Solid advice. Everything is such a difficult balancing act
when you work with other engineers. I say this because at the other end of the spectrum its really easy to land yourself and those around you in needless drama by asking too publicly for feedback on ideas. Hey everyone, just wondering what our thoughts as a team are on auto formatting the codebase / switching tabs to spaces / repainting the bike shed?
Some wise advice I once got from an engineer who has gone on to be a stellar engineering leader: utilise the power of managers. Good managers are drama fire breaks. They can tell you — without raising the emotional stakes with anyone else — why a particular bit of tech debt exists, whether anyone on their team is going to be amenable to you fiddling with it, and who to work with directly on anything likely to cause drama would it have been more widely shared.
Managers aren’t immune to drama but the good ones can help keep it minimised.
Some wise advice I once got from an engineer who has gone on to be a stellar engineering leader: utilise the power of managers. Good managers are drama fire breaks. They can tell you — without raising the emotional stakes with anyone else — why a particular bit of tech debt exists, whether anyone on their team is going to be amenable to you fiddling with it, and who to work with directly on anything likely to cause drama would it have been more widely shared.
Managers aren’t immune to drama but the good ones can help keep it minimised.