Original link: https://kaopubear.top/blog/2022-07-16-book-software-engineering-at-google/
When a friend recommended the book “Google Software Engineering” to me, I was stunned. Let’s just say that at my coding level, I would never dare to read Gou Ge’s software engineering. As a result, the other party said that they can “take a small amount of time, take it with warm water, and read it on demand, such as only the second part.”
In line with the principle of looking at it without losing money , I couldn’t help but read a small chapter in English when I couldn’t buy the Chinese version for logistics reasons.
Conclusion: This book is highly recommended.
Even if you don’t write code at all, this book should be read (at least Part 2) as long as you work in a lab, team, or company that involves software-related work or, by extension, mental work and knowledge management.
Why learning and sharing can be a challenge
For example, you can find out why learning and sharing within an organization can become a challenge in this book on software engineering.
In the third chapter “Knowledge Sharing” of the second part, I first wrote 6 reasons why learning and sharing within an organization can become a challenge summarized by Google, including: lack of psychological safety, information silos and existence With or without expertise , etc.
Expanding a bit to avoid spoilers.
The existence of information silos will objectively bring about three problems: information fragmentation (each island has an incomplete description of the whole), information duplication (each island reinvents its own way of doing things) and information bias (each island has an incomplete description of the whole). The way the islands do the same thing may not be completely compatible).
The so-called “with or without expertise” means that the organization is divided into two categories of members, one group is “all-knowing” people, and the other group is rookie, but there are few intermediate states.
This problem tends to be exacerbated if experts always do everything themselves and don’t take the time to develop new experts through mentoring or documentation. In this case, knowledge and responsibility continue to accumulate on those who already have expertise, while new members or novices are left to fend for themselves and grow at a slow pace.
How to create a psychologically safe space
How to deal with these problems? Just as an example of how to create a relatively psychologically safe space, the book mentions several recommended and opposed modes.
**Recommended Mode (Cooperative)** includes:
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Underlying issues or errors need to be steered in the right direction
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The purpose of the explanation is to help the person asking the question learn
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Responses are kind, patient, and helpful
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Interaction is finding solutions through joint discussions
**Against Mode (Confrontation)** includes:
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Picking up on basic questions or mistakes and blaming the person asking the question
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The purpose of explanation is to show off one’s knowledge
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Responses are condescending, mean, and unconstructive
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Interaction is an argument with “winners” and “losers”
It’s important to note, though, that opposition patterns are often unintentional: someone may try to help, but accidentally look unwelcome. In practice, Google has found that the three social rules provided by the Recurse Center are helpful within the organization.
Don’t pretend to be surprised. Don’t say things like “What, I don’t believe you don’t know…”. You shouldn’t look surprised when people say they don’t know something. Because faking surprise is usually done to make yourself feel better and others feel worse. Even if it’s not the end, it’s always the end effect.
Don’t just say “well, actually”. When what the other person says is almost right but not quite right, don’t lightly say “Okay, actually…” and then give a small correction. Especially when corrections have no effect on the actual conversation.
Do not drive in the back seat. You shouldn’t be half-participating in the conversation on and off when overhearing someone else is solving a problem. The act of interrupting an existing discussion without engaging in the conversation is like sitting in the back seat of a car. Giving help and advice and joining the conversation are encouraged and encouraged, but when you just want to help or collaborate with others, you should go all out instead of occasionally intervening.
In addition, in this part, I also wrote about a series of topics such as how to learn and share in the organization. Rough browsing feels very useful, and if reading the above section makes you a little interested, you may as well find this book to read.
The author of this article : Bear who thinks about problems
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