It’s so much easier to suggest solutions when you don’t know too much about the problem.
Malcom Forbes
I often feel that writing code alone is not enough. In the early days of my career, I focused on writing elegant and effective code, grappling with syntax and structure to meet the given requirements. While this is certainly important, software engineers are ultimately responsible for creating real products that achieve their intended impact. As I gain more experience, I realize just how challenging it can be to create software that truly makes a difference.
It is our responsibility as engineers to ensure that our products are effective in achieving their intended outcomes, not just in the code that we generate. While some may argue that it is not our role to focus on this, I believe that engineers should take ownership of the impact of their work. While it’s important to rely on other roles such as product owners and designers, engineers should always strive to understand and achieve the hard task of creating effective products.
This is especially important for frontend engineering, where the code’s purpose is to create user experiences that are not only usable but also achieve the intended goals. Engineers should always strive to make their code count and ensure that their efforts are rewarded with the outcome they set out to achieve.
Creating effective software can be challenging, especially when the impact of the user experiences we create is difficult to isolate from the rest of the product. But the best engineers strive to understand and achieve this hard task, and even when they fall short, they keep trying.
This is the kind of engineer I aspire to be every day, and how I hope to continue to grow in my career.
