The last post in this series ended with a line I wanted to come back to: managers - especially first-line managers in more hierarchical orgs - are not always empowered to change the systems they're operating in. They're functions of those systems too.
The last two posts in this series have been about curiosity - what it looks like when people have it and what happens when the environment kills it. A friend responded to the second one with something I've been thinking about since: the framing issue.
A senior engineer on my team is leaving. Not leaving the company - just moving to another group internally. On paper, it's a lateral move that doesn't change much for the rest of us. In practice, it changes a lot.
I wrote a post a couple of weeks ago about unprompted curiosity - the idea that the engineers who dig into things without being asked are the ones who end up driving direction. I still believe that.
Early in my career, I said yes to everything. Extra project? Sure. Meeting I didn't need to be in? I'll be there. Feature request that didn't quite fit the system? I'll figure it out.
I've been in this industry long enough to watch careers diverge. Two engineers start at roughly the same place - similar skills, similar experience, similar opportunities.