--- title: One Sentence From My Senior Engineer Changed How I Think... description: A junior developer reflects on how a brief observation from a senior engineer — 'your notes are scattered' — reshaped her entire approach to software... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/one-sentence-from-my-senior-engineer-changed-how-i-think-about-software-hrfjlhuwl twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: One Sentence From My Senior Engineer Changed How I Think About Software | daily.dev og:description: A junior developer reflects on how a brief observation from a senior engineer — 'your notes are scattered' — reshaped her entire approach to software... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/one-sentence-from-my-senior-engineer-changed-how-i-think-about-software-hrfjlhuwl og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/hrfjLhuWl.png og:image:alt: One Sentence From My Senior Engineer Changed How I Think About Software og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # One Sentence From My Senior Engineer Changed How I Think About Software **[DEV](https://daily.dev/sources/devto)** · 4 min read · 39 upvotes · 4 comments ## Summary A junior developer reflects on how a brief observation from a senior engineer — 'your notes are scattered' — reshaped her entire approach to software development. The post argues that being a good developer goes beyond writing code: it requires structured documentation, traceability, and building systems of knowledge that teammates and future-you can understand. The author shares how reorganizing notes by development tasks, system flows, and backend/frontend behaviors improved her ability to revisit and maintain work. The piece also touches on the value of mentorship for underrepresented developers entering tech without traditional guidance. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Community discussion Top comments from developers on daily.dev. **@fabianletsch** · 10 upvotes > I am also a senior, my notes are also scattered. It does not make you senior to have structured notes, but i guess it is not bad to have it if you do. **@janbrus** · 1 upvotes > I didn't ever read the post and I can already tell, there are many different approaches to development. Fast startup POC approach is waaay different than a corporate/secure/strict environment. It is definitely not about having a structure. **@elmarchavez** · 1 upvotes > That's why I often imitate how companies submit their PR's in my solo projects. The reason is for documentation. You also nailed it right. Every time I forgot how to do something I know I've already done in the past, I can simply look up my PR's and commit messages to guide me again. It helps a lot and saves me time. ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [What I’ve learned over 3 years of writing code](https://daily.dev/posts/what-i-ve-learned-over-3-years-of-writing-code-bqo4rcudk) · Scott Logic · 3 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#career](https://daily.dev/tags/career), [#productivity](https://daily.dev/tags/productivity) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/one-sentence-from-my-senior-engineer-changed-how-i-think-about-software-hrfjlhuwl) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"One Sentence From My Senior Engineer Changed How I Think About Software","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/one-sentence-from-my-senior-engineer-changed-how-i-think-about-software-hrfjlhuwl","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/one-sentence-from-my-senior-engineer-changed-how-i-think-about-software-hrfjlhuwl"},"datePublished":"2026-03-11T06:05:44.119Z","dateModified":"2026-03-11T06:06:02.708Z","description":"A junior developer reflects on how a brief observation from a senior engineer — 'your notes are scattered' — reshaped her entire approach to software...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/f1a4db962b13e93fda5f79c831fdd7f6?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/f1a4db962b13e93fda5f79c831fdd7f6?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"DEV","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"DEV","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/devto","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/devto"},"commentCount":4,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/one-sentence-from-my-senior-engineer-changed-how-i-think-about-software-hrfjlhuwl","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":39},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":4}],"keywords":"career,productivity","timeRequired":"PT4M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"DEV","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/devto"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"One Sentence From My Senior Engineer Changed How I Think About Software"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/one-sentence-from-my-senior-engineer-changed-how-i-think-about-software-hrfjlhuwl","comment":[{"@type":"Comment","text":"I am also a senior, my notes are also scattered. It does not make you senior to have structured notes, but i guess it is not bad to have it if you do.","datePublished":"2026-03-12T16:46:12.948Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/hrfjLhuWl#c-WD2AAKknF","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Fabian Letsch","url":"https://daily.dev/fabianletsch","image":"https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/a/ACg8ocKR6BVy_wn23EoOKq7-BlszlcXcLmASlnb7l-GtS-q1bePnkaJf=s96-c"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":10}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"I didn’t ever read the post and I can already tell, there are many different approaches to development. Fast startup POC approach is waaay different than a corporate/secure/strict environment. It is definitely not about having a structure.","datePublished":"2026-03-25T11:25:13.919Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/hrfjLhuWl#c-PujajIAiA","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Jan Brus","url":"https://daily.dev/janbrus","image":"https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/a/ACg8ocLJ8UteGqcm5qf6_yk0ZmBoTzmdJ9RsILkKbPsJFoXlj96sF50=s96-c"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":1}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"That’s why I often imitate how companies submit their PR’s in my solo projects. The reason is for documentation. You also nailed it right. Every time I forgot how to do something I know I’ve already done in the past, I can simply look up my PR’s and commit messages to guide me again. It helps a lot and saves me time.","datePublished":"2026-03-23T15:32:18.395Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/hrfjLhuWl#c-HD2l7jTf7","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Elmar Chavez","url":"https://daily.dev/elmarchavez","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--7PjH979T--/f_auto/v1780994221/avatars/avatar_bK85rJb2OXXID2LX2wi5y?_a=BAMAMiWQ0"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":1}}]} ```