Michelangelo ValtancoliAngel Investor, Various Startups · Investing + building at Various Startups

The best engineers in the world

24 Mar 2023 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

0:32

In this brief spoken segment, the presenter reflects on the qualities that distinguish the greatest engineers he has worked with. He emphasizes that top engineers obsess over the goal and the underlying "why" before diving into technical work. They pause to personally grasp the purpose of a project, rather than simply accepting instructions. Once they have internalized the objective, they move swiftly to building, applying intense effort and a willingness to learn any necessary skills. The overall message celebrates a goal‑first mindset, self‑driven understanding, hard work, and continuous learning as hallmarks of elite engineering talent.

Chapters

The greatest engineers that I've had the luck to work with, they really obsess over the goal and the why before they get into anything technical. The very good ones that I work with always take a step back like, whoa, wait, what are we really trying to build here? And they don't want to hear it from me. They want to get to a point where they personally understand it themselves. And when they do understand it, then they just go out and they build it. And when they build it, they just work very hard and they're willing to learn anything.