I need some human help.
I wrote a new introduction for Humanity Matters. But something’s missing from the message of the book. I’m struggling to articulate what.
There’s a deeper message that I need the book to convey.
So far, the introduction starts with these three parts:
- A very broad “what is this book”
- Who the book is for
- How the book is organized - in a rough outline form for now
I’ll share these below, and then I’ll share some… half-formed attempts at defining what I think is missing.
Your feedback is welcome (if you’re reading this by email or on LinkedIn, just reply or DM me… if you’re reading it elsewhere, drop me a note by email).
Introduction
What makes us human is what software developers need most right now. Our uniquely human skills are essential not just for our own wellbeing, but also for technical excellence.
And developers have been taught to ignore and dismiss their humanity.
This book will be your guide to reclaiming your full humanity as your superpower. As AI changes our world, humanity matters now more than ever.
I was a software developer for 20 years. The human skills in this book are also the same skills that were most useful to me as I progressed from developer to tech lead to application architect.
Although I’m talking about skills (communication, creativity, teamwork) that people refer to as “soft skills,” you may notice that I’m using the term “human skills” instead.
Many developers have been taught to dismiss “soft skills” as unnecessary. Words like “empathy” and “creativity” sound like the polar opposite of what some people assume technology work requires: cold facts, logic and reason. This is technology, we don’t need any of that mushy emotional people stuff here!
Side note: The unfortunate term “soft skills” originated in the United States Army as a way to refer to skills that didn’t involve using physical machinery (“hard skills”). Other terms people use for the same sorts of skills include: foundational skills, leadership skills, and power skills.
But the more you progress in your career, the more important those people skills are. The best developers I’ve met are good at both people and tech.
Soft skills are not an important add-on to technical skills. I’ve seen for years that certain people skills have always been crucial, and not just for making developers more personable.
Our human skills are essential for doing good technical work. What makes you human will help you create better software.
In this book, we’ll talk about why that is and how we can embrace our humanity.
Who this book is for
First and foremost: developers, this book is for you, regardless of whether you are a highly experienced staff engineer, a complete novice junior dev, or somewhere in between.
That said, you don’t need to be a developer at all to benefit from this book. No programming knowledge is required.
In fact, if you’re looking for coding tips or debugging advice, this isn’t the book for you. I recommend The Pragmatic Programmer by Andrew Hunt and David Thomas. I wish I’d read it sooner.
Side note: I read a lot. You’ll find my favorite books recommended throughout, as well as in a Resources section at the end, for whenever you want a deeper dive.
This also isn’t a career guide. The skills discussed here are increasingly important as you advance in your career, taking on broader scope and influence. But this isn’t “how to get ahead in tech.”
I didn’t choose management in my career, but if you did (or if it was chosen for you!), this book is for you, too. A lot of what experienced developers do looks surprisingly like what managers do. And if you manage developers, this may help you guide your team.
I’m writing this as AI is transforming how developers work. You might be wary, excited, afraid, hopeful, skeptical, angry… however you’re feeling about AI, you’re welcome here.
Many of the lessons here apply to other IT professionals, as well as to roles outside of tech. One of my favorite people to “talk shop” with is a good friend who works in restaurant management. Another friend who is not even in a tech-adjacent field has described my writing as “lessons for life.”
In general, if you are ready to embrace your humanity as your superpower, or curious about how human skills could make someone a better developer, welcome.
How this book is organized
In Part One of this book, we’ll talk about our uniquely human skills, and how they are important for our wellbeing and our work. We’ll look at three categories of skills that are crucial for technical excellence.
Understanding
- Intuition and judgment rooted in experience
- Learning and growth arising from not-knowing and curiosity
- Systems thinking and working in complex systems
- Handling ambiguity and situations where there’s no clear “right” answer
Connection
- Tech work is collaborative even if we are called “individual contributors”
- Communication
- Empathy and Compassion
- Navigating conflict
Creativity
- Innovation is not just putting novel ideas together.
- Discernment: what ideas to try, saying no, what’s worth pursuing, when to set something aside
- Experimentation and Failure: how to learn from and even celebrate failure
- Trust and Psychological Safety
Then, in Part Two, I’ll provide suggestions for how we reclaim our humanity in tech, based on my own experience and research. Architects are notorious for being isolated from the day-to-day realities of developers, making proclamations without considering implementation. I spent too long as a developer for that. We’ll talk about what “embracing our full humanity” looks like in practice.
Better Ways of Working
We’ll look at how we can work in more humane, sustainable ways
- Understanding purpose and vision, outcomes over output
- “Productivity” - what is it, measuring it, questioning Taylorism
- Questioning “speed vs. stability” as a tradeoff (Accelerate)
- Humane Ways of Working (Sooner Safer Happier)
Take Care
- Protecting Your Attention and Mental Wellbeing
- Physical Self-Care as Infrastructure
- Resisting Pressure to Sacrifice Yourself
- Empathy and Taking Care of Others (collective wellbeing)
Making Change From Where You Are
- Starting Small (team-level experiments)
- Showing Value (early wins, their language not yours)
- Navigating Resistance
Before we dive in, I’ll tell you a little more about my story so you know who you’re talking to, and so you have some context for the examples.
…and that’s where we’d transition to the “Who is this Leaf person?” part of the introduction.
Missing: the deeper point
There’s a deeper point that is missing here. This isn’t just about how our humanity is good for technical excellence as well as our wellbeing. This book is not “you’ll feel better and you’ll be a more productive cog in the machine.”
This is about how we support human flourishing, both at work and through the software we develop. It’s about how our humanity makes our technical work matter.
The question I keep coming back to is “what are we even doing, here?”
People keep talking about how we could be faster or more efficient by using AI. Faster or more efficient at what? And is that something we want?
Faster at generating cures or treatments for awful diseases? Yes please. Faster at generating even more money for the world’s billionaires? More efficient at destroying civilization? No thanks.
This is, on some level, pushing back against how we dehumanize each other. It’s pushing back against a moment where business are attempting to replace humans with AI.
But my audience isn’t the senior leaders who are making the decisions to replace people with AI. I’m writing for developers.
So I want Humanity Matters to offer a positive vision of what the role of humans can be in software development. It’s something bigger, and more important, than what I have in the outline above.
I might combine the “making change” section in with the “better ways of working” section, and then end the book with a section about this bigger purpose to the book.
It’s a lot for me to tackle, but it’s not optional. I’m not going to skip the deeper message and write a weaker book. I mean, this is me we’re talking about, I’m always going to take it to another level.
What deeper message are you seeing here? What does the title “Humanity Matters” say to you?
And do you have recommendations for me, like: “If you’re going to write about that, then you ought to read this book…”?
Drop me a note
Thanks for reading. Every week I think I’m going to write something short for a change. It hasn’t happened yet. At least I’ll have no problem making the book long enough…
I would love to hear from you. Let me know what’s on your mind and how this week’s message landed with you.
I read every message and reply when I can!