
Ask HN: Which soft skills do you develop as a programmer? - erdinc
I have been a programmer for about 15 years now, and I still try to hone in on skills that will make me better every day. One thing I realized is that I do not spend as much time on soft skills, There also aren’t many companies out there who target programmers for soft skill development either.<p>For me, I focus a lot on communication – especially presentation and public speaking, which is always an issue. Now I am branching out. I’ve started searching for things like Ethics (especially with the improvements in AI, this is becoming a hot topic). And since I work remotely, I am also realizing the benefits of teamwork, getting promoted while working remotely, creating a company culture are also important skills to gain.<p>What do you think? What soft skills or side skills should programmers focus on improving? Anything else you think would be beneficial to add to a developer’s collection of skills?
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tykom
Communication for sure. I think one of the hardest skills to develop is being
appropriately critical without coming off like a jerk. This is especially true
in remote teams where even the best conferencing solutions can't transmit
subtle cues like body language.

I have been going about this by devoting a lot of time (maybe triple what I
would intuitively expect) to writing thoughtful comments on code
reviews/issues. And, while doing so, thinking through how I would go about the
same conversation if it were in person.

