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The Staff Engineer's Path by Tanya Reilly​

Paying attention means being alert to facts that affect your projects or organization. And that means continually sifting information out of the noise around you. If you can train your brain to say “that’s interesting!” and remember facts that you might need later on… you’ll build skills in synthesizing new information. [44]

If your brain’s not naturally “sticky” for retaining information like this, I recommend challenging yourself to note down facts that might be useful later, just to get yourself into the habit of paying attention. [45]

To stay up to date with what’s important, pay attention to all-hands meetings for your group and others, ask for skip-level one-on-ones with your manager’s manager, and find face time with customers or teams that depend on you. If you don’t have business context about why (or whether) your work matters, ask for it. [47]