Every time I join a new team, I go to the next fresh page, and on top of that page I write: "WTF - [Team Name]." Then I make a note every time I run into something that makes me go "wtf," and a task every time I come up with something I want to change.
This has long been one of the first things I talk about to anyone that joins my team. The value of bringing in a fresh perspective to what the engineers on the team take for granted is almost impossible to overstate. It's how the team can catch when you're missing something obvious, doing something in a weird way, or just not taking advantage of things the rest of the industry has learned.
I love the framing from the author as to why this helps them build their technical reputation as well.
The feeling that I want to create, the association I want people to have with me, is, "Oh, Nat joined the team and little things started to get better, almost immediately. It feels like we're starting to make some progress.
There are two keys to success here. The first one, the author nails - keep your eyes open and listen first. The second one is about the habit building, know when to come back and take action on the things on your WTF list that still don’t make sense.