What Rock Climbing Taught Me About Engineering
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  &lt;p&gt;In the past five years, rock climbing has ridden high atop the &lt;a href=&quot;<a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.climbingbusinessjournal.com&#x2F;gyms-and-trends-of-2016&#x2F;&quot;&gt;wave" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.climbingbusinessjournal.com&#x2F;gyms-and-trends-of-20...</a> of
newly expanding fitness
activities&lt;&#x2F;a&gt;,
and distinguished itself as a hip way to stay in shape. Climbing has
lured people of all backgrounds and professions, and created communities
of enthusiasts who are eager to break the monotony of the traditional
gym. Routes up the climbing wall have a wide range of difficulty grades,
and require a type of physical problem solving that is absent from
weight training. In fact, even climbing terminology reveals that problem
solving is a core part of the culture. Paths up a wall are often
referred to as “problems”, different types of hand and foot holds have
specific, technical names, and the &lt;a href=&quot;<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Glossary_of_climbing_terms&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Glossary" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Glossary_of_climbing_terms&quot;&gt;&lt;e...</a> of Climbing
terms&lt;&#x2F;em&gt;&lt;&#x2F;a&gt;
Wikipedia page has hundreds of terms that I’ve never even heard of. It
is no surprise to me that so many technically-minded people have adopted
climbing as a hobby.&lt;&#x2F;p&gt;<p>&lt;p&gt;I think climbing has more to offer than helping you get ripped. Since I
began climbing in college, I’ve learned a lot about problem solving from
observing other climbers, thinking critically about my own technique,
and receiving great advice. Moreover, many of these lessons have
reverberated with elements of our engineering culture at Flatiron. In
this post, I’ll lay out a few observations from climbing that have made
me a better engineer, and detail how Flatiron has built processes and
&lt;a href=&quot;<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.flatiron.com&#x2F;values&quot;&gt;adopted" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.flatiron.com&#x2F;values&quot;&gt;adopted</a> values&lt;&#x2F;a&gt; similar to those of
rock climbing.&lt;&#x2F;p&gt;<p>&lt;h2 id=&quot;strive-to-preview-the-route&quot;&gt;Strive to preview the route&lt;&#x2F;h2&gt;<p>&lt;p&gt;Some of the best climbers spend several minutes before each section of a
climb looking ahead at how they might overcome the next set of problems.
They estimate how much effort the section will require, create a plan
for navigating the holds, determine what gear will be required, and
importantly look for the next place to rest and reassess.&lt;&#x2F;p&gt;<p>&lt;p&gt;When I started climbing - much like when I started working as an
engineer - I had a thoroughly naive planning process. I would walk up to
a problem, throw myself onto the holds and head right up until I found
myself stuck and confused. By watching other climbers, I have developed
an appreciation for planning and estimation. Investing more time
up-front towards thinking about the nuances of a problem can reveal new
ways of solving it that may be drastically simpler and reduce technical
debt in the long run.&lt;&#x2F;p&gt;<p>&lt;p&gt;At Flatiron, “design documents” are one way that we structure planning
and estimation without sacrificing velocity. Engineers may write a
design document for anything from a small feature to a large system,
with the goals of planning out a solution, communicating with other
teams, and soliciting &lt;a href=&quot;<a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;lifehacker.com&#x2F;the-30-percent-rule-and-the-art-of-early-feedback-1619474527&quot;&gt;30%" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;lifehacker.com&#x2F;the-30-percent-rule-and-the-art-of-ear...</a>
feedback&lt;&#x2F;a&gt;.
Writing design documents, even for seemingly trivial features, has
forced me to think through my plans more rigorously. Sometimes, a design
document leads me to change my approach to a problem all together.&lt;&#x2F;p&gt;<p>&lt;h2 id=&quot;be-self-critical&quot;&gt;Be self-critical&lt;&#x2F;h2&gt;<p>&lt;p&gt;In climbing, as in life, the difficulty of a problem can be mitigated by
implementing a more effective technique. I have often spent twenty
minutes failing to get more than half way up a route only to watch
another climber casually climb the whole thing forward and backwards by
making a slight alteration to my approach. Strength is certainly a
factor in some cases, but more often, the other climber has a better
sense of technique - shifting her weight gradually and using holds in
non-intuitive ways.&lt;&#x2F;p&gt;<p>&lt;p&gt;Watching the elegant technique that other climbers employ to solve
certain problems has inspired me to be self-critical of my methodology.
Over time, being self-critical has helped me develop the intuition to
recognize when I powered through a move to compensate for sloppy
technique, and how I could have solved a problem differently.&lt;&#x2F;p&gt;<p>&lt;p&gt;Being vocally self-critical is actually one of our core values at
Flatiron. This value can manifest during a monthly retro, an incident
post-mortem, or even on a casual whiteboard design session. I am always
impressed by how my colleagues are able to avoid getting attached to
their ideas and ask “what are the drawbacks of this design?” The culture
of vocal self-criticism has helped us re-visit stale processes and
designs when we otherwise may have accepted the status-quo.&lt;&#x2F;p&gt;<p>&lt;h2 id=&quot;design-human-proof-protocols&quot;&gt;Design human-proof protocols&lt;&#x2F;h2&gt;<p>&lt;p&gt;Climbing can be a dangerous activity. There is an undeniable risk in
being held 50 feet above the ground by harness and rope, secured by
nothing but your trusty college buddy. This risk multiplies when you
leave the gym and head outdoors, where you must set up anchors and tie
knots on your own, rely on your teammates, and navigate uncertain holds.&lt;&#x2F;p&gt;<p>&lt;p&gt;In order to mitigate this risk, the climbing community has developed a
variety of safety protocols with the goal of human-proofing the activity
as much as possible. Critical climbing gear like carabiners almost
always have a safety, such as a foolproof locking mechanism. Load
bearing anchors are often set up with 2x or 3x redundancy. Most
importantly, even the simplest activities that require communication
have a defined checklist or set of commands. For example, the &lt;a href=&quot;<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Belaying#Communication&quot;&gt;belay" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Belaying#Communication&quot;&gt;belay</a>
protocol&lt;&#x2F;a&gt; defines
precisely how to communicate as one teammate secures the other while
ascending a wall.&lt;&#x2F;p&gt;<p>&lt;p&gt;Rock climbing is undoubtedly safer because of protocols that avoid human
mistakes. Learning about climbing protocols has helped me realize the
value of automation and checklists for engineering operations. One
protocol that has helped me avoid countless mistakes is Flatiron’s
culture of creating on-call and deployment playbooks. Our playbooks have
been a safety net for me during my first months in the on-call rotation;
they have helped us on-board team members quickly and expand our
&lt;a href=&quot;<a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;blog.sandglaz.com&#x2F;increasing-bus-factor-in-project-management&#x2F;&quot;&gt;bus-factor&lt;&#x2F;a&gt;;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;blog.sandglaz.com&#x2F;increasing-bus-factor-in-project-ma...</a>
and they have served as documentation for various systems and their
dependencies. A culture of playbooking aggressively has helped us work
towards our goal of being able to easily train our own replacements and
strengthen our resilience as a team.&lt;&#x2F;p&gt;<p>&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;
Climbing has helped me learn a great deal by overlaying physical and
technical problem solving. I’m grateful to the many mentors I’ve had at
the climbing gym, and also to the great mentors at Flatiron!&lt;&#x2F;p&gt;<p>&lt;&#x2F;article&gt;