
The other side of technical skill: domain knowledge and long-term vision - kiyanwang
https://www.sihui.io/domain-knowledge-and-vision/
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coldcode
This is very hard to learn unless you keep your eyes and ears open and even
your mouth sometimes; are willing to move cheese when need be; put the
customer's needs before your own or even the organization if necessary;
cultivate relationships even when they seem to bring nothing in at the moment;
look at everything around you even if it seems not connected to what you are
doing; see the big picture in even the smallest detail; learn from every
misstep until you make fewer of them; and do all this without getting
completely burned out.

I've spent almost 40 years try to do this in every place I've worked,
sometimes you fail but often you make the place better, if only for little
while.

In all the last point is the hardest, as this profession can be hard to keep
doing. Every day I still wonder if it's worth it but I keep going.

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sktrdie
I totally agree with this article but I still think it didn't add much to my
"knowledge base". In other words, it was quite obvious: who actually thinks
domain knowledge and long term vision aren't important? For me these are
skills that are necessary by all programmers, and in fact any skilled human
working in any field should have these traits.

The rest of the article is quite high-level and abstract but also quite dull
to the point that any of the points can be applied to anything.

Nonetheless I appreciate the writing; just wish it could have more compelling
information or evidence. But also I'm being sunday grumpy so don't take me too
seriously :)

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lolinder
I think most people would say "yes" if asked "are domain knowledge and long-
term vision important?" But I don't believe most people would answer "domain
knowledge and vision" if asked "what is important in a senior engineer?" For a
lot of years, my answer to the latter question would have centered on
technological knowledge, even though if prompted I would have acknowledged the
importance of domain knowledge and vision. The distinction is significant
because we will only be working on those skills that we independently identify
as important.

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giovannibonetti
I guess domain knowledged is not mentioned so often because it is (by design)
very specific to the (narrow) field you are working at. Hence there is very
little comercial interest on it, and few people care to talk about it.

