This post is a copy of a Facebook post by programmer Kent Beck. I still refer back to it and have found the advice about slicing up work to be particularly helpful (and I now pass it on to others). Kent Beck From years of watching master programmers, I have observed certain common patterns in their workflows. From years of coaching skilled journeyman programmers, I have observed the absence of those patterns.

My perspective on Software Engineering1 is that it can be understood as a kind of game. When you make great software that everyone loves and uses, you win. At Pachyderm, we’re updating and extending our engineering job ladder right now. The result of that project had to meet the practical of needs of a lot of different groups, but, now furnished with the reflection that the project required, I wanted to use the freedom of my personal blog to lay out my newly augmented understanding of engineering levels.