i think my favourite thing on the list is "a good engineer gives good estimates"

but being able to give good estimates is directly correlated to the type of work the manager assigns you

estimates which you're often pressured into reducing, both casually and explicitly

and the truth is, being late only really matters when your work has low margins or low payoff

one of the other pieces of advice is "fix what's frustrating other teams"

which, well, is something i've done, repeatedly, and something i've been told not to do, repeatedly

i still think about the manager who told me i was underperforming

while my coworkers, in the same meeting, explained that my work was the only reason their stuff shipped on time

without trying to turn this into a power structure analysis

the problem with advice from managers is that it's often a list of things they can get away with, or got away with as senior engineers before making the leap

this list of "advice for engineers" is better framed as "what a good manager should look for"

because a bad one will still punish you anyway, especially if you show any form of autonomy or agency

at the end of the day the advice i'd give is "don't do anything that would embarrass your manager"

be it "correcting them in a meeting" or "doing work that succeeded despite them telling you not to"

or more importantly, "anything that makes them look bad to their bosses" or "anything that undermines their power over the team"

and advice for a good manager? who needs advice, they're actually going to help you succeed