Level Up Your Skills: Why Comparing Up Can Be Your Secret Weapon
Level Up Your Skills: Why Comparing Up Can Be Your Secret Weapon
We’ve all been told not to compare ourselves to others.
But in today’s world of software engineering, a well-placed comparison can be your secret weapon for growth.
The key is to compare up, not down.
This newsletter explores the power of strategic comparison.
We’ll discuss why aligning yourself with engineers you admire can fuel your motivation and ultimately propel your career forward. We’ll also explore healthy boundaries for comparison to ensure it empowers, not discourages, you.
Ready to ditch the comparisons holding you back and making you anxious and leverage the power of “comparing up”?
This newsletter is your roadmap to using inspiration as fuel for your software engineering journey.
Let’s start by addressing the elephant in the room:
✨ The Highlight Reel
I remember vividly this post on Reddit from a guy in his 20s.
He’s been working out for five years and asked when he’ll look like this other guy on Instagram.
Social media and online profiles often showcase the best, most polished aspects of someone’s career, body, or desk.
Don’t compare your entire journey to someone else’s curated highlight reel.
On Substack, you see all these brilliant people thriving in the newsletter business with exponential growth and sponsorships. They have a ton of excellent advice and are in their 20s. I asked one of them, how?
I got an internship at Meta, then moved to Amazon, Google, and Tesla.
That’s how.
The safest approach is to assume you know little about the person’s background, advantages/disadvantages, opportunities, or life in general.
Everyone faces different challenges and takes unique paths.
Use their achievements as inspiration, but focus on the effort you can make right now to follow your path.
🎖️ Role Models
Not everyone is your ideal inspiration.
Find engineers with similar goals. Research industry leaders, follow them on social media, or attend conferences to network. Build connections and learn from successful professionals. Straightforward right?
But keep a couple of things in mind:
Seek Diversity: Have multiple role models. You might find inspiration from a front-end developer building beautiful UIs or an AI researcher pushing the boundaries of machine learning. For example, my social media or developer education role model is Kent C. Dodds, but completely different people inspire me for newsletters, such as
and . I read Chris Do else when it comes to business. And there’s nothing wrong with this.Look Beyond Titles: Dig deeper. Explore the work your potential role models have done, the problems they’ve solved, and the approaches they’ve taken. Do their values align with your approach to software development, education, or writing? How approachable are they? This leads me to:
Go Beyond the Online Persona: Seek out additional information. Listen to their talks, read their blog posts, or even try to connect with them on a professional platform like LinkedIn (here’s mine) or Substack. This can offer a more nuanced view of their work ethic, communication style, and overall approach to the thing you find inspiring in them.
🧠 SMART Goals: Inspiration in Action
Turn role model inspiration into action with SMART goals.
Specific: Ditch the vague “be better.” Aim for something clear, like “complete a machine learning course by year-end.”
Measurable: Track progress with milestones. Finish specific course modules or hit target scores on assessments.
Achievable: Be ambitious but realistic. Don’t overwhelm yourself – becoming a machine learning expert in months might not be achievable, but a solid foundation is!
Relevant: Align with your career vision. If backend development is your goal, machine learning might not be the most direct path. Find connections between role models’ achievements and your long-term aspirations.
Time-bound: Set deadlines. Having a timeframe creates urgency and keeps you focused.
By crafting SMART goals inspired by your role models, you transform admiration into a roadmap for your engineering journey.
And it’s OK to fail as well!
In 2021, I set a goal to have my own education business and social media running by September 2023
🌱 Learn, Not Compete: The Growth Mindset
Healthy comparison thrives on a growth mindset. View role models’ success as a chance to learn, not a threat.
Focus on Effort: Achievements are built on dedication. Acknowledge the countless hours your role models invested in their skills.
Embrace Learning: The best engineers are lifelong learners. Even your role models are likely still growing and evolving.
Seek Knowledge: Don’t compare for validation. Use their accomplishments to identify areas for your own skill development.
Instead of competitors, see your role models as mentors. Actively learn from their work: attend talks, read blogs, or explore their open-source contributions. Engage with communities where you can discuss their work and refine your skills alongside inspired peers.
By embracing a growth mindset, you turn comparison pressure into a powerful tool for learning and development.
I’ve spent some time researching who originally coined the term Growth Mindset, and I landed on Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol S. Dweck. It’s an OK book. There are a lot of stories that sound anecdotal and almost no references to actual studies, but the ideas are great.
Who are some of your software engineering role models, and why?
📰 Weekly shoutout
3 Ways to Enhance Your Mental Health in Software Engineering [Part 1] - this great article by
(which inspired this piece) talks about mental hygiene for engineers. Crucial not just in the start but for thriving in the long run. Great tips!🖋️ I grew to 6k subs in 6 months my career growth newsletter for software engineers -
is one of my recently discovered role models on Substack. He’s a reasonable guy with priorities outside of Substack, so he deployed effective systems to get his online stuff done while having nice growth.Leveraging Side Projects for Career Growth in Engineering by
- my side projects had no downsides, ever. While actively freelancing, I could use them in proposals, and working more like a full-time contractor helped me grow my audience on Twitter.
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You reflected perfectly the mindset to have about learning, not competing.
Compare is a word usually with a negative meaning (it catches attention for the title tho 😉). I like to use "inspire".
I remember when I was a new grad everyone seemed to know a lot. But I was quick to identify who to take as role model, and who just knew more things becuase had been working more time, but I wouldn't want to be like.
Even after a lot of time, those role models stop being so as you progress. Or they are only a role model in a specific area.
You may have heard the idea of "we are the average of the 5 people we spend most time with". I like the twist of having a group of role models, each inspires you in some way. Those people may never know about you, or they may be even historical figures from the past. But we can narrow the thing that inspires us from them and use it to our advantage.
Glad I could be a (small) part of your journey ❤️
For me, many role models are from books. When I try to get better at an area, I just read the best books about it, and compare myself to the content inside. This gives me some slack, as if someone wrote a book, they are probably quite good at what they do :)
For example, for online writing the best book I’ve read is “the art of business and online writing” by Nicholas Cole.