Software Lead Weekly
Issue #183, 27th May 2016
This Week's Favorite
A Primer on Giving Critical Feedback
7 minutes read.
Providing critical feedback to our teammates and peers is a difficult skill to master. While it is always hard to have this discussion, people want to grow and improve. To provide feedback, basic trust has to exist, good preparation should be made and framework to follow is critical if we want to make the most out of it. Tom Bartel with a great framework you can apply, so I'd bookmark it and read it every time I need to provide such feedback.
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
7 minutes read.
Providing critical feedback to our teammates and peers is a difficult skill to master. While it is always hard to have this discussion, people want to grow and improve. To provide feedback, basic trust has to exist, good preparation should be made and framework to follow is critical if we want to make the most out of it. Tom Bartel with a great framework you can apply, so I'd bookmark it and read it every time I need to provide such feedback.
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
Culture
Deploying Software (GIF)
1 minutes read.
My humble effort to help you start the weekend with a smile on your face.
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1 minutes read.
My humble effort to help you start the weekend with a smile on your face.
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
Failure as a Service
4 minutes read.
Rich Armstrong managed to explain in 4 minutes of reading what I wanted to say for years, about the role leaders provide in an organization: "When the people you manage bring you a tough call, and you choose right, they get the credit. When you choose wrong, you get the blame. And it’s OK, pookie. That’s what you’re here for." -- The best 4 minutes you're going to spend this weekend, so highly recommended reading!
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
4 minutes read.
Rich Armstrong managed to explain in 4 minutes of reading what I wanted to say for years, about the role leaders provide in an organization: "When the people you manage bring you a tough call, and you choose right, they get the credit. When you choose wrong, you get the blame. And it’s OK, pookie. That’s what you’re here for." -- The best 4 minutes you're going to spend this weekend, so highly recommended reading!
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
Don’t Let It Get Out of Control
11 minutes read.
Jason Friend (Basecamp's CEO) is always fun and inspiring to read: "It’s important, for indie founders especially, to remember: the easiest thing to do is to launch a product or make a product. The hardest part is maintaining it and staying in business and dealing with the fact that this thing is alive and you have to keep it alive."
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
11 minutes read.
Jason Friend (Basecamp's CEO) is always fun and inspiring to read: "It’s important, for indie founders especially, to remember: the easiest thing to do is to launch a product or make a product. The hardest part is maintaining it and staying in business and dealing with the fact that this thing is alive and you have to keep it alive."
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
Research Report on Email Use
3 minutes read.
Short and interesting results based on a research done by Dan Ariely on how people use their emails, and how much time we can spare others by putting some thought about phrasing it differently (e.g. putting "can wait for end of the week" in the title) or avoid sending some emails to begin with.
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
3 minutes read.
Short and interesting results based on a research done by Dan Ariely on how people use their emails, and how much time we can spare others by putting some thought about phrasing it differently (e.g. putting "can wait for end of the week" in the title) or avoid sending some emails to begin with.
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
Peopleware
Done, and Gets Things Smart
12 minutes read.
"So looking for Smart is a bit problematic, since we aren't smart enough to distinguish it from B.S. The best we can do is find people who we think are smart because they're a bit like us... It took me fifteen frigging years before I realized that there might in fact still be "one or two things" left to learn, at which point I started looking outward and finally discovered how absolutely bambi-esquely thumperly incompetently clueless I really am. Fifteen years! [...] The Smart and Gets Things Done approach to interviewing will only get you copies of yourself, and the work of Dunning and Kruger implies that if you hire someone better than you are, then it's entirely accidental." -- Steve Yegge with an important lesson to us all, even more relevant today than it was 8 years ago when he wrote it.
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
12 minutes read.
"So looking for Smart is a bit problematic, since we aren't smart enough to distinguish it from B.S. The best we can do is find people who we think are smart because they're a bit like us... It took me fifteen frigging years before I realized that there might in fact still be "one or two things" left to learn, at which point I started looking outward and finally discovered how absolutely bambi-esquely thumperly incompetently clueless I really am. Fifteen years! [...] The Smart and Gets Things Done approach to interviewing will only get you copies of yourself, and the work of Dunning and Kruger implies that if you hire someone better than you are, then it's entirely accidental." -- Steve Yegge with an important lesson to us all, even more relevant today than it was 8 years ago when he wrote it.
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
Managing Around Egos in the Workplace
5 minutes read.
Confusing ego with confidence is where we all lose. It makes hiring more difficult (arguing if the candidate will fit the team) and providing feedback a confusing experience. "The difference between confidence and ego is in whether or not your idea of your greatest self lines up with others’ idea about your greatest self" -- important to have this explicit check as early as possible with your teammates, so you could build a strong relationship without surprising each other.
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
5 minutes read.
Confusing ego with confidence is where we all lose. It makes hiring more difficult (arguing if the candidate will fit the team) and providing feedback a confusing experience. "The difference between confidence and ego is in whether or not your idea of your greatest self lines up with others’ idea about your greatest self" -- important to have this explicit check as early as possible with your teammates, so you could build a strong relationship without surprising each other.
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
Technical Interview Megarepo
5 minutes read.
GitHub repository with interesting links you can read if you're in the process of interviewing or building your own interviewing pipeline at your company.
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
5 minutes read.
GitHub repository with interesting links you can read if you're in the process of interviewing or building your own interviewing pipeline at your company.
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
Inspiring Tweets
@philltopia: We loadtest apps using memory, disk, and CPU pressure; we loadtest humans using Slack, calendar, and e-mail pressure.
@mindweather: It takes years to build a team, and only a few careless gestures for a manager to destroy it. Management is too high stakes for amateurs.
- Oren
P.S. Can you share this email? I'd love for more people to experiment and improve their company's culture.
P.S. Can you share this email? I'd love for more people to experiment and improve their company's culture.