The most important ability you can develop right now

It's not technical, but it probably will have more of an impact than any skill you could possibly develop right now:

Becoming a great communicator.

That means you are able to express yourself well in both live speech and in writing. Both of which boost the other, by the way: most people don't know that. If you become good at writing, you will become a much better public speaker, and vice versa.

So why are these so important for engineers like yourself? Let me count the ways:

1. You can drive coding agents better.

This makes total sense: if you write with precision, clarity and thoroughness, you cannot help but write better prompts.

As Shaun Lewis, the engineering director at O'Reilly Media, said in one interview:

"And the people who are really good at communicating, who are really good at writing, who are really good at speaking, can translate that really well into prompt engineering. Versus it feels like people who are not as good at communicating have a harder time with that."

2. People want to work with you more.

When you are more articulate, they can understand you better, and they don't have to work as hard to communicate with you. You contrast well with the bad memories they have of struggling to talk with other engineers, who - as a group - are not known for outstanding soft skills.

3. You become smarter.

When you write and speak with coherent clarity, you are giving precision and structure to your thinking. Many people, including Warren Buffet for what that's worth, have noted how writing improves the quality of your thought. As he put it: "There is nothing like writing to force you to think and get your thoughts straight."

That's true in my experience, and public speaking does this too, in a different way: presenting live in front of a group sharpens your ability to think on your feet, and communicate with authority and confidence.

So those are three reasons you should probably make this your #1 priority in life right now.

Depending on your situation, of course. But for almost everyone reading this, there is no better way to transform your career and maybe even your life over the next 6 months.

Oh yeah, almost forgot to mention: communication skills do not become obsolete. They can only start compounding in value, as soon as you start improving them. Something to think about.

That's why the 'Financial Security' track of Boosted Code is almost entirely about developing exceptional communication and soft skills, including a one-of-a-kind 'Virtual Public Speaking' course that I strongly encourage everyone to study and implement. Urgently so; if you are in BC, do this as soon as you can.

Everyone else, learn about Boosted Code here: