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by JulianRaphael 1959 days ago
Listening/observing and writing.

Listening/observing because you really need to understand why you build what you build and depending on what you are building you'll only figure out the "why?" if you listen / observe deeply without preconceived notions. I've tried to improve this skill for years and still struggle with it!

Writing because once you've absorbed the information, you need to synthesise it and there is no better way to challenge your own thinking than writing. I always thought I was good at writing until I read a few books about writing skills and then read a few books (both fiction and non-fiction) and assessed the quality of writing with these basic ideas in mind. Only then did I realise that I suck at writing. It's really hard to write well, but if you can write well you have the most powerful tool at your disposal as it can scale the thoughts and ideas of one individual to millions or even billions of people. It might also just convince a bunch of teammates to follow your lead :)

2 comments

Agreed! Just posted about active listening today https://ochronus.online/active-listening-boosts-careers/
> I read a few books about writing skills

Mind sharing the titles?

Sure!

"On Writing Well" by William Zissner

"The Elements of Style" by William Strunk Jr., E.B. White

"Stein on Writing" by Sol Stein

"Self-editing for Fiction Writers" by Dave King