Rahul Pandey · Accepted Answer

Pattern matching is really important, being able to recognize various forms of problems so you can create something which outlasts the particular issue you’re dealing with. For example, if you notice engineers often leave out some critical logging info, can you fix up all the places owned by your team, and then also add a linter to prevent the issue from happening again? Beyond making the relevant info easier to find, there’s actually something even more powerful that top engineers do. They design systems such that it’s easy to do the right thing and hard to do the wrong thing. This is the kind of thing that only works when you have earned the trust of the team and are able to succinctly describe the problem and your improvement. You really want to avoid the scenario where you simply add another page of documentation which no one reads and then goes out of date within a few months.

How can I accomplish things such that it leaves longer-lasting value?

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