Stage 2 · Lesson 2 of 8
Leverage: impact per hour
is how much impact you get from each hour of your time. Your own have a limit, because there are only so many hours in a week. High-leverage work multiplies results beyond your own tasks.
One example is a release that saves eight engineers 30 minutes each week. Another is a fix for a test that breaks one build in five. A third is a decision that stops the same debate coming back.
When choosing between two pieces of work, ask which one changes the most for the time it takes.
Common traptreating hard work as valuable work, and taking every request that arrives instead of the ones with the most leverage.
A question to check yourself, an AI practice session and 1 cheat sheet entry come with the full roadmap. Unlock
Resources for this stage
Start with· follow one of these
- BookFreeSoftware Engineering at Google
Titus Winters, Tom Manshreck and Hyrum Wright · Intermediate
The chapters on testing, CI and large-scale changes: fixing problems at team scale
- BookPaidThe Pragmatic Programmer
Hunt and Thomas · Intermediate · About $45
Automation, broken windows and orthogonality: the habits behind leverage