I was recently prompted (perhaps by a voice in my head) to come up with my own set of engineering values. What follows is surely incomplete, but it arrived with an odd clarity.
SF Vespa, Nicholas Kwok
No ego
- Be humble. No one is above any task.
- Admit what you don’t know, and own up to your mistakes. Your knowledge and ability will show in other ways.
Respect the process
- We have rules and guidelines for how most things are done to protect ourselves from making mistakes.
- Respect these policies and follow them whenever possible. Sometimes it’s ok to bend the rules; just talk about it first.
Build with confidence
- Recognize when fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD) drive your decision-making. Aim to eliminate the source of that FUD.
- Invest in automation to do things more efficiently and with fewer mistakes.
Always be delivering
- Focus on the problem and delivering a solution.
- Resist the plunge into pedantry, bikeshedding, and philosophy.