"As an engineer, you're not paid to write code; you're paid to solve problems. It's also not enough to just solve any problem. You need to be soving the right ones...Solving the right problems means working on tasks that bring the most positive impact to your team"
Simply said, but genuine. The article brings up major points, such as striving for simplicity, being passionate, and so on. But in almost all of these facets, "growing" involved being better for the team, not for oneself. Even for this first quote, the author admits that solving "the right problems" might not even align with your own interests at hand, but no problem-solving is worth much if others don't agree.
Until recently, I believed the trapped stereotype that software engineering seems to hold -- a 9-5 independent work schedule mainly centered around staring at a screen (or maybe two or three) involving little interaction with people and the world around you.
Look up "Pros and Cons of Software Engineering" and you'll find common pros like high pay, good demand, respect; but you'll also find "no social activity" as a con. If you look a bit deeper, you'll probably also find that the author just writes pros and cons lists of just about anything (even "14 Pros and Cons of Flat Roofing Systems", gotta check that one out)!
Yet, it's becoming more and more clear to me that no matter how much time software engineers might spend interacting with a machine, it doesn't detract from the social interaction that they have with people either. Maturing in this field might have little to do with learning 20+ coding languages, and more to do with being a better teammate.