What skills are most lacking in excellent developers? A former Microsoft engineer said: Good writing!

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When you think of the profession of "code farmer", what do you think of? A geek in a sweater? A geek who is not good at socializing? A rigid and unchanging scientific mindset? For a long time, many people think so. Many people are even proud of "turning a deaf ear to the outside world and focusing on writing code", and regard this as a symbol of dedication.

However, the world is changing, and if you still cling to these impressions, you may soon encounter a bottleneck in your career development. As competition in this profession becomes more and more fierce, and the trend of development outsourcing is increasing, the things that determine the future of programmers are likely to be things other than writing code, such as writing good articles.

"One thing I would recommend to people is learning how to write," he told Business Insider. "Learning how to write well... is really helpful because you need to know how to express yourself. For a lot of engineers, it's really hard to get out there and do public speaking."

Why is it so important to write good articles? Borozdin explains that it helps them explain their work more clearly to managers, bosses, and potential clients, making it easier for these people to reward them appropriately.

Borozdin said that before working at DocuSign, he used to submit his work to his superiors with great confidence, but to his surprise, they didn't really recognize his contributions.

"I was like, 'This was my idea, how come they don't see it?'" he said.

Borozdin believes that this is a communication problem, and if people can think more clearly and focus more when communicating with others, this situation can be avoided.

In addition, if a programmer really writes a great software, then he needs to improve his ability to deal with people.

"Once you've written a successful piece of software, you probably need to write as much documentation in English as you do in Java or Objective C," Borozdin said. "At DocuSign, I wrote a lot of software that was released to the public, and people liked it and wanted to use it. I probably wrote 10 times as much documentation and explanations, and answered a lot of questions. It's not a big problem, but I think a lot of people overlook it."

Of course, this doesn't mean you have to put down your current job and become a literary giant. You just need to express your ideas accurately, clearly and plainly, which can be practiced in very simple ways, such as writing a blog.

“You don’t need to forget your hard-core technical identity,” Borozdin said. “Just add a little bit of soft communication skills to it.”