Simplifying is an engineering skill

Making others capable is better than solving problems yourself

There are two ways to be loved as a software engineer:

1. Solve the most complex problems so others don’t have to

2. Make complex problems simple enough for regular engineers to solve themselves

The first path is for master craftsmen maxxing out their engineering skill. The second is for those who enjoy teaching as much as coding.

Let’s look at a few examples of the second type of person.

Jeff Delaney & YouTube

Jeff Delaney is the man behind the Fireship, a YouTube channel for devs with over 4M subscribers. Although the videos are well-produced and sprinkled with the dry jokes devs enjoy, there is a deeper reason why developers love the channel: It makes them feel smart, quickly.

After watching a regular technical video, I often feel even more overwhelmed than when I started the video 20 minutes earlier. Jeff’s videos, on the other hand, are so straightforward and down-to-earth that I actually understand the core idea. His flagship 100 Seconds of Code series, for example, makes CS topics like Big-O notation and GraphQL feel refreshingly approachable.

Jeff probably isn’t the best engineer, nor does he try to be. Instead, he combines his “good enough” engineering with a world-class ability to cut out complexity.

I always ask myself, ‘How much can I cut out of this video and still teach the concept effectively?’

I try to distill the concepts into a very potent shot of whiskey.

— Jeff Delaney, creator of Fireship

Rich Hickey & Clojure

Rich is a great engineer — he created the Clojure language after all. Instead of trying to become an even better engineer for its own sake, though, he spends a lot of time teaching others. During the first few years after Clojure’s launch, Rich went on a conference tour, spreading the good word about the language. In his classic Simple Made Easy talk, he defined the problem of complexity so well that a generation of programmers started valuing simplicity.

Rob & CS

I felt imposter syndrome during my first two years as a junior engineer. During that time, our lead engineer, Rob, gave lunch talks about engineering. He’d whiteboard draw simple diagrams about the basics of computing: transistors, data structures, the difference between OOP and functional languages. Every time I’d walk back to my desk with a lil’ pep in my step, because for just a few minutes it felt like I understood what was going on and that I belonged. That’s why everyone loved Rob.

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If you’re the type of engineer who wants to balance both hard and soft skills, consider teaching your peers. We reward those who make things simple: they make the world less scary, which makes us feel more capable. Whether in a PR review or a big conference presentation, the most popular message will be the one that shows the audience that they have more agency than they realized.