I’m The Idiot In The Room

People constantly ask me to review documents they've written. Sometimes, it's within my organization, where I support over 400 engineers, or it's from individuals within the broader Prime Video organization. This organization consists of several thousand engineers who might bring me things.

I usually don't know anything about what they're bringing me before the meeting. It's not that I'm incompetent; it's because there's so much going on that I can't possibly keep everything in my head and up-to-date.

The best documents are ones where all terms and necessary context are spelled out at the beginning. But if the document is in its early stages, or to be honest, if it's poorly written, critical context may be missing, which will affect how much I can help folks.

It doesn't make sense to proceed if you don't understand the basic concepts required to comprehend the substance of a large, likely complicated, and nuanced technical document.

If I'm reviewing a document in a one-on-one meeting or d…