Summary
- What You Want isn't just a personal life hack in the self-improvement genre.
- In fact, writing it down collectively with multiple people has many benefits.
- It contains information valuable enough to be called knowledge.
- The method is simple; you just need to provide a space where multiple people can write together.
- For instance, tools like Cosense, GitHub Issues, and Miro
Background
"What you want to do" and "What you want" are important
"I won't miss what I want to do or what I want" is one of the soft skills, I believe. Although missing these won't cause immediate harm, securing them can lead to learning and richness in the mid to long term.
Some examples of tools (especially lists) that fulfill this are as follows:
- List of Things You Want to Do
- A simple list where you write down what you want to do
- Creating such a list can help make it clear what you should do next
- GTD®'s Someday List
- A place to store "things you might want to do someday," even if you're not committed to doing them, and it's okay to discard them if necessary
- Bucket List
- A list where you write down "things you want to do before you die"
- Often, you aim to fill it with 100 items as a way to gamify your life
What You Want
Let's refer to this genre as What You Want, abbreviated as wyw.
Engineers tend to underestimate wyw
In my opinion, engineers tend to underestimate wyw. The same goes for engineers in the field, engineering managers, and even senior engineers.
This is because wyw appears to resemble self-improvement or life hack endeavors, which engineers often dislike. While this is partially true, it's more than that. It's something that is particularly useful for engineers.
In this article, I will demonstrate the value of wyw. Specifically, I will introduce a method for sharing wyw among multiple people.
What You Want Log
A What You Want Log is a collection of wyw. It's accumulated collectively by several people. Think of it as the wyw version of a product backlog where tasks are typically stored.
Anyone can write anything in a wyw log, but be sure to define the scope of what can be written. A clear example is "things you want to do related to this project."
Incidentally, I often set the scope much broader. It may include personal wants or things to do, or discussions about personal career growth. This approach tends to foster more conversations.
Benefits of the wyw Log
- Conversations among members flourish
- Increases asynchronous interactions
- Even in synchronous conversations, using wyw as a topic can make discussions more engaging
- Serendipity occurs
- Hidden needs of the members become clear
- Offers practice for those not used to writing comments or creating issues
- Surprisingly, many people need practice, such as junior engineers, newcomers from other industries, and seniors just beginning to learn asynchronous communication
- Provides practice in "verbalizing," which is necessary for prompt engineering
- Even as engineers, not everyone is adept at verbalizing. In scenarios involving soft skills like communication or management, verbalizing "context about oneself" is often required, which many find challenging. Casual initiatives like this can help in practicing it.
How to Do It
Simply use some tool to allow multiple people to write at any time.
Example 1: Cosense
Cosense is a Japanese-produced simultaneous editing wiki that can operate thousands of pages with ease and without needing Slack. It's also appealing because it can be customized using JavaScript.
Create a "wyw workspace" including all members, and have them collectively write wyw. It's enjoyable as you can link pages, embed images or videos easily, and hype things up.
There's already an example: /wanna. It's a Japanese community, but multiple people are already writing wyw. I'm also participating. It's fun to see others' wyw, get advice, and of course, write my own. Through wyw, you can get to know others and reflect on yourself.
Example 2: GitHub Issues
Create a repository for wyw and handle 1-issue per 1-wyw.
It's important to ensure writing is as casual as possible, so try to keep the following in mind:
- Either no labels or templates, or keep them simple
- Don't manage it. For instance, even if there are duplicate postings, don't worry about it. No need for maintainers to sort them.
As wyw accumulates, you can create various mechanisms using APIs. You can create a Reader or a feature that randomly displays content. It might also be interesting to integrate by sending this week's entries to a Slack channel.
Example 3: Miro
Create a wyw board in Miro and write on it using sticky notes. Also, if you come up with more wyw upon seeing others' sticky notes, keep writing them down. It's like brainstorming asynchronously.
One thing to note is not to organize. Even if it's cluttered or there are duplicates, focus solely on writing sticky notes for wyw. The more sticky notes accumulate and things get cluttered, the more interesting it becomes.
wyw is Knowledge
I consider the wyw accumulated by multiple people in this manner to be knowledge. This is because it includes individual personalities, needs, and advice from the members.
It might also be useful to input it into a generative AI for dialogue or analysis. Since the wyw is derived from the members themselves, the information suggested from it will be both attractive and practical.
Top comments (0)