Tyler’s Reviews > The Staff Engineer's Path: A Guide for Individual Contributors Navigating Growth and Change > Status Update

- loved the interview prompts for how to talk to other people about their experiences working on the output of your project(s)
- scenarios for where projects come from, and criteria to evaluate whether they’re worth it (energy, social capital, credibility, skills, quality of life)
- learn how to defend your time and say no

Everything on technical vision/strategy is great, although a bit daunting to keep track of it all!

- “your point of view is heavily influenced by where you’re standing”
- this can lead to local maximum decisions
- taking an outsider view
- look at your team as if you weren’t a part of it and be honest about what you see
- do your technical decisions only make sense for people’s who’ve been around to witness all the history?
- are you still solving the right problems?

3 maps:
- locator (you are here): how does your scope fit into the bigger picture? What are around its borders?
- topographical: navigating terrain, where challenges lie, how decisions are made
- treasure: where you want to go and what lies in your way

Main theme: paying attention and gathering context