I recall committing to specific goals on Pi Day in the past, but perhaps I’ve forgotten what they are because I haven’t shared them publicly. This Pi Day I commit to thinking more deliberately about my long-term career trajectory and to make choices in a way that the gains compound.
Fight this urge whenever possible. Know your tools. Accept the abstractions, but only once you’ve studied their implementation and understand their limitations. You’ll never have enough time to do this for every tool that you use, but if you do it for even a small fraction of them you’ll reap massive benefits.
At some point in your career you’ll have to start taking responsibility for your career trajectory. The key insight is that you should make decisions about what projects to work on and which teams and companies to join strategically, not tactically. Think long term.
Nothing will accelerate your growth faster than spending all day working with other very good engineers. The moment you start to feel like you’re not learning from the engineers around you is the moment you should start looking for a new team.