[code_lettuce]

+1 for SC's 7 habits

Early in my career, my manager gave me the feedback that sometimes my eagerness to participate outsized my ability to understand. I never meant to suck the air out of the room, I was just so excited to build cool stuff! He recommended reading up on Stephen Covey and suggested that when collaborating on designs/debugging/etc. as a team, to practice being the last to speak. Life-changing advice.

[throwaway14356]

I like to summarize everything said and add my own conclusions. It only belongs at the end.

[luuuzeta]

>He recommended reading up on Stephen Covey and suggested that when collaborating on designs/debugging/etc. as a team, to practice being the last to speak.

I'm unfortunately in the extreme end of that advice. I listen to my teammates but I rarely contribute anything worthwhile, not because I don't want to but because I've nothing to contribute. In two recent sessions about database design for one project and integrating SSO into another, I literally had nothing to say.

[wanderingmind]

I think its a balance. While your questioning and speaking up should minimze the disruption, a junior person needs to learn to speak up even if the idea is totally dumb and crap. You cannot just listen to others speaking and learn to think and speak on the fly, just like you cannot look at swimming videos and learn to swim.

[noisy_boy]

You don't need to be the last to speak. Let the usual "speakers" do their bit first so that you know the main points that remain to be covered. If that means being last because everyone in your team is a "speaker" then you need to decide if you are ok with that dynamic. If no one on the team is a "speaker", maybe you have an opportunity.

[tleilaxu]

Sounds like a good manager, giving useful feedback!