You are not paid to write code

Photo by Catherine Heath on Unsplash

One of the most confusing things I’ve heard last year was from one of the main NeoVim maintainers TJ Devries, which was something along the lines of:

We software engineers/developers are not really paid to write software. We are paid to solve problems, real ones or perceived.

At first, I disagreed. “Of course, we are paid to write code. What else are we supposed to do?”, I thought to myself. But as I researched and looked more into this subject, it dawned on me. There is a lot more to developing a product/service than just writing code.

In theory, as writing production software becomes more accessible, the value of this skill declines. However, there are other skills that are incredibly valuable for an organization and product development.

For now let’s list some examples of soft skills off the top of my head that could be of value:

1. Energy: We are empathetic creatures, immensely affected by the energy of others. Have you ever met a person and felt like crap afterwards? Have you met a person and you just felt at ease? Maybe even energized and you just wanna hang out around them because you felt so good. It goes almost without saying that what we say, how we say it, how we’re feeling that day, how we carry ourselves, how we take care of ourselves (physically, mentally, spiritually) affects the energy of people around us. These small interactions add up and they have immense effects on individuals, teams, and whole organizations. Have you ever been in a “toxic” environment? That’s energy for ya.
2. Curiosity: Do you know how your company makes money? Why do people buy your product? What is irritating your users/colleagues? What value are your users getting? What about your product? How does it work? Why does it work the way it does? It’s immensely valuable to be curious and ask questions. Don’t just copy & paste solutions and answers from LLMs without understanding why and how things work. Your knowledge/understanding is still valuable.
3. Social/Emotional Intelligence: How great are you at talking? Can your words convince/compel people? Do you listen to understand and then to be understood or is it the other way around? To get a job/position/promotion, it’s more important who you know than what you know. Don’t just focus on learning, share, and talk about it too. Hang out with people. Say hi! Ask how they’re doing? Don’t just do it to get something. You do it because you enjoy it, hopefully.

These are some skills that I suspect will become more valuable in the eyes of our colleagues, over the next 5-10 years. Coding skills remain essential, and combined with domain understanding, strong communication, and the ability to collaborate effectively, they multiply the value we deliver.