DOI: 10.1145/3080143

Article development led by queue.acm.org

Great engineers are able
to maximize their mental power.

BY KATE MATSUDAIRA Conversations with Technology Leaders: Erik Meijer

 

For this article, I wanted to share with you some of my favorite engineering and leadership lessons from one of the smartest people I know: Erik Meijer.

Whether you are a leader, a programmer, or just someone aspiring to be better, I am sure there are some smart takeaways from our conversation that will help you grow in your role. Oh, and if you read to the end, you can find out what his favorite job interview question is—and see if you would be able to pass his test.

What qualities make someone into an
amazing engineer?

There is a paper called “The Humble Programmer,” 3 and even though it was written in 1972, after all these years it is still super-relevant. In the early days of computing, programming was perceived as puzzle solving and optimizing the computational process—it is astonishing how those archaic ideas are still there when it comes to interviewing developers. Our world today is very complicated—we are dealing with distributed systems, all kinds of models, neural nets, frameworks, new languages. We don’t have the mental power to keep on top of every new in-

THERE ARE SMART people in the world. And then there are really smart people. You know the ones I am talking about—those who are so impressive that it doesn’t matter what they do (academia, programming, engineering, or management); you know if they are doing it, then they are doing it well.