Why I stopped chasing'senior' and started chasing curiosity

For a few years, my whole career plan fit on a sticky note: get the "senior" title. I got it. Nothing changed, except my email signature.

What did change things was a habit I picked up by accident: asking the slightly weird question in standup. "Why does this job run at 3am?" "Who actually reads this report?" Half the time the answer was boring. The other half, we deleted something.

Curiosity scales better than titles

A title tells people what you are allowed to decide. Curiosity tells them what you are willing to understand. The second one compounds.

These days I measure a good week by how many things I understand better than I did on Monday. The title can catch up when it wants.