What is this newsletter about?
Gergely Orosz is the #1 technology writer on substack in terms of subscribers and readership, and you dont get to #1 without good reason.
Gergely covers technology from three key directions: The profession of software engineering, Insider experience and anecdotes, Macro impacts on engineering and engineers.
He aims these three directions towards each other and what you get in the middle of this combination is solid research and data about the ongoing state and evolution of the software engineering profession.
He was an active software engineer from 2004 - 2020 (16 years) across many notable tech companies and has since become a prolific writer, with the pragmmatic engineer growing to #1 in only three short years.
His works focus on trying to connect the dots, between the work that engineers do, the environment they do it in and the larger ecosystem in which they operate. He has real skill in systems thinking, understanding how different forces interact with each other to form a larger system. This is backed up with lots of research; combining quantitative data about companies, markets etc. with qualitative anecdotal data from engineers he knows, surveys and interviews. The combination produces blog posts which are more akin to mini research papers.
Why its worth your time
If you are an engineer by trade, this newsletter is a sane default. Anyone who is focused on career growth and advancement will have a lot of take aways from Gergely's research posts. Not on how to write better code etc. but the high level perspectives and insights into the profession at large and where its going. A great quote from someone about one of his posts was "I want to aim to where the ball is traveling over the next 5 years, not where it is today". This perfectly sums it up. Gergely's works help to point out where engineering is trending so you can aim towards where its headed and capitalize on the opportunities.
For any other vocation in technology, Gergely's works will give you an edge over your competition. The primary effort your companies are invested in is the production of software. The large majority of resources in tech companies either go into the production / maintenance of said software or the sales and distribution of it. Having a real understanding of the engineering profession and the trends of the divisions in your company that are producing the software will help you understand better the strengths and weaknesses of your own company, its potential in the market, how this potential translates to your personal career growth and goals and how to understand the market in which you operate. If you want to excel in the world of technology you benefit from having a very strong understanding of how the teams who make this technology work and think.
Where to dip your toes in
A classic example of what I've been describing about Gergely's research efforts into understanding how software engineering is connected to macro impacts is his post: https://newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/zirp-engineering-practices
He explains in rigorous detail how zero-percent-interest-rate policy by federal governments around the world directly effects software engineering organizations practices and operational trends. Most people would never think to consider how these two are linked, let alone do the research to draw the lines between them and flesh it out with data and qualitative anecdotes to validate his work
Full details on Gergely
Book on writing a winning engineer CV
Industry best practices on mobile development at scale
Navigating senior software leadership positions
