Leaders and engineers

May 15, 2026

I’m the electrical lead for mit motorsports. Overall, I think becoming the lead is one of the worst decisions I’ve ever made (for a variety of reasons, but I’ll save that for another post) but I’ve learned two key things I’ll highlight here:

• I’m a bad leader in steady state, a good leader when shit hits the fan (usually)
• I have a much better idea of what it means to be a good engineer under a leader than how to actually be a good leader

I used to think that to be a good engineer, from the perspective of a leader, was to focus on delivering good results quickly. This might be the case, but there’s a little more nuance; good results are good, but good strongly outweighs quickly and consistency + honesty outweighs good. That should feel obvious, but to me it didn’t; over the course of being the lead, the people I most appreciate are those who:

• Are technically capable enough to require minimal direction, if something needs to be fixed / done
  • On multiple occassions, I’ve asked people like this to do things they’ve never done before over ‘bad engineers’ who have done it before
• Are responsible enough to do it on time, or at least understand the scope of what they are doing to be productive
• Do it well, regardless of whether they want to do it or not

Those are the people who are easy to trust — the ones who, when shit hits the fan, you can count on to help you out. Those are the people who care about the mission over themself (to an extent) and will support you when you need it. Trust in a person like that leads to material ‘benefits’:

• You forgot to document all your scope shots? That’s ok, I’ll take your word for xx thing
• You’re trying a sketchy fix? Let’s try it! I know you thought about it and will fix it if it fails

Part of what informed these new insights is having the chance to work with people who fit my original description of a good engineer. Ironically, I now think people like that - who focus narrowly on ‘good results quickly on anything and everything’ are the worst people to work with! It’s hard to trust someone who:

1. Doesn’t document anything
2. Focuses only on what they are interested in / is not reliable when they are not interested
3. Is not transparent / honest about shortcomings
4. Cherry on top, this might be specific to the people I’ve worked with - are bad at working with others

You may now realize, but the ‘bad engineer’ I’m describing is, unfortunately, the stereotypical ‘MIT engineer’ - solely technically focused, arrogant, purely interested in their nook¹. And the sad part is people like that - I know this, because I think I’m that way too - really want to do a good job, to an equal, sometimes greater extent² as everyone else. As a leader, the question of trust in someone becomes an awkward balance between specialist trust and generalist trust. It might feel wrong to weigh one over the other, but I think generalist trust wins.