The one skill that separates senior engineers from everyone else isn’t technical. It’s the ability to take ambiguous problems and make them concrete.

Senior engineers look at the big, messy, abstract thing and start digging:

• They ask questions nobody else thought to ask.
• They separate what matters from noise.
• They identify what should be done now vs. what to punt.

Most software is bad. I neither know why, nor how to solve the problem. Instead, the best I have to offer is a technique to keep the badness away for a while: friction logs.Friction logs are what they sound: a detailed log of everything that caused friction when using a product. This post teaches you how to make one. I recommend you to make one if:

Build this handy mobile workbench that folds up to only 7 in. You only need two hours, some 2x4s, 3/4-in. plywood and 8’ of 1x4.