As a software engineer, you need to learn cloud native architectures, Kafka, Kubernetes, GoLang, Terraforming, and so on, but you also need to transform how you think or you’ll simply be using fancy new tools to build the same old things. Systems are nonlinear; they reorganize our mental models and communication structures. Diana Montalion explores the nonlinear skills (including some you might not think of as IT skills) and practices that’ll help you navigate from software to systems—essential for anyone in senior software engineering roles.