# Defining a Distinguished Engineer

DevFeed: [Defining a Distinguished Engineer](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/defining-a-distinguished-engineer-35158.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://blog.jessfraz.com/post/defining-a-distinguished-engineer/>)

Published: 2019-03-21T15:09:26Z

Content type: opinion

Language: en

Sources: [Jessie Frazelle](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/jessie-frazelle.md>)

Topics: [Learning](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/learning.md>)

Tags: [leadership](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/leadership.md>), [technical](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/technical.md>), [thing](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/thing.md>), [understand](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/understand.md>)

## AI overview

The author proposes a model of a distinguished engineer or technical fellow centered on technical leadership, broad system understanding, continuous learning, and empowering colleagues. The article is motivated by the demoralizing effect of poorly behaved senior leaders.

## Source excerpt

I learned a lot about myself and the way big companies are organized over the past year or so. I had mentioned a bit in a previous blog post and podcast about "the N + 1 shithead problem" (from Bryan Cantrill's talk on leadership). To reiterate, the "N +1 shithead problem" occurs when you are demotivated by seeing people who are a level above you behave poorly, or more bluntly when they behave like a shithead. I know from experience what a huge demotivator this is and after talking to several other folks I realized this is quite common. When faced with this demotivator, I found myself thinking "why would I want to be at their level, when once I get there I'll just be one amongst the dipshits." It's a horrible feeling to have and I'd love to have a model that resembles what I think of as a distinguished engineer or technical fellow. In this post I will define what it means to me to be a distinguished engineer or technical fellow and maybe others that agree will modify their ladders to incentivize people to resemble these qualities. Technical Leader The first thing people think of when they think of a distinguished engineer is that they are a technical leader. I fully agree. A technical leader can understand all parts of a system. They can also be dropped into a new system and pick up the way it is architected and designed with relative ease. I think this is an important distinction to make. It's good to be an expert in a field, but only being an expert is limiting. It's also important to understand the full picture and that takes general knowledge. I think having a general knowledge of things outside your area of expertise is key if you choose to gain expertise in something. Value learning A technical leader can always realize that there is more to learn. One cannot be an expert in everything and you can have a general knowledge of most things without fully understanding the details within. A technical leader can always strive to continue to learn and persuade others