Devvrat's Handbook
Values
- Creativity and productivity go hand in hand; don't treat them as separate goals.
- Take risks, encourage risk-taking, and learn from failures.
- Effective leadership is measured by how quickly and confidently decisions are made.
- True leadership combines moral integrity with the ability to manage people and resources.
- Every decision is a tradeoff.
- Meaningful impact > financial gain.
- Know your capacity before taking on more work.
- Always know the purpose behind your actions and decisions.
- Plan wisely, or cut scope to ship on time.
- Set realistic goals, then exceed them.
- Organization and clarity get things done.
Approach to work
- Understand the problem, constraints, and timelines.
- Build high-output, low-friction development teams.
- Work closely with the product owner and clients.
- Build trust through transparency, timely delivery, and high approachability.
Engineering style
Software design
- Design docs
- Excalidraw diagrams
- Architecture Decision Records
Software development
- A good codebase is both DRY (Don't Repeat Yourself) and WET (Write Every Time). Know when to apply each.
- Build single-responsibility components. Each component does one thing.
- Simplicity > repeatability > complexity.
- UX > DX > difficulty of implementation.
- Polish is part of the MVP.
- Iteration velocity solves all known problems in computer science.
- Care deeply about products and the partnership with product management.
General style
- I'm really good at remembering names.
Nobody should ever be blocked on me
- I respond to pings with priority.
- I do not expect reciprocity.
- I protect my flow; DND is DND.
Decision-making
- If you need a decision, I will make one.
Adaptive work style
- I observe how organizations behave and adapt, rather than impose my own style.
- Expect me to be quiet at first, then more vocal once I understand the environment.
Soft but assertive
- I strive to be kind and clear while remaining assertive.
Late-night work
- I tend to be more productive during late-night hours.