Some people chase freedom.
Some chase success.
Some chase fame.
Most chase… something.

But one thing’s common.

Everyone’s figuring it out.

Kinda, going crazy even.

Entrepreneurs?
They chase a dream.
They are driven to add value in others’ lives. They solve problems not many think of.
However….
They have to skip birthdays, cancel family dinners.
Take calls while pretending to be on vacation.
They wake up every day to new fires — real ones. Existential threats.
They may not have a boss, but they do have investors.
They carry the burden of everyone’s future — team, product, users, society.

Solopreneurs?
Sounds cool: "I work for myself."
They own their time.
Many of them value freedom and break away from the idea of 40, 60, or 80-hour work. But talk to them….
They manage freelancers, juggle schedules, pitch clients, post online, stay visible, relevant, ahead.
They are the product, the marketing, the support, and the janitor.
A few bad days? No one’s seems to coming to save them.

Content creators?
One algorithm tweak and poof — audience gone.
Rest? Not allowed.
A few days off? No one knows you. Someone replaced you like yesterday.
Being obsolete is just one lazy week away.

9-to-5ers?
Don’t feel too safe.
As a leader, they’re a mini-CEO.
They write plans, strategize, build, code a bit, delegate to cursor or claude, deliver.
They’re part IC, part solopreneur, part content creator, part therapist.
Burnout? Always there.
Stressful. From dusk to dawn — just a different flavor.
AI’s coming for them sooner than later.

In this drill, we all spend years seeking happiness in future and lose the sight of why we started at the first place.

So what’s the point?

Every path is hard.
Every path comes with tradeoffs.
And every path, if not lived mindfully, leads to the same place — a restless mind, a tired soul.

I’ve played a few of these roles.
I’ve spoken to people who’ve walked all the others.

And here's the truth most won’t say out loud:

The happiest people aren’t always the most successful.
They're the ones who figured out how to enjoy today.

Not “one day.”
Not “after I exit.”
Not “when I hit 100k subs or $1M ARR.”
Not “when I get promoted”.

Just… today.

These people are rare but really, really happy.
Every Single Day.
Without any special occasion or influenced by external success.

That’s because..

They chose presence.
They chose peace.
They stopped outsourcing their joy to the future.

That doesn’t mean they stopped working.
It means they stopped believing that peace had to wait.

They also get bad days, but they let go and come back on track.

At its core, they understand each moment is disappearing.
It’s going away and so they try maximizing joy out of it.

Let me be clear.

Choosing peace is not a lack of ambition.

It’s the strongest form of clarity.

You can build, create, grow — and still be content right now.
You can chase a goal — without believing your happiness depends on catching it.
You can fall short — and still feel full.

Because maybe there’s no such thing as “failure” — just feedback, direction, and experience.
What looks like failure to you might be someone else’s dream come true.

So no matter what path you're on —

Just don’t forget to live.

Not in some distant future.
Not “after this launch.”
Not next quarter.
But now.

Because peace isn’t the prize at the end of the race.
It’s the reason you should run in the first place.

And me?

I choose peace.
Today.

This time, even Software Engineers.

Yes, the prestigious ones who once felt secure in the past while other roles were eliminated due to macroeconomic conditions.

But what about those who’ve grown comfortable vibe coding with Copilot, Claude, or Cursor?

It’s good that they’ve adapted—but that’s no longer going to be enough.

Well, you still need someone to write long-term Software Vision. Roadmaps. Strategy docs. Right..?

Well, AGI has that covered too. The AI context windows are becoming practically infinite.

Hmmmm….Leaner teams? The new normal.

Layoffs…?

Well, unless you've been living under a rock, it's already happening. Here's what leaders at top companies are saying and doing:

Harsh... right?

Here’s the thing: It’s not new. Every technological revolution reshapes the job landscape.

Software engineering roles won’t vanish entirely.

But only a few archetypes will rise to the top.

That raises the next question:

When it's time to chop off the puff—

What decides if you're "for here or to go"?

Or put another way—

What are the archetypes that will survive?

👋 Hey there, I am Gourav. I write about Engineering, Thought Leadership, Human Psychology and the Mysteries of the mind!

Today, I am sharing an article in ‘Tech, AI & Leadership’ section of this newsletter.

It’s my prediction there are three archetypes of Software Engineers who will survive.

Archetype 1: Intraprenuers

Let’s understand these engineers via a true story about Mike (named changed to maintain anonymity):

A long time ago, I worked with Mike, a Product Manager at my former company.

Brilliant at his job. He wasn’t just obsessed with customers and products—he was obsessed with how engineers coded.

He had a software engineering background but had moved into product management.

Empathetic. Visionary. Business-minded. But...

He was limited by engineers because he hadn't coded in years.

He'd ping engineers daily:

"Can we build this?"
"How much effort?"
"When can we ship?"

Engineers would scramble, estimate weeks, and deliver slowly.

He grew impatient.

With his engineering background, he understood concepts enough to dive into the codebase himself. He would question estimates, perform QA testing, and fix smaller bugs.

Crazy, right?

We joked:

“Mike could replace half of us—if only he knew coding better.”

Over time, he actually sharpened his technical skills and turned out to became a “Technical Product Owner”—a role specifically created for him.

Fast forward to today.

I truly believe people like Mike have a higher chance of thriving in the AI era.

As a leader, if given a choice between:

• Someone who only codes,

• Or someone who deeply understands customers, identifies problems, pitches solutions, rapidly prototypes, and leverages AI to build—

I’d always pick the latter.

Companies often assign prestigious labels to such people.

Some call them “those who think like owners.”

Others refer to them as the “CTO of their small teams.”

And some call them Intrapreneurs — “entrepreneurs within the company”. covered this topic well in her latest article in The Pragmatic Engineer. (Must read!)

These folks talk to customers, challenge the status quo, and understand that there’s a human on the other end of the product.

They possess strong interpersonal skills and deep empathy for their teammates and customers.

They bring in the deals. They create business.

They are the real leaders.

Archetype 2: AI Checkers

This type is relatively easier to understand.

They validate whether AI is doing its job well—similar to how senior engineers review the work of junior engineers. I simply call this archetype the AI Checkers.

These are exceptional Software Engineers who specialize in niche domains.

Think Infrastructure Architects.

Cybersecurity Networking Engineers.

Data Engineering and Security Experts.

Don’t get me wrong—AI will eventually make inroads here too.

But these areas are often deeply tied to company-specific systems and practices.

That’s exactly where human specialists will step in—to oversee how AI agents operate and identify when they fall short or go off track, and course correct.

Archetype 3: AI Builders

This one is even easier to grasp, especially if you’ve been following what’s happening in the industry right now.

I call this final archetype the AI Builders.

These are the engineers building the foundation of the AI era.

They train large models, fine-tune them post-deployment, and stitch together multi-agent workflows that resemble mini-AI companies.

They don’t just adapt to AI tools—they build them.

They don’t just automate tasks—they create the automation.

These engineers will not only become essential—they’ll become elite.

The top 0.1%.

Highest paid. Most in-demand. Courted by everyone.

Meta, for example, is already poaching OpenAI engineers with multi-million packages.

Companies are forming entire divisions just to attract and retain these folks.

Closing Thoughts

You’ll need to fall into one of these three archetypes to stay relevant in this new era.

Now is the time to reflect.

Figure out what aligns with your strengths, passion, lifestyle, and personal goals.

Do you enjoy building things from scratch? You might be a future AI Builder.

Do you love working with customers and solving business problems? You might be an Intrapreneur.

Do you have deep expertise in systems or infra? You could thrive as an AI Checker.

There’s no one-size-fits-all answer here. But there is a path for those willing to adapt.

What exactly should you start doing today?

That’s a whole article in itself—and maybe, just maybe, I’ll write that next.

🤝 Let’s Connect

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Gourav Khanijoe

Gourav’s Odyssey #5

This is an edition type of The Curious Soul’s Corner newsletter where I share my free flowing thoughts, curations and life outside work.

👋 Hey there, I am Gourav. I write about Engineering, Productivity, Thought Leadership, and the Mysteries of the mind!

I know it’s been a while since I published anything—and I owe you that pause. But trust me, it was a conscious choice. More on that at the end of this article.

3-2-1

This story taught me multiple things which I’ll convey through 3-2-1 of today’s article.

3 Learnings (with action items)

The absence of proof is not the absence of truth.

The next version of you can’t be imagined from here. But it’s real. Just like the second baby believed in a life beyond the womb without knowing what it looked like, you don’t need to fully see what your ideas will become. These ideas still deserve faith, presence, and quiet preparation—because the next version of you already exists. You’re just growing into it.

✅ Action: Set a 30-minute block every week to work on an idea you believe in—even if no one else sees it yet.

It’s a full time job believing in yourself. No days off.

We are getting challenged in various ways, ranging from AI disruption and cost related downsizings at work to parenting at home — you choosing to slow down, switch careers, or spend time with family is resistance, not weakness.

✅ Action: Prioritize inner alignment over outer applause. That belief fuels longevity in tech careers and life.

Try again, but this time with gratitude towards everything.

The world feels volatile—whether it’s political chaos, economic swings, or personal instability. Gratitude won’t solve the chaos, but it will steady your steps through it.

✅ Action: Start each week by writing 3 things you’re thankful for—one from work, one from family, and one from yourself.

2 Pics

Just got back from an unforgettable trip to the Grand Canyon and Antelope Canyon—here are two snapshots that barely do the beauty justice.

1 Epiphany

I’m still in the process of making my life better,
Still deciding where I wanna be in the future.
But I know—
I’m already living a life I once never imagined.
So good it feels unreal.
A life I prayed for—
And yet, I got even more.

So no—
I can’t, and I shouldn’t, complain.

Instead of chasing happiness in the future,
Maybe I should start cherishing what I have now.

I should live in the present.
Practice stillness.
Be mindful.

Because anything that steals away my now—
In return for a promise of future happiness—
Is just a bad trade.

It’s like selling today
For a version of tomorrow
I never even asked for originally.

And if I keep believing that life gets better only in the future,
I’ll keep moving the goalpost,
Forever chasing.
Never arriving.

I stopped ‘consistently’ publishing my newsletter articles.

On purpose.

Not because I lost passion or discipline in writing —
But because I found clarity.

I ‘too’ had big plans—growth, monetization, selling courses, maybe even a startup.
But I was trading time with my family, missing the very life I was writing to celebrate, but in the future.

So I chose presence over pressure.
I chose the joy of doing what I truly enjoy, rather than chasing a dream romanticized by others.

I’ve come to realize that I can do anything and everything—just not all at once.

I still write—consistently.
I just don’t publish until it feels true to share.
No pressure, no dynamics, just peace.

Writing isn’t my second job anymore.
It’s my sacred space.

🤝 Let’s Connect

Sponsorship | Collaboration | LinkedIn | 1:1 Mentoring | Twitter

Gourav Khanijoe

When I’m working…I think about going out.
I think about enjoying time with family and friends.

But when I’m enjoying…I often think about work.

Often stressed about where I am going.

Relatable?

Most of us have physical freedom.
We move, speak, and live freely.

But look closer, and you’ll notice the invisible bars:

Our fears.
Insecurities.
Overthinking.
The constant urge to do too much.
FOMO and wanting to be everywhere and know everyone.

Mental stress is on the rise.
Our attention spans are shorter than ever.

Our software engineering jobs have our brains wired to be logic machines.

The never-ending flood of “grind 24/7” productivity hacks online forces us to squeeze every last drop out of every second.

This is NOT what the human brain and body are built for.

And most importantly, most of us have forgotten how to live in the present.

Life Is Short.

The average person lives about 30,000 days.

If you’re 30 years old, you’ve already used 11,000 of those days.

Reflecting as 2024 winds down

So, while we are here, how can we get the maximum happiness ROI on life?

How can we enjoy the moment, feel less stressed, let go of unnecessary things, and make our limited time on this planet count?

How do we truly free ourselves?

As I relax amidst Christmas and the holidays, I’ve been thinking about this.

So today, I’m sharing how I am changing things up in 2025.

I’ll use ‘3-2-1 format’ and cover top 3 things I am planning to change, along with 2 books I am reading and 1 proven idea for you to pick up to live with charm.

Gourav’s Odyssey #4

This is an edition type of The Curious Soul’s Corner newsletter where I share my free flowing thoughts, curations and life outside work.

👋 Hey there, I am Gourav. I write about Engineering, Productivity, Thought Leadership, and the Mysteries of the mind!

3-2-1

3 ‘Things’ I am planning to do more of in 2025 (with pics)

A. Savor everyday moments

Remember when you were a kid? Summers felt long and exciting.

Everything was new. Everything was an adventure.

Now?

Same alarm. Same coffee. Same grind for 8–9 hours. Same food. A little Netflix. Then bed.

Here’s the problem: The human brain stops recording these repetitive moments. We’re constantly looking ahead—waiting for the next big thing.

And in that waiting, we lose time forever.

This is called the “paradox of time”.

When our brains experience something new, it slows down time. It savor those moments.

But if our life is stuck on rinse and repeat mode, time flies by, and we’re left feeling empty.

Takeaway:
Start adding new, exciting moments to your day—even small ones.
A random brunch with your partner.
Break during the day to walk and clearing up the mind.
Small Adventures.
Learning new skills?

I took a morning break from work to go out and have that awesome holiday brunch before the Christmas holidays:

B. Small movements = Big health gains

Micro workouts.

10 push-ups here.
A quick walk outside.
Under the standing-desk treadmill for walk-n-talk meetings (see the image below, comment or reply to this article if you’d like to get its amazon link).

Nothing fancy. Hitting the gym 3 times (at least) would then seem like cheery-on-the-top.

If you are already doing that, push yourself further.

Your body isn’t made to sit for 8 hours straight, and these small movements add up.

These also help clear your mind and even make problem solving easier.

Takeaway:
Treat these as mandatory breaks, not “nice-to-haves.”

Fun target: Quite contrary - I am setting a fun goal to “Walk to Toronto” from Seattle. Haha, that’s just an analogy to say I’d like to walk/run/sprint/cycle 2555 miles in 2025. That’s roughly 15764 steps a day. That’s because I walked an average 9k steps a day in 2024 and I want to push myself.

Here’s how I am already doing it:

C. Let Go of unnecessary stress

A lot of our stress is self-inflicted.

That vague message your manager or peer sent? Maybe it sounds vague because slack is tone-deaf. It’s probably not as bad as it sounds—don’t overthink it.

Here’s another reason we’re so stressed: We try to be good at everything at the same time.

Great people strategically choose to suck at certain things so they can excel at others.

It’s called deliberate amateurism, and it’s a cheat code for less stress.

For the things you suck at, show vulnerability. It’s not weakness—it builds trust.

Lastly, and this one’s huge: Limit your life.

Takeaway:
I will try to limit myself, so that I am forced to focus on what matters.

Fewer things to buy.
Fewer people in my circle.
Fewer projects to take-on.
Fewer thoughts to stress about.
Fewer commitments and meetings.

This is how we can escape lifestyle inflation—the treadmill of always wanting “more.”

2 ‘Books’ I am reading

1 ‘mindset’ to bring joy to life

Paying close attention to relationships and friendships.

A well-matched rhythm with partner and a few good friends will make your life way better than any meditation app ever could.

Relationships doesn’t mean celebrating just those big moments (the big party, the fancy anniversary dinner). They’re about daily deposits.

Checking in. Helping a friend move. Meeting often, chatting, and laughing.

If you are not doing it, you are missing a lot.
When was the last time you showed up for a friend? Or did something extraordinary?

I bought house in expensive neighbourhood despite working remotely because my friends also live in that area and I wanted to live nearby. It’s the most important investment I did in 2024. What’s your excuse?

This Week’s Praise

Hemant is a Senior Software Engineer at Meta and the author of The Hustling Engineer newsletter, which provides actionable career growth tips for software engineers. His journey through top tech companies like Tesla, SAP, and Salesforce, culminating in a senior role at Meta, showcases his strategic approach to career advancement.

From Hemant, I’ve learned the importance of personal branding and related presence on multiple fronts. He actively engages on platforms like LinkedIn and his posts taught me how to present relatable content concisely.

His newsletter is a treasure trove of insights for engineers aiming to accelerate their careers.

More praises in next editions.

New Year 2025 Gift 🎉

As we step into the new year, I wanted to give back to the amazing subscribers of this newsletter. As my gift to you, I’ve opened up a few free 1:1 slots to connect personally. Whether you’d like to chat about career growth, leadership, or explore long term mentorship, I’m there for you. Check out the options here.

That’s all for today! Wishing you joyful holidays and an incredible start to 2025. Happy New Year!

🤝 Let’s Connect

Sponsorship | Collaboration | LinkedIn | 1:1 Mentoring | Twitter

Gourav Khanijoe

You may have heard the term - “His investment portfolio is beating the market” 🤔.

Let’s break this down.

“Beating the market” often refers to beating the performance traditional indexes like S&P500, Dow Jones, or BSE/NSE in India 🌍. These indexes, simply put, are average of top ‘X’ number of funds included in their tracking umbrella.

So, the dreamers dream about investing in right set of handpicked stocks such that that portfolio beats the standard indexes.

You may be surprised to learn that 75% of all the smartest money managers in the world, working 20-hour days, with huge research staffs 👩‍💻👨‍💻, powered by the most advanced computers 🖥️ and tools 🛠️, have NOT been able to consistently beat the market. Of the remaining 25%, most were just able to keep pace with the market.

Only a handful of the rest, like Warren Buffett or someone possessed with uncommon common sense like Peter Lynch, have been able to do that.

In short, you can’t consistently beat the market.❌📊

That's why, for long-term investing, index and mutual funds are best. Unless, of course, you enjoy gambling. Or, you have skills to book profits every time.

The difference between two? Mutual funds are actively managed by humans. Index funds are cheaper, as they are passively managed.

So, next time someone asks you: “Which stocks should I buy?” 🤷‍♂️

Drum roll 🥁… please…

You can answer: “All of them…or at least most of them…by investing in Index Funds.”

Investing regularly in index funds using dollar-cost averaging is key to long-term gains. Start early and hold your investments for the long haul.

Gentle Reminder: There is NO financial advice offered here. Gourav is neither a financial expert nor an advisor or promotor of anything. He’s sharing his own learnings and experiences.

But…there’s always a but…Your friend became a multi-millionaire by investing in the right stock or by staying put in the company’s RSUs and not by investing consistently in Index Funds 📊.

The thing about long-term index fund investing is that it should be like watching the grass grow. It’s boring and takes a long time for compounding to work. For a fast wealth generation path, you need to be ready to take some risks ⚠️ and invest in aggressive strategies and growth stocks 🔥..

Wait a minute, in the start, I told you that it is almost impossible to beat the market . Yes, it’s almost impossible - over a long period of time.

But a large number of people have done it on a short-term basis, and some people are doing it every second. I will cover this in the next set of articles. Stay tuned! 🎉

That’s it for today 🙏. If you are wondering, “What’s a Reflection Short?” read here. Access the full series here.

References

• Multiple Streams of Income

• The Psychology of Money: Timeless lessons on wealth, greed, and happiness

• The Intelligent Investor

Let’s Connect 🤝

👋 Hey there, I am Gourav. I write about Engineering, Productivity, Thought Leadership, and the Mysteries of the mind!

Use the below links if you want to connect with me.

Sponsorship | Collaboration | LinkedIn | 1:1 Mentoring | Twitter

It’s because only a few folks discuss actionable steps, making it hard to start. That’s where the "Money Playbook" comes in. Let’s break down the basics today and we will build solid grasp and derive actions over the course of this series!

Hiking for Mountains and Trees

I love hiking and marveling at the unique shapes of mountains and trees. It’s amazing how a few scattered seeds grow into such stunning sights.

Just like that, we can grow our own Money Trees—not just one, but many! Let’s explore the 3 wealth mountains you need to climb and how to grow Money Trees on each.

1. The Investment Mountain

This is the most familiar mountain, where you invest in stocks, index funds, mutual funds, or other traditional assets.

Growing a Money Tree here requires patience and consistency. Use this Three-Step Process:

• Screening and filtering (finding the right seeds, aka, growth stocks)

• Timing in (waiting for the right weather, aka, when markets are low)

• Timing out (harvesting at the right time, aka, when enough profits are made)

The Investment Mountain is the easiest to start but demands a long-term, disciplined approach.

2. The Physical Asset Mountain

Owning Real Estate; Gold; Expensive watches too (??) that grow in value over time.

Building wealth here requires some upfront knowledge and effort. Use the 80/20 principle—focus on the 20% of strategies that yield 80% of results. Your Three-Step Process:

• Finding (the right seeds, aka growth potential areas)

• Funding (watering them with the right resources, aka maintenance)

• Farming (using the right amount of compost to nurture growth, aka nice tenants)

It’s a tangible and rewarding way to grow wealth but takes some groundwork to get started.

3. The Business Mountain

This is the hardest mountain to climb, but it has the most potential for exponential growth. Growing a Money Tree here requires skills, grit, and a strong foundation and the success formula isn’t a 3 step process. Instead, it deserves the full expansion of the MONEYTREE acronym:

• M - Build multiple income streams for safety before starting your business.

• O - Create an outstanding business that generates value and income for life.

• N - Start with nothing or negligible expenses—focus on action, not lavish setups.

• E - Be employee-resistant—small, agile teams minimize costs and risks.

• Y - Choose a business idea with yield potential, even while you sleep.

• T - Trend and timing matter—pick a business relevant to today’s world.

• R - Aim for resilient income, not just linear returns.

• E - Build something for everyone’s daily use, ensuring consistent demand.

• E - Stay fueled by enthusiasm—if you hate what you sell, you’ll never succeed.

In future episodes, we’ll explore exact actions to take to grow your wealth in each of these categories.

That’s it for today 🙏. If you are wondering “What’s a Reflection Short?” Read here. Access full series here. Stay tuned for more episodes and subscribe now!

References

• The Psychology of Money: Timeless lessons on wealth, greed, and happiness

• Make Epic Money

• Multiple Streams of Income

Let’s Connect 🤝

👋 Hey there, I am Gourav. I write about Engineering, Productivity, Thought Leadership, and the Mysteries of the mind!

Use the below links if you want to connect with me.

Sponsorship | Collaboration | LinkedIn | 1:1 Mentoring | Twitter

Today’s article features a special guest, , Engineering Director at Taranis and the author of the Leading Developers newsletter, a must-read for engineering managers and team leaders. His content offers sharp, actionable strategies for leading dev teams.

Without further ado, I’ll pass the mic 🎤 to Anton 👏

"Honey, what have you done? My father wants to kill you!”

😨

I never knew my tendency to refactor stuff would get me in so much trouble…

Let’s back up a little.

Yes, I promise this relates to the software world.

Back in February, my wife's parents invited us to their home for 2 weeks. We had a 3-month-old baby (our first), and we appreciated the invitation.

The help was amazing - we finally had some free time, slept well, and ate great food!

Near the end, I decided I wanted to pay back the kindness. On a Saturday morning, they all went out, and I had a great idea.

The house has a huge yard, which was a complete mess:

• Piles of garbage

• Fallen leaves everywhere

• Abandoned tools in random places

• Old and rusty buckets getting in the way

Her mom always complained about how messy it was, so I thought my idea was GENIUS!

I cleaned up everything - I organized the tools on the shelves, collected all the fallen leaves, and threw away the garbage and the old buckets. The result was something like 5 huge bags full of trash!

I took a shower and went for what I thought was a very well-deserved nap.

Imagine my surprise, when I woke up to my wife saying: “Honey, what did do? My father wants to kill you!”

You get where this is going, right?

• Turns out that although I cleaned up some real garbage, I also threw away

  the compost corner my father-in-law started a few weeks ago.

• In addition, the leaky buckets were placed under strategic places where the gutters overflowed during heavy rains, and they distributed the water in a better way.

• And worst of all, my mother-in-law was very happy, and kept saying: “Look what a great job Anton did! You should learn from him!”

🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️

And one more:

🤦‍♂️

But enough about my in-laws, let’s go back to tech.

Why do developers always want to refactor?

How often did you hear from someone in your team: “This repo is in terrible shape, we must refactor it!”.

I’m working at a 10-year-old startup, so there is no shortage of old repositories and obsolete code lying around.

I agreed with most complaints, and that’s what I usually did: if we needed to do substantial work in a certain place, I factored in ‘tidying it up’ in the estimation.

Until one day, the ‘this-repo-is-in-terrible-shape-and-I-can’t-understand-anything’ complaint was directed at a codebase that I wrote myself 2 years ago! It was covered with UnitTests, well documented, and still highly used!

I was confused. Was I a worse programmer than I thought? After consulting with some people from other teams, and asking them to go over that code, I concluded that it’s not my fault (this time).

Since the dawn of time, developers always wanted to re-write things.

Joel Spolsky wrote in his great 25-year-old article:

Programmers always want to throw away the code and start over - as they think the old code is a mess. And here is the interesting observation: they are probably wrong. The reason that they think the old code is a mess is because of a fundamental law of programming:

It’s harder to read code than to write it.

This is why code reuse is so hard. This is why everybody on your team has a different function they like to use for splitting strings into arrays of strings. They write their own function because it’s easier and more fun than figuring out how the old function works.

You can ask almost any programmer today about the code they are working on. “It’s a big hairy mess,” they will tell you. “I’d like nothing better than to throw it out and start over.”

This was written in 2000(!), and I find it fascinating it’s still true. It can cause an endless cycle - if a code I wrote mere 2 years ago is already considered ‘legacy’, who will guarantee that the new code will be better?

From the same article:

It’s important to remember that when you start from scratch there is absolutely no reason to believe that you are going to do a better job than you did the first time. You’re just going to make most of the old mistakes again, and introduce some new problems that weren’t in the original version.

The concept is best explained by the famous illustration by Manu Cornet (there are many more great comics on his website!):

Old code is the best code

Jumping back to my father-in-law’s backyard story (I swear, it’s real. Since then we made up, but this stain will last a while…) - when you try to rewrite a codebase you don’t fully understand, you will fail.

During lunch a few weeks ago, someone asked one of the developers in my team how long it would take to write one of our internal-facing systems from scratch.

He looked at me and said: "Something like 3 months, right Anton?"
And I replied: "Closer to 6. And then 3 more years to add all the edge cases".

The longer the code exists - the more stable it is. When I started leading my team 2.5 years ago, I was given a legacy system to support, that nobody really knew. So far, it had maybe 2 small problems due to external API changes, and is just working flawlessly…

Code is like wine - it ages well.

Vadim Kravchenko wrote a great article about it:

Why should you consider aging your code? Because the longer your code has been around, survived different cataclysms (read: business pivots), and evolved, the more robust it is. The team that has built it before you had time to debug, to optimize, to improve — the code has accumulated years worth of bugfixes that are in places you cant even imagine.

The kinks have been worked out, and what you're left with is a mature, stable system that can handle whatever comes its way.

Finding the balance

I'm not saying that code should be kept forever. Requirements change, and new technologies emerge.

My point is that developers should be much more careful with how they define ‘legacy’, and how trigger-happy they are with refactoring.

Your role as a manager is to help the team find the balance - represent the developers, fight for the time to refactor when you believe you need it, but also represent the business side, and push back if you believe a refactor is not critical right now.

2 things I advice you to do before starting a refactor:

1. Think about the future. Are there big features planned in that codebase in the near future? If not - wait for them before you do anything, they might never come.

2. Make a TRUE effort to understand the old code. Let a developer spend a few days trying to understand the existing code. I’m surprised how often 6-8 weeks long refactor projects are started without even spending a day to understand what you are trying to replace!
   
   If the developer feels more confident after a few days, maybe a huge refactor is not that urgent.

The next time you consider refactoring a working codebase - remember my father-in-law...

🙏 Thank you Anton

Gourav here again 👋

Thank you to Anton for sharing this backyard-cleaning escapade which not only made us laugh but also served as an unforgettable metaphor for one of the software world's biggest dilemmas: refactoring versus understanding legacy code. This article should act as a humorous yet great reminder on finding balance, appreciating the value of "aged" code, and thoughtful decision-making before diving into a rewrite are invaluable for engineers and leaders alike.

To get more such valuable insights from Anton, check out his newsletter, Leading Developers.

Shoutouts for this week 🔊

1. How Changing Teams Can Boost Your Career Growth by

2. The one framework every engineer should know by &

3. CPTO: A role every company should consider? by &

4. How to Identify Silent Disagreements? by

🤝 Let’s Connect

👋 Hey there, I am Gourav. I write about Engineering, Productivity, Thought Leadership, and the Mysteries of the mind!

Sponsorship | Collaboration | LinkedIn | 1:1 Mentoring | Twitter

Paul wants to travel the world. Sam wants to build his dream startup. Sara wants to go skydiving. Rajesh want to spend time with his kids.

One common denominator?

You’re want to have freedom to control your life the way you want to do what you love.

That’s what toddlers do. They’re free all day and can control what they want to do—play, poop, sleep, eat, whatever. Sure, parents set some limits for their safety, but you get the point.

To gain control of your life, you need time. That’s why even if you have a lot of money but no time, you’re not rich.

Gentle Reminder: There is NO financial advice offered here. Gourav is neither a financial expert nor an advisor or promotor of anything. He’s sharing his own learnings and experiences.

We’re taught that full-time jobs make us rich. It gives us money, not time—because you’re trading time for cash. To truly grow, learn to earn with your mind, not hours.

Key Learning: Ultimately, you want to have money and the time to spend it wisely, giving you true control. That’s when you’ve truly bought happiness with money—by having the control in life.

Here’s How to Do It:

1. Stay in your current job and use that time-for-money trade to invest and build safety nets and assets.

2. Use extra time—early mornings, nights, weekends, holidays—to build your business.

3. Optimize over time to make it more efficient, so you no longer need to spend a lot of time on it. That’s when you shift from active to passive income.

Passive income is a system that earns you money with minimal effort once set up. Start with these ideas now:

1. Creating Content

   • Active: Create YouTube videos, newsletters, or Instagram reels. Earn via sponsorships.

   • Passive: Once published, views, ads, and affiliate sales generate income continuously.

2. Online Courses

   • Active: Build and market your course. Earn from live sessions.

   • Passive: Record and automate it to generate long-term revenue.

3. Selling Products

   • Active: Market and sell handmade goods like carpets, managing every detail.

   • Passive: Automate your business with the right hires and systems to focus on decision-making.

Start small, stay consistent, and let your efforts pay off while you sleep! 🚀

That’s it for today 🙏. If you are wondering “What’s a Reflection Short?” Read here. Access full series here.

References

• The Psychology of Money: Timeless lessons on wealth, greed, and happiness

• Make Epic Money

• Multiple Streams of Income

Let’s Connect 🤝

👋 Hey there, I am Gourav. I write about Engineering, Productivity, Thought Leadership, and the Mysteries of the mind!

Use the below links if you want to connect with me.

Sponsorship | Collaboration | LinkedIn | 1:1 Mentoring | Twitter

This is an edition type of The Curious Soul’s Corner newsletter where I share my free flowing thoughts, curations and life outside work.

👋 Hey there, I am Gourav. I write about Engineering, Productivity, Thought Leadership, and the Mysteries of the mind!

Unpopular Opinion

Don’t listen to productivity gurus telling you to stick to a fixed schedule.

Why? Because you can’t control everything. Check this out:

Day 1: You start strong—wake up at 5 AM, feel great, and sleep on time, ready for the next day.

Day 2: Still on track. Wake up at 5 AM, feeling good… but then your kid gets sick that night, and you end up sleeping late.

Day 3: The cracks appear. Because you slept late, now you wake up at 7 AM instead, miss the gym and feel bad. Sev2 bug at work pulls you into stress during the day, unexpected guests came home in evening and you end up sleeping even later.

Day 4: You try to wake up at 5 AM again..but fail. Snooze till 6am, wake up with sore eyes, heavy head. Drag yourself through a challenging workday, get tired and sleep early.

Day 5: Because you slept early, now you are back to 5 AM.

Barely, but on track again. :)

The reality of routines is: life happens. It's nearly impossible to excel at parenting, attend to friends and family, build habits, and stick to a perfect routine all at once.

Life doesn’t adhere to rigid schedules, and sticking to one isn’t always practical. Emergencies happen—kids get sick, work demands spike, or unexpected events disrupt your plans.

And you know what? That’s okay.

Adaptive Routines

The goal isn’t to follow a perfect schedule every day. It’s to stay intentional and adaptable, so you can make progress even when things go sideways.

Instead of rigid schedules, focus on principles and systems that adapt to your reality.

Here’s what works for me:

1. Define the Success of Your Day and Embrace Uncertainty: I define one key task each day that makes it successful, even if nothing else gets done. If an emergency arises, I simply swap it with the task that took over. This way, I stay focused without stressing over unavoidable events.

2. Declutter, Don’t Overload: I constantly focus on removing and automating tasks rather than adding new ones. I prioritize heavily.

3. Leverage Intense Waves of Focus: Real progress happens during focused, deep work. I work in intense waves when my brain is at its peak performance, and rest when I feel exhausted. I don’t fight against your natural rhythms.

4. Downtime: I build in time for rest and downtime. Taking a break from the routine is just as important as following it.

5. Bounce Back After Slipping: When I break my routine, I get back to it as soon as possible to avoid breaking consistency.

6. Use Mechanisms, Not Just Intentions: Don’t rely on willpower—build accountability mechanisms. For instance, I moved my mentoring sessions to early mornings, which naturally pushed me to wake up on time for the gym.

3-2-1

3 ‘Pics’ of life outside work

November is a month of memories for us. My birthday, our wedding anniversary and many more Indian traditional events occur in this month before we get ready for Thanksgiving and Christmas. And I don’t mind breaking my routine to cherish these moments. :)

Talking about interruptions in routines. A deadly 'bomb cyclone' hit the Pacific Northwest. It brought high winds and devastating damage. We had a power outage for more than 2 days in Bothell, Bellevue, Redmond and some parts of Seattle (Washington).

2 ‘Pieces of Content’ I am consuming to learn New Stuff

1. Million Dollar Weekend: A book that, in a simple, modern way, tells all about starting a business, without wasting time.

   

2. Data Engineering Concepts from dataengineer.io bootcamp by : Because AI and ML needs training data and I need to learn how its plumbed through. If you also want to learn it, use coupon code “GOURAV” and you will get 25% off. :)

1 ‘Black Friday’ deal I am buying into

Ninja Espresso & Coffee Maker & Barista System (25% off): Because Software Engineers deserve the upgrade :)

This Week’s Praise

Anton is an R&D Team Leader and the author of the Leading Developers newsletter, a must-read for engineering managers and team leaders. His content offers sharp, actionable strategies for leading dev teams. It's a valuable resource for folks looking to improve their leadership skills.

From Anton, I’ve learned the art of smart brevity—how to cut through the fluff and get straight to the point. His writing is a masterclass in delivering value with precision, a skill that has transformed how I approach my own newsletter. Anton’s work is a goldmine, subscribe to his newsletter, if you haven’t.

More praises in next editions.

Must Read Articles

1. Staying Calm When You Want to Disappear by and

2. Finding my joy by

3. Why and How to Build Your Personal Brand on LinkedIn by

4. 28 Year Old Staff Engineer @ Google by

🤝 Let’s Connect

Sponsorship | Collaboration | LinkedIn | 1:1 Mentoring | Twitter

Gourav Khanijoe

Reports of Wall Street speculators committing suicide were spreading across NYC.🤐

Abraham Germansky, a multimillionaire real estate developer and trader, lost everything. His wife reported him missing.🪦

Meanwhile, Jesse Livermore, another millionaire at the time, made $3 billion in one day because he bet stocks would decline.

“You mean we are not ruined?” - his wife asked. 🫣

“No Darling, I have just had my best-ever trading day”. - Jesse said. 🎉

4 years later. Jesse was full of confidence after his 1929 blowout, made larger bets backed by increased debts, and ultimately lost everything in the stock market. ❌

His wife reported him "missing," and later they found that he took his own life. 🪦

Common trait? Both Jesse and Abraham excelled at accumulating wealth but struggled to maintain it.

Making wealth is one thing.

Keeping it is another. 🫨

Gentle Reminder: There is NO financial advice offered here. Gourav is neither a financial expert nor an advisor or promotor of anything. He’s sharing his own learnings and experiences.

What does it mean for Techies?

Fast forward almost a century. Today’s Big Tech Software Techies are one of the most elite groups, earning millions of dollars in a relatively short period. 🚀

That’s why they must manage their wealth rightly. They must learn to keep and grow their monies. We must not let emotions and greed destroy it. 😈

Personal Example: I learned this lesson the hard way. When the crypto market was going down in 2023-23, and my Coinbase shares were tanking 📉, I sold a whole lot of my old RSUs at a very shitty price thinking it may become a penny stock. No one can time the market, but it was a fearful sell that has cost me $1 million at today’s price. 🔪

Skill to learn: 👉 Be both optimistic and paranoid about money. The hardest skill to master is staying consistent and thriving on steady growth, as wealth-building is more about managing emotions than analyzing charts and patterns. 📈

Do this:

1. ✅ Be paranoid in financial planning: “You plan for good, God laughs..” - Plan for the worst. A great financial plan can only work if it can survive the worst reality. Save for 12 months of expenses and put it in High Yield Saving Accounts.

2. ✅ Control Emotions: “Buy low, sell high” - Tough thing to do despite being so intuitive. We should not sell when the market is going down, but we often also don’t sell when the market is going crazy high, thinking

   1. We’d lose the opportunity of “more growth”.

   2. We don't know what to do with the cash after selling.

   3. But remember this: if that cash helps you avoid selling during a crash, you'll save much more.

3. ✅ Be Optimistic: Don’t panic by downturns. Embrace them. Use Dollar Cost Averaging during downturns. Sticking around during hard times and giving time for compounding to work is the key.

That’s it for today 🙏. If you are wondering “What’s a Reflection Short?” Read here. Access full series here.

References

• The Psychology of Money: Timeless lessons on wealth, greed, and happiness

• The Total Money Makeover Updated and Expanded: A Proven Plan for Financial Peace

• The Intelligent Investor

Interesting Reads

• My Investment Rebalancing Process by

• Break Society's Money Rules If You Want to Be a Quiet Millionaire by

Let’s Connect 🤝

👋 Hey there, I am Gourav. I write about Engineering, Productivity, Thought Leadership, and the Mysteries of the mind!

Use the below links if you want to connect with me.

Sponsorship | Collaboration | LinkedIn | 1:1 Mentoring | Twitter

This is an edition type of The Curious Soul’s Corner newsletter where I share my free flowing thoughts and curations.

👋 Hey there, I am Gourav. I write about Engineering, Productivity, Thought Leadership, and the Mysteries of the mind!

The Anxious Generation

Wow, 90% of the surveyed public think there is a mental health crisis in the United States, with half of young adults and one-third of all adults reporting that they have felt anxious either always or often in the past year.

Tech companies are finding it as an opportunity and starting to monetize it.

The use of mental health apps continues to skyrocket.

What happened? What’s changing?

In 2020, interest rates were low and concerns about mental health were high.

Funding for digital mental health poured in.

In startup culture, funding based on potential rather than a proven track record is common and ongoing.

However, according to Stephen Schueller, PhD, an associate professor of psychology at the University of California, Irvine - “Evidence suggests that people benefit most from digital therapeutics when the apps are used in conjunction with some form of human support.”

So, the question really is: How could Tech alone solve this?

My opinion

Caring for mental health will soon be as routine as checking emails or counting steps, with mental health features becoming integral to everyday tech.

But emotional health is trickier than physical health because recognizing the need for change is harder. While being overweight is a visible signal to adjust habits, many miss the signs of emotional distress.

Without a breakthrough to rewire the mind-gut connection, I believe, solving this remains tough, though apps can help bridge the gap by providing knowledge and access to human support.

What do you think about this new wave? Reply to this email or comment on the substack app.

3-2-1

3 ‘Pics’ of life outside work

Traveling boosts your mental health and slows aging—says a recent study 😄. That’s exactly what I tell my wife whenever she rolls her eyes at my ambitious road trip plans!

As a road-trip enthusiast, I recently embarked on a 5-day adventure drive (and back) from Seattle to Yellowstone with my family. Spoiler alert: the excuse worked, and we had a blast!

We got lucky as we were traveling on the night of maximum aurora activity. Captured this 50 miles shy of Spokane, WA

We did a short hike to this view of ‘The Grand Prismatic’.

curiosity_with_gourav

A post shared by @curiosity_with_gourav

Finally, this is an awesome video I captured with my wife’s latest iPhone upon reaching the ‘Artist Point’ at The Grand Canyon of the YellowStone.

2 ‘Quotes’ I read recently and liked

and

1 ‘Book’ I am reading

The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness: The book argues that overprotection in the real world, combined with underprotection in the virtual world, has disrupted children's development, reducing their ability to handle risks, setbacks, and social challenges—ultimately fueling today's mental health crisis among young people.

This Week’s Praise

Jordan is a Senior Software Engineer at Pinterest and the creator of High Growth Engineer, a newsletter with over 75,000 subscribers. His content offers practical, real-world advice that helps software engineers fast-track their careers to senior level.

I’ve learned from Jordan how to turn complex ideas into actionable insights—he’s a master at making content both useful and engaging. His newsletter isn’t just text; it’s an experience readers can visualize. Packed with career growth tips, it’s no surprise he’s built a loyal audience on Substack and LinkedIn.

More praises in next editions.

Mental Health Resources to Read & Watch

1. Technology in Mental Health: Trends and Key Insights

2. 20 Growing Mental Health Companies & Startups In 2024

3. The Interplay Between Downtime and Depression | The Tim Ferriss Show

Must Read Articles

1. How to do 6 Weeks Worth of Work in 2? by

2. Don’t Start Coding Yet: Here’s What Great Engineers Do First by

3. Grow in your career by organizing an engineering guild by

4. Taking over the Tech Lead role in your current team by

5. How Small Teams Can Achieve Outsized Results inside Big Tech by

🤝 Let’s Connect

Sponsorship | Collaboration | LinkedIn | 1:1 Mentoring | Twitter

Gourav Khanijoe

Without further ado, I’ll pass the mic 🎤 to Jay. 👏

For the last few months, has been posting key elements regarding being an effective communicator.

He’s approached it from the perspective of writing, speaking, leading, and managing. Hopefully, you’ve had a chance to implement many of those ideas in your daily interactions.

How do you hang on to that growth and not slip back into bad habits?

Focus on one skill at a time. 🎯

If you practice one approach for two months, it will become your new habit. Then you can move onto the next skill.

If you are working on your speaking skills, prioritize maintaining eye focus with one person at a time for a full thought. Deliver one sentence to one pair of eyes and the next sentence to the next person.

If you master that skill, many of the other delivery skills will fall into place.

Slowly master effective communication across the full range. 🔑

Think instead of a “spectrum of effectiveness,” with less effective on one end of the scale and more effective on the other.

• The impact we have as communicators is not based on the single instance of a behavior or a single behavior trait. ❌

• It’s based on the cumulative effect of different behaviors - a combination of our delivery skills, overall sense of presence, the clarity of our message, the structure of how we share our details, and the specific language we use to describe our main points. ✅

• For instance, perhaps you’re like a lot of people and use a lot of filler sounds, like “um” or “ah”. If you say “um” two or three times in a meeting, who cares? It’s irrelevant. No one even notices. 🤷‍♂️

• But if you say “um” in between every sentence, it becomes a distraction. You sound like you came into the meeting unprepared, and you start to slide down the scale of effectiveness.📉

Go back through Gourav’s posts and select one trait regarding oral communication skills and one skill applicable to your writing.

Focus on those skills until you own them, and move on to the next.

It’s all about incremental growth. 🚀

It’s Gourav again.

Thank you, Jay, for sharing this path of incremental growth—mastering one skill at a time and transforming into an exceptional communicator. That’s it for today. If you are wondering “What’s a Reflection Short?” Read here. 📖

Jay writes about communication skills and leadership every other week for Forbes.com. He posts those columns on his LinkedIn page. If you’d like to receive them, please feel free to connect with him.

Interesting Reads

1. Why techies leave Big Tech by

Let’s Connect 🤝

👋 Hey there, I am Gourav. I write about Engineering, Productivity, Thought Leadership, and the Mysteries of the mind!

Use the below links if you want to connect with me.

Sponsorship | Collaboration | LinkedIn | 1:1 Mentoring | Twitter

A recruiter won’t schedule your interviews just because you’ve got 10+ years of ‘impactful’ experience on a fancy resume written with a best-practice template.

They have got hundreds of applicants with similar skills as yours.

Ouch! Painful to even get a chance to showcase your skills... right?

Tech job seekers need to digest these harsh facts when sending cold emails or LinkedIn messages to get a job referral.

No, the world out there isn’t evil.

There are legitimate reasons behind this, and I’ll cover a few.

But there’s a way out.

I call it “Interview-Call Insurance.” 🛡️

A few weeks ago, I shared a framework to land a $500k+ software engineer job without Leetcoding. But it’s important to get an interview before you can reach that stage.

That’s why today, I’m sharing a multi-faceted approach to getting that interview call. I’ll cover:

1. Why doesn’t cold emailing work? 📧

2. What’s an interview-call insurance? 🛠️

3. Four ways to buy that insurance. 💡

👋 Hey there, I am Gourav. I write about Engineering, Productivity, Thought Leadership, and the Mysteries of the mind! 🧠

❌ Why doesn’t cold emailing work?

Short answer? Because they don’t know you.

People are generally more willing to do favors for those they know—both personally and professionally.

For instance, if folks like , , , , , , , , , hypothetically posted on LinkedIn today that they’re looking for their next opportunity, they wouldn’t need to cold-email anyone. 👋

Their LinkedIn post would be flooded with comments from people eager to help them out or make them their peer. 🫂

This is what happens when you cold-email or DM a stranger on LinkedIn asking for referral:

1. It get lost in their inbox. Tech job market isn’t what it used to be. Current employees are too busy saving their own asses and couldn’t get time to refer you. Referral bonuses—“free money”—aren’t on their priority list anymore.💼

2. Their image is on stake: It's tough for employees to justify referring someone they don't know, especially at senior levels where their reputation is at risk. That’s why you don’t hear back from senior leaders often.

3. Recruiting is screwed up right now: Companies downsized their recruiting teams in last two years. Limited recruiters are juggling multiple jobs with hundreds of candidates. This causes inefficiencies and burnout in filtering candidates.

🔥 Interview Call Insurance

The classic mistake candidates make is reaching out for help when they’re desperate.

Like “I need a referral now.” Immediately.

Well, you know there are no free lunches.

You pay the premium for car insurance before an accident happens. 🚗💥

The accident may or may not happen—hopefully, it doesn’t—but you still prepare for the worst.

It’s the same with getting an interview call. You need to “do the things” that buys you that “interview-call insurance” for yourself.

💼 Four ways to buy Interview Call Insurance

1. Build a personal brand and provide value.

The big problem is the internet doesn’t know what skills you have.

No, polishing resumes doesn’t work anymore. 🚫

To change that, you need to become more visible. You need to inform people.

Building a personal brand helps with that.

Today, you’ve got tons of options, thanks to professional social media. Here are a few, in increasing order of complexity:

• Share your perspective on others’ LinkedIn posts via comments.

• Post regularly on LinkedIn about something “valuable to others.”

• Reach out to people, offering help without expecting anything in return.

• Start a newsletter, like the one you’re reading right now.

• Start a YouTube channel.

• Build and teach others a course on a skill you’re an expert in.

Now, you might rebel and say, “I don’t want to be an influencer” or “I’m not a content creator.” 🙅

Yes, you are. You have to influence people every day at work to take action in some way. And you’re a content creator if you’ve sent an email, DM, or text message in the last 365 days.

Share your expertise in fields like distributed systems, databases, or system design. Your current projects. Your leadership style. The list of topics is endless.

But you also don’t need to be an expert to post something online. You can also write about how you feel working, the kind of work culture you like or dislike.

Trust me, I get way more job opportunities now than ever before—thanks to my writing.

2. Build friendships with leaders at work

No, not the kind of friendship where you gossip about others. Though funny enough, that works sometimes, too.

And definitely not the type where you break HR rules—if you catch my drift ;)

I’m talking about building relationships through supporting your leadership.

This is simple. Just do small extra things on top of your regular work at your current job:

Deliver results.✅
Make an impact.✅
Solve your leaders’ bigger problems.✅
Then ask them, “What else can I solve for you?”✅✅✅
Have regular 1:1s to catch up on life—both inside and outside of work!✅✅✅✅✅

When you solve your leaders’ problems, they’re willing to help you out. Sometimes even when you’re about to leave the company or get laid off.

I have a friend who got laid off due to bad luck—his entire project/org was shut down. Fortunately, a senior manager from a peer org reached out, gave him multiple leads, and connected him directly with recruiters from other companies.

Gone are the days when your managers would envy you for leaving.

3. Don’t lose touch with people who leave your company.

This one builds on the previous point. What if your leader friends leave and you’ve built a strong relationship with them?

Simple. Keep that relationship warm. 🔥

I’m still in touch with almost all the leaders from my past organizations. Actively with a few. Passively with others.

• Just text them once a month to see how they’re doing. Offer help if they need it.

• This can actually have a win-win outcome. When a leader moves somewhere else, they might need people they can trust—and they might vouch for you internally. This happened to me when I moved to Coinbase.

Building trust goes a long way.

4. Build relationships with recruiters

Wait, how? They don’t know you—and that’s exactly the problem we’re trying to solve.🤔

When your current job is stable, and the market is good, randomly apply and interview with companies once a quarter.

This has a few benefits:

• You get to know some recruiters and grab their direct contact information.

• You know your worth.

For this article, the first point is key. 🎯

Another way? Build rapport with recruiters at your current company. So, when they leave, you’ll know how to reach out—kind of like not losing touch with leaders.

Final thing: Never ignore a cold email from a recruiter during your good times. Reply with kindness, save their contact for future, maintain a friendly relationship.

Shoutouts 🔊

1. How to have 27 hours in your day by

2. Why techies leave Big Tech by

3. Lessons from Projects That Didn’t See the Light of Day by

4. You May Need a Gap Year - Five Reflections by

5. 3 Career Principles that got me to Director at Google by and

🤝 Let’s Connect

Sponsorship | Collaboration | LinkedIn | 1:1 Mentoring | Twitter

Gourav Khanijoe

Once you land a management or leadership role, you must:

• Bring in business. 💼

• Talk to customers. 📞

• Lead the teams. 👥

• Hire and grow people. 🌱

• Delegate work effectively. ✅

• Set an example for others to follow. 🌟

In all these cases, the buck stops with the leader. It’s crucial that you can influence others with your communication to meet these expectations.

To become an open and communicative leader, do this:

1. During 1:1s or business meetings with stakeholders:

   1. Avoid vomiting information; instead, try to gather as much information. 🧠

   2. Set a positive tone to help solve others’ problems and build relationships. “I know we had a setback, but that’s business as usual. I have a plan that will solve it for you…Let’s create success….”.

2. Assign work in a manner that maximizes productivity. 🚀

   1. Delegate the work to either most experienced or interested person.

   2. Explain the role to the person to whom you are delegating.

   3. Set clear expectations, quoting specific, desirable outcomes.

   4. Portray the project as in how it benefits them. “I believe this will help bring your visibility in terms of leadership”.

3. Give actionable feedback:

   1. Ask for permission to give feedback. In most cases, it will be a yes.

   2. Use the sandwich framework: “You did well; however, you could have avoided…”. "But you are on the right path for…”. 👍

   3. Establish clear next steps. “For next time, would you like to practice…?"

4. Inspire and Influence:

   1. Talk less, do more, so that others learn to imitate by seeing rather than hearing you.

   2. Don’t strive to be a hero: “I don’t know everything, and that's fine." Speaking about this creates an environment of psychological safety.

   3. Speak with data-driven inputs and customer empathy in mind. 📊💡

   4. Use simple, short sentences inclusive of humility to influence without authority.

5. Be authentic:

   1. The more people know the “authentic you," the more they can relate to your speech.

   2. If you fear failure, be open about it, but show confidence in your plans. “I am afraid that there are unknown and we may not succeed, but without trying, we lose immediately.” 💪

That’s it for today. If you are wondering “What’s a Reflection Short?” Read here. 📖

We’re nearing the grand finale of the "Win that Communication" series! The next and final article will be a special collaboration with none other than the author of "Simply Said," - whose insights have been a huge inspiration throughout this series. He’s generously agreed to share an exclusive, game-changing endnote on this series, just for you! 🎉

That’s not all! With next chapter closing, our Reflection Series is gearing up for a brand-new series on an exciting topic. Curious to know what’s next? Stay tuned! 😄

References

• Simply Said: Communicating Better at Work and Beyond

Interesting Reads

1. Regression Towards the Mean - Mental Model by

2. 5 Keys to the Hiring Manager Interview from a Meta Senior Manager by &

3. How to Stay Calm Under Pressure? by

Let’s Connect 🤝

👋 Hey there, I am Gourav. I write about Engineering, Productivity, Thought Leadership, and the Mysteries of the mind!

Use the below links if you want to connect with me.

Sponsorship | Collaboration | LinkedIn | 1:1 Mentoring | Twitter

Well, yes and no.

Sure, AI and Machine Learning (ML) are big parts of it, but they rely on data—lots of data (Big Data, anyone?)—to train model and be analyzed.

Humans like Data Analysts and Scientists spot trends in the market, then tweak strategies to make sure the recommendation systems are on point.

But it’s Data engineering and engineers that makes the magic happen. Huge Respect!

But hey, I’m a software engineer, so why should I care about data engineering? 🧐

Think twice, you might be wrong!

Today, I'll give software engineers a quick intro to data engineering, covering:

• Why It Matters: Why learning data engineering basics is helpful, even if you’re not aiming to become a data engineer.

• Role Breakdown: A simple example to explain the roles of software engineers, data engineers, analysts, and scientists, and how they work together.

• Tech Overview: A snapshot of data engineering platforms, tech stacks, and processing workflows.

👋 Hey there, I am Gourav. I write about Engineering, Productivity, Thought Leadership, and the Mysteries of the mind!

Why should software engineers care about data engineering?

As a junior engineer, terms like "Big Data," "Spark," and "Data Warehouse" would fly right over my head.

I used to think, "That’s for the data engineers. I’m busy building distributed systems, so why should I bother?"

Being a senior engineer, I realized knowing data pipelines, batch-processing, and data analysis influences my system’s design.

So, I rolled up my sleeves and dove into a project and got hands-on experience with MapReduce, and Spark—just enough to get by.

Then, I got pulled into other business-critical projects and that little spark (pun intended) of interest in data engineering fizzled out.

As a staff engineer now, there’s no more room for excuses. I need to understand enough to help the company make tradeoff decisions.

In general, software engineers benefit by just knowing the basics:

• Better System Design & Architecture: Knowing data pipelines will help you understand their trade-offs. You'll build more scalable, efficient systems.

• Enhanced Debugging: Ever had a bug that’s tied to data? Understanding data will make you a better problem-solver when those tricky issues pop up.

• Data-Informed Decision Making: As you grow into leadership roles, understanding data engineering will help you. It will give you more insight into product, system, and business decisions.

The Difference Between Software Engineers, Data Engineers, Data Analysts, and Data Scientists

Here’s the breakdown:

• Data Engineers build data pipelines—systems that transform raw data into something useful for analysis.

• Data Analysts take that clean, processed data and use it to find patterns and trends, helping companies figure out what’s happening now.

• Data Scientists go a step further by building models that predict future trends and offer recommendations.

• Software Engineers build the systems that solve the problems those data insights reveal.

In short, the data engineer sets up the infrastructure. The data analyst finds current trends. The data scientist makes future predictions. The software engineer builds the product that uses them. 🚀

Data Engineering Tech Stack: A Primer for Software Engineers

Oh man! The field’s come a long way, and it’s still changing fast!

Concepts like Data Lakes and Lakehouses and tools like Trino, Flink, data formats like Apache Iceberg, Avro, and Parquet.

More confusing than ever!

I’ll try to explain simply and cover only the Tech Stack of Data Engineering.

Tech Stack of Data Engineering

The image below is a courtesy of . Thanks to him for creating this.

As a software engineer, you're likely familiar with the request lifecycle in an app. It starts with an API call (ingestion), runs some business logic (processing), then saves it to a database (storage). This is what we call Online Transaction Processing (OLTP), where the system handles day-to-day operations.

Data engineering works similarly but picks up after your application’s database. Just as APIs bring in data for apps, data engineers create pipelines. They process and store data on a much larger scale for analytics. This is called Online Analytical Processing (OLAP).

The Basics: ETL vs. ELT

Data engineering revolves around one key idea: building systems that ingest, process, and store data in ways that make it useful for analysis. This process is called building a data pipeline, and the most common architecture for this is ETL:

• Extract: You grab raw data from various sources like APIs, databases, or files.

• Transform: You clean and shape the data into a usable format.

• Load: You store it somewhere (like a data warehouse) where analysts and business tools can easily access it.

There’s also ELT, which is like ETL’s cooler cousin. Instead of transforming the data right away, you load it into a storage system first and then transform it as needed. This is especially useful when you don’t know upfront what the data might be used for. It keeps your options open and flexible.

Data Warehouses, Lakes, and Lakehouses

Where does all this data go? Great question!

• Data Warehouse: This is structured storage for quick analysis. It’s fast and optimized for answering specific questions.

• Data Lake: This is a giant storage pool for raw data. It’s great for when you have tons of different data but aren’t sure yet what you want to do with it.

• Lakehouse: A happy blend of the two. It offers the flexibility of a data lake with the structured query power of a data warehouse.

The evolution from warehouses to lakes to lakehouses happened because businesses needed faster, more scalable ways to handle growing amounts of data.

Big Data: The Heavyweights

Big Data is all about handling massive amounts of information, the kind that Amazon, Netflix, and Instagram deal with every day. Traditional systems can’t handle this scale, so we use distributed systems like Hadoop.

Hadoop is an ecosystem that chops up huge datasets and processes them across multiple servers at once, kind of like an army of worker bees.

Here’s the core of Hadoop:

• HDFS (Hadoop Distributed File System): Stores huge amounts of data.

• MapReduce: Breaks down data tasks and processes them in parallel.

• YARN: Keeps everything running smoothly.

Other cool tools you should know about:

• Apache Spark: A super fast engine for processing big data in near real-time.

• Apache Kafka: A messaging system for streaming data.

• Apache Flink: A tool that handles both real-time and batch processing.

These tools are like the superheroes of Big Data, ensuring massive amounts of data can be processed and analyzed efficiently.

File Formats: Keeping Data Organized

When managing massive amounts of data, the format you choose can make or break performance and flexibility. Let’s break down some popular data formats you’ll see in data warehouses and lakehouses:

Iceberg & Delta (Lakehouse Formats)

• Apache Iceberg is the table format for huge, distributed datasets. It supports file formats like Parquet and ORC, and cool features like time travel (yes, you can query old data!) and dynamic partitions. Works great with Spark, Trino, and Flink.

• Delta Lake (by Databricks) is a fast, real-time data pro, optimized for Spark. It supports Parquet, gives you schema control, and speeds up read-heavy tasks like machine learning.

JSON & Parquet (Warehouse Formats)

• JSON is the human-friendly, semi-structured format perfect for web apps, but not the fastest for big data crunching.

• Parquet is the warehouse star! A columnar format is perfect for large datasets. It's efficient for analytics and supported by all the big data platforms.

There’s a lot about this data format that we can detail out but that’s beyond the scope of a basic primer. I may cover this in a future edition of Tech Comprehension.

Wanna build a strong Data Engineering understanding and make a career in it?

If you want to build a solid understanding of Data Engineering, try out ’s bootcamp here. Use coupon code “GOURAV” and you will get 25% off. :)

Shoutouts 🔊

A big shout-out to all the Data Engineering folks I know , , , . You all are rockstars!

Also, special shoutout to other Tech newsletter writers - , , - writing tech deep dive newsletter is hard.

Interesting reads last week:

1. SWE v/s MLE by and

2. 5 Keys to the Hiring Manager Interview from a Meta Senior Manager by and

3. Being an engineering manager at Amazon by and

4. I Worked More and Achieved Less by

🤝 Let’s Connect

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Gourav Khanijoe

• Shock: 😱 OMG, so long of a document?

• Denial: 😩 Do I really need to read it?

• Anger: 😡 Why didn’t the writer make it easier for me to read?

• Bargain: 🤔 Can I skim or skip a few sections?

• Guilt: 😓 Why am I not reading it effectively?

• Acceptance: 😌 Oh, geez! I need to just read it, but this is the last time I will do it.

If you are a writer, why make someone go through all this? 🤷‍♂️

There is a reason we tend to do this. We all experience events sequentially. So, we naturally want to explain things in the order we experienced them. It's called a "timeline" way. 🗓️

The system isn’t scalable because…<para1>
I checked logs and found…<para2>
I then tried monitoring stuff with…<para3>
I added the bug fix, it didn’t work so..<para4>
Finally, I realized I should do this. And finally it worked because..<para5>

We pour over many paragraphs, hoping that the reader first needs to understand the whole context to grasp the key point. 🧐

This may work for storytelling, but rarely is it appreciated when writing a business document or email. 📄✉️

But in reality, readers lose interest and are looking to save their time and “grasp” the key point ASAP. ⏳

When writing a business document or writing professional emails:

Adhere to these tips to maintain professionalism in your writing of business documents or emails.

1. Bring the key message in the first two sentences. 🔑 Use this format:

   ---

   1. Key Message: What readers should know and can stop reading afterwards.

   2. Background: Brief context to support the key message.

   3. Expanded Message: Only if needed, add explanation or additional context.

   4. Wrap up: Quick conclusion reinforcing the key message.

      ---

2. Write sentences of varied length: For example, one sentence of 17 words, followed by a bit longer sentence in the next line. Repeat a mix and match. 🎯

3. Don’t overwhelm the reader; move extra context to the appendices. 🗂️

4. Use bullet points so that your main line and each bullet point make up a complete sentence. 📋

5. When emailing someone to do something, use “Please” and “Thank you” 🙏, and curate sentences to meet the attitude of the reader.

If you need to provide additional context that is essential for persuading the other person, arrange a call with them, whether by phone, Zoom, or in-person meeting. 📞💻

Make it easier for them, not for you! 💡

That’s it for today. If you are wondering “What’s a Reflection Short?” Read here. 📖

References

• Simply Said: Communicating Better at Work and Beyond

Interesting Reads

1. Why your job search is failing as an engineer or a manager (and how to fix it) by and .

2. How Google Search Works 🔥 by

3. 3 Keys to Onboarding by

4. Can We Please Avoid Over-Engineering by

Let’s Connect 🤝

👋 Hey there, I am Gourav. I write about Engineering, Productivity, Thought Leadership, and the Mysteries of the mind!

Use the below links if you want to connect with me.

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Code a bit. Then eat.

Cut time with your family. Grind Leetcode while dreaming about doubling your compensation.

Give interviews. Fail.

Feel like sh*t. Sleep.

Repeat.

Sounds familiar?

This is how most software engineers practice switching jobs.

It sucks when you have to spend a lot of time being an algo-coding monkey to crack interviews.

Reality at job is totally different. You are hired and paid to come up with ideas and solve business problems quickly, not to memorize algorithms like parrots.

But what if I told you something amazing? Something achievable.

As a Staff+ Engineer, you can land a $500k+ salary without Leetcode.

As a Senior+ Engineer, you can land a $300k+ salary without Leetcode.

As a Junior-Mid-Senior level engineer, you can land a $200k+ salary without Leetcode.

Yes, without Leetcode—it’s possible. I’ve been there, done that myself.

Today, I’ll cover:

• How Leetcode evolved and why it isn’t for everyone?

• Is it really possible to get high compensation as a SWE without Leetcode?

• A framework I use to land high-paying SWE jobs with almost no Leetcode.

👋 Hey there, I am Gourav. I write about Engineering, Productivity, Thought Leadership, and the Mysteries of the mind!

How have Coding Interviews and Leetcode evolved?

Coding interviews existed long before Leetcode became a thing.

In 2016, I cracked my Amazon interview after practicing 100 known questions on GeeksforGeeks. Those were closer to real-world problems.

Over time, big tech companies found it convenient to use Leetcode as a proxy for assessing problem-solving skills.

Leetcode monetized this problem. To thrive on its subscription model, it began scaling and overcomplicating its problems.

Now, there are over 3,300 problems, mostly unrelated to what engineers actually face in their daily work.

Companies end up hiring algorithm experts, not necessarily great software engineers.

Why It Isn’t for Everyone?

For new grads with time on their hands, grinding through thousands of Leetcode problems is doable.

But for experienced engineers with families? That’s a whole different ball game.

We’re busy delivering results on real, high-impact projects at work. Plus, we’ve got lives outside of work that we can’t just put on pause.

Most of us are out of touch with those tricky algorithms and shouldn’t have to cram them like we’re back in college.

Think about it: the algorithms we’re expected to memorize took experts months to create!

Is it really possible to get high compensation as a SWE without Leetcode?

What’s the catch?

You can get into FAANG without Leetcode— it’s not an easy road.

Here's the thing: You don’t need to chain yourself to Big Tech to get the salary, learning, and growth you’re after.

You can find all that in mid-tier companies too.

The trouble starts when you get wrapped up in the whole “Big Tech Prestige” mindset.

Joe: “Hey, I heard you can land a fat salary without grinding through Leetcode.”

Nick: “Nah, man, that’s a pipe dream. No way Big Tech hires without Leetcode.”

Joe: “But what’s your priority? Is it the pay, learning, growth—or just having a fancy company name on your resume?”

I get it.

Working at Amazon, Google, or Netflix is the dream. Even your grandma knows those names.

But let’s take a step back for a second. What are you really aiming for?

If your next gig offers similar pay, growth, and learning as Big Tech, why not explore that?

Play a different game.

The best part?

Once you’ve got some solid experience under your belt, the dynamics shift.

If you are valuable, even Big Tech is occasionally open to bending their interview process to fit your terms. More on that in next section.

Use my EOF framework to cruise through coding rounds.

When I was on the job hunt after Coinbase, the last thing I wanted to do was grind through Leetcode.

So, I tapped into my network and found a bunch of non-FAANG companies working on some seriously cool stuff—places that value real-world coding chops over solving obscure algorithms.

And guess what? I scored four offers in just twenty days.

Two from mid-tier companies, one from a startup, and even one from Apple.

All of them over $500k for a Staff role—except the startup.

Here’s how I did it with the Eliminate-Offset-Frame (EOF) framework to sidestep the whole Leetcode circus.

Eliminate

I ‘eliminate’ Leetcode prep using these two methods:

1. I use a list of companies that don’t ask Leetcode.

   1. I then use levels.fyi and Glassdoor to filter companies based on my target compensation.

   2. Then, I find its employees on LinkedIn and try to understand the culture and work ethics.

   3. If everything aligns, I schedule interviews, and unless I had a bad day, 90% of the time, I get an offer.

2. I negotiate with big tech companies to skip Leetcode rounds.

   1. Many experienced folks know this secret, and it works a few times.

   2. Before interviewing with Apple, I negotiated to replace the Leetcode rounds with real coding challenges. I got the offer.

Offset

This is a fallback I use when I can’t completely cut Leetcode rounds.

I have a good grasp of system design interviews. I try to use this leverage to 'offset' one or more Leetcode rounds with these interviews.

At a mid-sized company, I replaced one of the two Leetcode rounds with an in-depth design discussion. For the other one, I prepared Blind 75 questions and was able to get through it without any issues.

Frame

This is my final fallback.

If I'm here, it's because a mid-tier company didn't meet my expectations for culture, pay, or ethics. Or, I'm desperately seeking a specific company that wouldn't accept my leetcode negotiation offer.

Two options. Either:

1. Smartly crack a few important Leetcode patterns with timeboxed preparation. Still no guarantee.

2. Take a step back and ‘Frame’ the problem differently.

I can join at some other role in company and later transfer internally at the role I aimed for.

Here’s how one of my friends did it:

He was a skilled Salesforce engineer who wanted to transition to a software engineering role at Amazon. The leap to prepare for Leetcode was too steep. Instead, he interviewed for a Salesforce engineer position at Amazon. Since it was a different interview loop, he avoided Leetcode-style questions and got the job.

Later on, he transitioned to SDE-2 role internally.

I acknowledge that this is a slow option, but it works for those who don’t have a strict timeline constraint.

Shoutouts 🔊

1. Being an engineering manager at Amazon by and

2. If you cannot track, you cannot improve by

3. Growing from engineer to Staff engineer and thriving by and

4. How to Cultivate Clarity and Kindness in Your Engineering Team by

🤝 Let’s Connect

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Gourav Khanijoe

Similarly, you would want to write a minimum of words to convey the most and ‘to the point’ information in written texts.

Unfortunately, we are so used to having clutter in our writing that it impacts our ability to land impact.

🌟 We need to challenge every word in our document.

🌟 A word should be present only to convey either content or tone.

🌟 The goal is to make it effortless for our reader to understand our ideas.

Use these tips to make your writing effective, crisp, and fluff-free.

1. Drop ‘Zero’ words and lengthy sentences.

Zero words are those that don’t add any value most of the time.

❌ “Currently, we have 40 staff members” —> ✅ “We have 40 staff members”

❌ “During the course of…” —> ✅ “During…”

❌ “At the conclusion of this talk” —> ✅ “After this talk”

2. Avoid confusing constructions

❌ Former and later: Avoid it. The problem is that you have to look back into the sentence you read to match former and later.

❌ And/or and using “/” in general: Pick one. It’s confusing when we say “easier/simpler” or “Let’s say Joe and/or Nick would do it." Do you mean easier and simpler, easier or simpler, or both? Would Joe and Nick do it together or would one of them do the task?

❌ Mid-Sentence Parentheses: If useful, move the sentence towards the end. Parentheses in the middle create diverging ideas.

3. Use the best possible shorter words.

Cut ‘-tion’, ‘-ment’, ‘-ance’, ‘-ing’, ‘this’ like words, and other weak verbs.

❌ “He made a statement that he was dropping out of the race” —> ✅ “He stated that he is quitting the race”

❌ “The process for reviewing documents is flawed. It doesn’t meet out needs” —> ✅ “Our process for document review fails to meet our needs”

❌ “The report missed one key number. The department didn’t report error. This led to poor decisions”. What does this refer to? —> A better line is ✅ “This inaccurate number led to poor decisions.”

4. Active and passive voices done right. Missing Actor is also valuable

Nike:

Active voice: “Just do it!” ✅

Passive voice: “It needs to be done” ✅

Missing the actor, a person or thing, when writing is also acceptable for legal writings:

“No admittance is permitted without authorization." ✅

That’s it for today. If you are wondering “What’s a Reflection Short?” Read here.

References

• Simply Said: Communicating Better at Work and Beyond

Interesting Reads

1. What the world's #1 YouTuber can teach you about being a badass software engineer by

2. How I Almost Didn't Become A Staff Engineer by in collaboration with

3. From The Challenges - Cut by

Let’s Connect 🤝

👋 Hey there, I am Gourav. I write about Engineering, Productivity, Thought Leadership, and the Mysteries of the mind!

Use the below links if you want to connect with me.

Sponsorship | Collaboration | LinkedIn | 1:1 Mentoring | Twitter

This is an edition type of The Curious Soul’s Corner newsletter where I share my free flowing thoughts and curations.

👋 Hey there, I am Gourav. I write about Engineering, Productivity, Thought Leadership, and the Mysteries of the mind!

Starting this week, I’m experimenting releasing a curated article format once a month. If the feedback is positive, it might become a permanent feature in the newsletter.

Best Software Engineers do this

I experienced this for a long time..

Whenever I’d explain a concept, an issue, or a bug to a fellow engineer...

I felt an ‘aha’ moment. Suddenly, I knew the root cause of what happened.

Merely by explaining what I know, I find out what I didn’t know before.

I was fascinated by this and did some digging on this concept and found...

It’s a very simple but particularly useful technique used by some of the best software engineers for finding the cause of a problem by simply explaining it to someone else.

It’s called “Rubber Ducking”. This article explains it well.

The best thing about this technique is that you don’t even need a real human to listen to you.

If you are creative, it could be just a toy or... a ‘rubber duck’ to which you will be speaking out loud.

That’s how its name originated!

3-2-1

3 ‘Resources’ to Crack Tech Interviews

• shared resources he used to crack multiple Big Tech Interviews

• Tips that I shared to become 10x better in Tech Interviews in ’s newsletter.

• shared 3-Step Framework to never get down-leveled in Behavioural Interviews in ’s newsletter

2 ‘Pics’ of Life outside work

These two pictures shows growth progression and how we enjoy different phases of our lives outside the typical software engineering hustles.

Sept, 2024

My family and I attended a life-transformational spiritual retreat in Dallas, offering a break from the daily grind to reflect and reconnect with our purpose.

My toddler kept us busy, but that's how they start learning life’s key lessons early. They grow up so fast!

May, 2021

This 3 years old picture shows us as a carefree couple. No kids, No big house, No Car, just worries of weekend travel and material fun. We have ‘put up’ since then.

1 ‘Book’ I am reading

Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity is telling me astonishing facts about the latest scientific research on extending both lifespan and healthspan.

This Week’s Praise

: He’s fellow Staff engineer at Meta and writes a newsletter called Techlead Mentor to help you grow in your software journey.

With generosity, he offered invaluable feedback on my writing when I was just starting out. I learnt from him the value of genuinely helping strangers on social media. That’s why he has earned a loyal following among new content creators on LinkedIn & Substack.

More praises in next editions.

Must-to-Follow Tech Career Content Creators

1. , author of

2. , author of

3. , author of

4. , author of

5. , author of

6. , author of

7. , author of

8. , author of

9. , author of

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Gourav Khanijoe

You prepared so hard for it, but someone asked a question that you don’t know the answer to.

How to effectively answer it?

Use this mind trick:

• Gain time to think about it by speaking random yet meaningful stuff. It’s called "lead-ins."

• Use lead-in phrases like:

  • “Great question. Let me take a minute to discuss that”. 

  • "I appreciate your concern about timing.”

This works because your subconscious needs a moment to prepare a made-up answer. The lead-ins help it do this.

But be careful to NOT use this technique when answering the question directly is better.

As an example, if someone attacked:

“Aren’t you ripping off your customers with this gimmick?”

Give a direct response to this:

“Absolutely not. Instead, it will add value by…”

Imagine if you would have answered: "Oh, we are ripping them off. Thanks for asking. Let me think of it."

You would have lost credibility with it.

If someone asked a question filled with feelings and emotions that you don’t have a good answer to. Use ART:

A: Acknowledge 

“I appreciate that you are concerned about the budget."

R: Relate and ask for permission.

“I also felt it."

“Would it be helpful if I provided you with….?”

T: Transition and Answer

Now that you have gained time, deliver a good tactical answer. “Budget needs some thought process; all I know is that we have done it in the past within constraints. We will be able to repeat that."

Don’t use “but” or “however” in ART because that will negate your acknowledgement and relativity.

That’s it for today. If you are wondering “What’s a Reflection Short?” Read here.

References

• Simply Said: Communicating Better at Work and Beyond

Interesting Reads

1. How to Unlock Critical Thinking? by

2. Become the engineer everyone wants to work with by and

Let’s Connect 🤝

👋 Hey there, I am Gourav. I write about Engineering, Productivity, Thought Leadership, and the Mysteries of the mind!

Use the below links if you want to connect with me.

Sponsorship | Collaboration | LinkedIn | 1:1 Mentoring | Twitter