How to Become a Technical Expert: Overcoming Misconceptions and Applying Effective Practices

Many engineers dream of becoming a technical "big shot" but often feel stuck writing routine business code, testing scripts, or handling operations tasks that seem unrelated to advanced engineering.

The author identifies three typical misconceptions: (1) believing that simply following a senior expert will make you great; (2) assuming that writing business code alone is enough to be a technical leader; and (3) thinking that a lack of spare time makes self‑learning impossible.

To break these myths, the author proposes three concrete actions: Do more – take on extra responsibilities, understand more code and business beyond your assigned tasks; Do better – continuously improve existing systems, refactor, optimize performance, and propose higher‑quality solutions; and Do exercise – actively practice new skills through hands‑on experiments.

The practical workflow is summarized as learning, trying, teaching . Learning involves systematic study of fundamentals such as JVM internals, networking, and HTTP. Trying means building small demo programs (e.g., a JVM memory‑stress test, a Reactor‑pattern demo, a local MySQL instance) to apply the knowledge. Teaching requires explaining the concepts to others, which deepens understanding and reveals gaps.

Real‑world examples illustrate the approach: a developer who reviewed 10,000 lines of code beyond a 2,000‑line feature became the go‑to expert; a team that split a monolithic backend into two services, added redundancy, and optimized a five‑hour API to five minutes dramatically improved reliability and visibility.

Finally, the author emphasizes that passion and curiosity are the ultimate drivers; the methods described are tools, but sustained enthusiasm determines whether an engineer can truly become a technical leader.