The Staff Engineer's Path

As Joy Ebertz points out, “Writing code is rarely the highest leverage thing you can spend your time on. Most of the code I write today could be written by someone much more junior.” Ebertz notes, however, that coding gives you a depth of understanding that’s hard to gain otherwise and helps you spot problems. What’s more, “If spending a day a week coding keeps you engaged and excited to come to work, you will likely do better in the rest of your job.” Finally, staying involved in the implementation ensures that you feel the cost of your own architectural decisions as much as your team does.