Issue #32, 28th June 2013

This Week's Favorite


The One Cost Engineers and Product Managers Don't Consider
10 minutes read.

Kris Gale (of Yammer) with an amazing post on the cost of adding "just one more feature". Found myself nodding my head and smiling while reading it. It's that good. Share it with your engineers, your product and your business leaders - "Embrace simplicity in your product and in your code. The value is in what gets used, not what gets built."

Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.


Culture


Culture and Ethos (Github Repo!)
5 minutes read.

What a great idea from Bo Jeanes! He created a github repository where people can contribute their thoughts on culture, leadership, people, hiring and more. Go check it out (great list!) and contribute your own thoughts.

Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.


Why Commitment Is the New Must-Have Quality for Employees
5 minutes read.

Are you afraid of losing your best people? instead of adding layers of protection to avoid employee churn, you should do the exact opposite - communicate, share goals and the best advice in my opinion - enable intrapreneurship. Read this post if you want to get some great ideas on retaining your stars.

Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.


Culture Isn’t Kumbaya Stuff
15 minutes read.

This post is be a bit long, but really important to read. If you're tight on time, go to the last section and check out Axcient's core values. It can be used as a great starting point for a conversation.

Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.


Peopleware


The Dullest, Most Vital Skill You Need to Become a Successful Manager
5 minutes read.

Short and insightful post you should read and apply to your everyday as a technical lead or team lead. Having a clarity of thought by practicing your writing skills is a huge motivational tool - it creates consistency and helps to mitigate short-term crisis with a long-term vision.

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Share it via Twitter or email.


Get More Done: Spend Half Your Day Alone
2 minutes read.

Great and short advice on being more productive at work. Share it with your teammates and try it for a couple of weeks. Find your balance. The beauty about it, I believe, is that it makes your "available time" more scarce, thus forcing people to use that time more effectively. Imagine a work day of 3 hours. You cannot really waste it on pointless meetings with no agenda or no action items.

Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.


What Do You Need to Become an Elite Developer?
15 minutes read.

Let me start with this - even if you're not a developer but you need to hire one, you have to at least read the "Traits" section. More specifically, I loved his search for an inquisitive individual. Probably the most important trait of all. Use this list to measure your employees, provide feedback and interviewing for a developer position at your company.

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Share it via Twitter or email.


Inspiring Tweets


@AmandolinM: Put Yourself in Situations Where You Learn by Necessity. The Knowledge Has a Sense of Urgency That Makes It Stick.

- Oren

P.S. Can you share this email? I'd love for more people to experiment and improve their company's culture.

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