写作方法2019blog.pragmaticengineer.com编辑精选
被低估的工程技能：把文章写好
Undervalued Engineering Skills: Writing Well
导读
这篇文章讨论为什么“写得好”是被低估的工程能力，以及它如何在团队协作、系统设计和职业发展中持续带来回报。对写作者而言，它提醒我们：写作不只是表达，更是想清楚问题、放大个人影响力的工具。
可以直接用的写作要点
- 01
把写作当成思考工具：动手前先写几页设计文档或方案，强迫自己把逻辑推演完整，能在开工前发现设计缺陷，省下数周返工。
- 02
团队规模越大、成员越分散，沟通成本就越高；清晰的书面表达是能“规模化”的沟通方式，值得像练代码一样刻意练习。
- 03
在技能水平相近的同事中，写作和沟通是最低成本的差异化优势，常能带来跨领域的机会。
- 04
别把“写不好也能成功”当作可模仿的路径；写作时要替读者省力，避免歧义（比如漏掉否定词，让人猜是 X 还是非 X）。
HN 评论精选
写作是同行中的强差异化因素，能打开跨领域机会。
写得好不只是工程领域被低估的技能，在整个职业生涯中都是。当你和技能相近的同事一起工作时，能写好、能沟通好就成了很强的差异化优势。我当了十年工程师后能进入风投行业，很大程度上就是因为我在网上写得还算清楚。
lpolovets查看英文原文
Writing well is an undervalued skill in life, not just in engineering. When you work on a team of peers with similar skills in your field, whether that field is engineering or something else, being able to write well and communicate well become strong differentiators. FWIW, I'm pretty sure that writing (reasonably) well online is what got me a job in venture capital after ten years as an engineer. David Perell (host of the North Star Podcast) has been tweeting a lot of good things about the value of writing + writing tips: - https://twitter.com/david_perell/status/1127348174404890625 - https://twitter.com/david_perell/status/1124002449646395392 - https://twitter.com/david_perell/status/1116485842615377921
写作的价值在于逼自己想透，提前拦住错误的设计。
我同意写作是软件工程师最被低估的技能之一，但理由完全不同：写作强迫你把事情彻底想清楚，哪怕最终没有人会读。写几页设计文档或亚马逊式六页备忘录可能要花几天，但当你发现自己系统设计有缺陷、或根本没解决真实用户需求时，它能省下几周甚至更多的无效实现时间。
jsty查看英文原文
I agree with the author that writing is one of the most undervalued skills for SWEs, but for a completely different reason - it forces you to reason things through properly, even if nobody else will ever read what you write. Writing a couple of pages of design docs or an Amazon-style 6 pager or whatever might take a few days of work, but can save weeks or more of wasted implementation time when you realise your system design was flawed or it doesn't address any real user needs.
质疑“被低估”：写不好的人也能成功，但清晰的书面材料仍值得追求。
我很有共鸣：我的写作清晰简洁，我为此自豪，也因此能有效沟通。但我不太确定“被低估”这个说法，因为我看到很多人写不清楚，照样升迁顺利。我共事过的不少高管邮件写得糟糕（有时漏掉否定词，我只能猜他们说的是 X 还是非 X），而他们非常成功。亚马逊那种会前书面材料的做法我也常觉得尴尬：我的经验是大多数人根本写不出（或懒得写）清晰的两页文档。
Maro查看英文原文
This resonates with me. My writing is clear and concise, I'm proud of it, and it pays off because I can communicate effectively. I'm not sure I agree with the "undervalued", in so far that I see a _lot_ of people who are not able to write clearly, and they get ahead and along just fine. Many executives who I worked with wrote terrible emails (sometimes they leave out the negation, so I'm guessing whether they mean X or not-X), and they're super successful, in so far as their companies are successful / they are in high positions. Sometimes the Amazon protocol comes up (before a meeting, the organizer submits the topic in writing, everybody has to read it before), and I always cringe - in my experience most people just can't write a clear 2 page document [or can't be bothered]. I would love it tough.
组织越大，沟通越难，好写作是放大沟通的关键能力。
做工程师越久，我花在写文档、提案、教程这类事情上的时间就越多。文章说得很对：随着工程组织规模变大，这些技能越来越重要。大规模工程（复杂度和团队规模上的规模）的最大挑战是沟通，而好的写作正是放大沟通的方式，尤其当团队不在同一地点办公时。我认为软件工程师对如何提升技术写作的讨论和思考远远不够。
simonw查看英文原文
The more experience I get as an engineer, the more time I spend writing documentation, proposals, tutorials and the like. This article is absolutely spot on when it points out that these skills become increasingly important as the size of an engineering organization grows. The biggest challenges in engineering at scale (scale in terms of complexity and size of the team) are around communication. Good writing is how you scale your communication, especially if your team aren't physically co-located. I don't think software engineers talk about or think about how to improve technical writing nearly enough.
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