Alula ሐawando

Skills of super powerful humans.

skills

Yes, how overwhelming is the vastness of human knowledge. Just in my profession there seems to be an endless list of technologies and concepts to grapple with.

Do you start with endless javascript frameworks, CSS frameworks, and other front end technologies? Or get lost in the world of patterns and architectural ideas like microservices. You might get into the cloud and obsess about all the vendor offerings from AWS or Microsoft. But there is also the backend technologies. The project management concepts, etc, etc, etc.

But that is not just it. You want to learn about finance,

You want to understand the crypto and blockchain world.

You want to master history,

The list goes on and on.

Master the super skills

You can make your life a struggle by going about these endless messes. Or you can master a few skills that would get you there faster, better and easier.

You will have archetypes, and maps in your head instead of a memory of facts.

What are the super skills?

  • Listening,
  • Speaking,
  • Reading,
  • Writing.

You might be shocked to find these super skills are the most successful as you have been doing these things since your childhood. But that is the trick. Just like any other skill if you are confident enough that you have these skills, then you might be fooling yourself. Also it is one thing to have them, and it is another thing to use them. I don’t think the average person can write a clear sentence. Or construct persuasive arguments on a given topic.

If that was the case we wouldn't have been continuously played by politicians. But that is the reality, politicians are people with above average speaking, writing, listening and reading.

Now and then, we come across actually great leaders, mentors and inspirational individuals in our life. I am lucky enough to have come across a few. And they do these things exceptionally well. They have a clear thought process, and they communicate that succinctly.

A great programmer is one who can listen, speak, read and/or write in a regular human language. Listen to what the user wants, read documentations and specifications. Write down what you will develop and how you will do it. Speak about it to yourself, your teammates and your users.