Always be quitting

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原文出处：https://jmmv.dev/2021/04/always-be-quitting.html

A good philosophy to live by at work is to “always be quitting”. No, don’t be constantly thinking of leaving your job 😱. But act as if you might leave on short notice 😎. Counterintuitively, this will make you a better engineer and open up growth opportunities. A thread 👇. / 在工作中，一个好的生活哲学是“总是准备离职”。不，不是让你一直想着离开你的工作😱。但是要表现得好像你可能会在短时间内离开😎。与直觉相反，这会使你成为一个更好的工程师，并开启成长的机会。以下是具体的做法👇。

So what does it mean to always be quitting? It means “making yourself replaceable”; “deprecating yourself”; “automating yourself out of your job”. You might have heard these more-popular names (which you’ll need to do your own research) and they hint at how to act. / “总是准备离职” 具有什么含义呢？它意味着“让自己可以被替代”；“让自己过时”；“把自己从工作中自动化出去”。你可能听过这些更时髦的说法（你得自己琢磨琢磨），它们暗示了如何行动。

The key lies in NOT being indispensable. If you are, you’ll be stuck at your specific job for as long as that job is relevant with little chance to disconnect (no vacations, no growth). And when (not if) the job becomes unnecessary, so will your position. / 关键在于不要让自己变得不可或缺。否则的话，你会在你的特定工作中停滞不前，只要那个工作还有意义，你就很难脱身（没有假期，没有成长）。而一旦（这不是假设）工作变得不必要时，你的位置也会变得不必要。

Paradoxically, by being disposable, you free yourself. You make it easier for yourself to grow into a higher-level role and you make it easier for yourself to change the projects you work on. Confused still? Here are 10 specific things you can do: / 矛盾的是，通过让自己变得可有可无，你解放了自己。你让自己更容易成长为一个更高级别的角色，你让自己更容易改变你工作的项目。还是感到困惑？以下是你可以做的 10 件具体事情：

  1. 📕 Document your knowledge. Every time someone asks you a question, they are highlighting a gap in the documentation. Take the chance to write the answer down (in a document, bug, code comment—wherever) so that the next person doesn’t need YOU. / 📕 记录你的知识。每次有人问你一个问题，他们都在突出文档中的一个缺口。抓住机会把答案写下来（在文档、bug、代码注释——无论哪里），这样下一个人就不需要你了。

  2. 🏁 Document your long-term plans. People should know what’s coming up in your projects and/or team by looking at those plans, not by relying on you to tell them “in real time”. Plan a few months ahead so, if you leave, your peers won’t be lost from day one. / 🏁 记录你的长期计划。人们应该通过查看这些计划，而不是依赖你“实时”告诉他们，来了解你的项目和/或团队即将发生什么。提前几个月计划，这样，如果你离开，你的同事们从第一天开始就不会迷失。

  3. 🤝 Document your meetings. Keep (public, within the team) notes for all meetings you attend, listing who was there, what was discussed, and any conclusions. Reference those notes from design documents. Your replacement will need these to catch up. / 🤝 记录你的会议。保留你参加的所有会议的（公开的，团队内的）笔记，列出谁在那里，讨论了什么，以及任何结论。从设计文档中引用这些笔记。你的替代者需要这些来赶上。

  4. 🚶‍♂️ Bring others to meetings. If not a 1-on-1 and you are the only person from your team attending a meeting, involve someone else. Different perspectives are useful, but more importantly, you are avoiding becoming the only point of contact. / 🚶‍♂️ 把其他人带到会议上。如果不是一对一的，而你是你的团队中唯一参加会议的人，那么就让别人参与进来。不同的观点是有用的，但更重要的是，你避免了成为唯一的联系点。

  5. 👩‍🔧 Train people around you. The goal is for them to be independent (what is usually considered “seniority” in a typical engineering ladder). Familiarize them with the plans and technologies and make sure they know how to use the documentation. / 👩‍🔧 培训你周围的人。目标是让他们独立（这通常被认为是典型的工程阶梯中的“资深”）。让他们熟悉计划和技术，并确保他们知道如何使用文档。

  6. 👩‍🎓 Identify and train your replacement. In the same vein as training others, to switch roles you’ll need to replace yourself. Identify who that replacement might be and actively and continuously coach them. / 👩‍🎓 识别并培训你的替代者。与培训他人一样，要换角色，你需要替换自己。确定可能的替代者是谁，并积极持续地指导他们。

  7. 🔑 Give power to the people. Trust them to do the right thing. If you are in a leadership position, don’t make it so people come to you asking for permission. Let them make their own choices. Guide them so that their choices are based on the right data. / 🔑 给人民权力。相信他们会做正确的事情。如果你处于领导地位，不要让人们来找你寻求许可。让他们做出自己的选择。指导他们，使他们的选择基于正确的数据。

  8. 📧 Do not make yourself the point of contact. Establish mailing lists or other forms of communication that can accommodate other people, and then grow those groups. (The exception is when management needs names for accountability.) / 📧 不要让自己成为联系点。建立可以容纳其他人的邮件列表或其他形式的通信，然后发展这些群体。（例外情况是当管理层需要负责人的名字时。）

  9. 👨‍💼 Delegate. Once you have given power to others, included them in groups and meetings, and documented your knowledge, they’ll be ready to take work from you. Delegate work that can make them grow and focus on the things only you can do. / 👨‍💼 委派。一旦你给了他人权力，让他们参加了小组和会议，并记录了你的知识，他们就准备好从你那里接手工作了。委派可以让他们成长的工作，并专注于只有你能做的事情。

  10. 🏫 Always be learning. Take the chance to grow your knowledge in any area you are interested in, and keep it fun. Bonus points if that area aligns with the future path you want to take. / 🏫 始终在学习。抓住机会在你感兴趣的任何领域增长你的知识，并保持乐趣。如果那个领域与你想走的未来道路一致，那就更好了。

Note that nothing here implies abdicating responsibility. You still have to be responsible for all the projects and teams you own, and you have to be for as long as you are in your role. This is important because this responsibility is what will open up new gates. / 注意，这里没有任何东西暗示放弃责任。你仍然必须对你拥有的所有项目和团队负责，只要你还在你的角色中，你就必须负责。这一点很重要，因为这个责任是打开新大门的关键。

Lastly note that, by doing all of the above, you are actively making your whole team better, not just yourself, even if you are an IC. In fact, you are practicing a subset of the skills sometimes associated with staff/principal+ engineers. / 最后要注意的是，通过做以上所有的事情，你正在积极地使你的整个团队变得更好，而不仅仅是你自己，即使你是一个 IC（Individual Contributor，指的是那些主要通过自己的个人工作成果，而不是通过管理他人来贡献的员工）。事实上，你正在实践一些与员工/主管+工程师有关的技能的子集。