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Writing is about scaling yourself

October 2nd, 2024

writing, career, productivity

As a software engineer, we always talk about scalability.

Our systems must be able to scale to adjust to different levels of load.

But have you ever thought about how this can also be applied to people?

Imagine the situation where you are the tech lead of a team with little documentation about its services.

In other words, you are the documentation. 😅

Tech Lead: I am the documentation.
Tech Lead: I am the documentation.

This means that every time someone has a question, you will need to answer it.

That's not what we would call a scalable process, right?

Unlike a system, you can't increase the CPU and RAM for yourself, unless you know how to clone yourself. 🥲

That's the power of writing.

After you write something, you can save yourself time.

Instead of having to explain it individually to each person, they can find your documents themselves. Or you can send them to them.

In the last 30 days, my articles have been viewed more than 10 thousand times.

Now imagine if I had to tell the content of these articles to a thousand people.

It would probably take the rest of the year, and there would certainly be a lack of information.

Today's tip, therefore: write.

Externalize your knowledge.

Putting ideas into words is the best test of whether you have mastered a subject.

See this article by Paul Graham for more details on this.