Senior isn’t who knows more. It’s who asks less.

Each of these is a normal stage. Asking how is how you learn. Asking whether it’s right means you can do the work but still need someone to confirm it. “Done, here’s why” means you made the decisions, you can explain them, and you already know where the risks are.

It’s not about what you know

Plenty of people know a lot and still need a lead next to them at every step. Seniority shows in something else: carrying a task to the result without constant check-ins.

In practice that means:

• clarify the goal and the constraints at the start, not halfway through;
• make the decisions that are yours to make;
• bring only real trade-offs to others, with your recommendation;
• show the result together with the reasoning behind it.

What it changes

You free up your lead’s time. And you start getting the harder problems, which is the whole point.

A small habit helps. Before asking a question, write down what you would do and why. Often you’ll just go and do it. If you still need to ask, the question changes from “how do I do this?” to “I plan to do X because of Y. Any reason not to?”

When did you feel you moved up a level?