First Principles Thinking

I’ve re-read Sunil Pai’s “the senior engineer death spiral” several times this week. It’s very good. If you haven’t read it, start there.

It’s resonating with me because I think almost every senior engineer has felt some version of being stuck. You get good at what you do, then things change, and the experience you’ve built up can make it hard to approach things differently.

(Also, still getting over the fact that this is a different Sunil in software engineering.)

Pai talks about focusing on momentum instead of outcomes, and I fully agree. When I’m stuck, I break the work down to the smallest thing I can actually accomplish. Getting something done usually helps me figure out what to do next.

After sitting with his post, I kept coming back to first principles thinking.