Software Lead Weekly
Issue #228, 7th April 2017
This Week's Favorite
Every Day We Must Sweep
4 minutes read.
Keeping a beginner's mind and attitude is really important if you want to continue and grow. Mathias Lafeldt writes it so well: "Reading Holiday’s brilliant book helped me find the true cause of my struggle: ego. It is my ego that keeps telling me that I’m better than this, that my past performance is a guarantee of future success, that I’m too professional to be playing in the amateur league again... Every day the dust comes back. Every day we must sweep."
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
4 minutes read.
Keeping a beginner's mind and attitude is really important if you want to continue and grow. Mathias Lafeldt writes it so well: "Reading Holiday’s brilliant book helped me find the true cause of my struggle: ego. It is my ego that keeps telling me that I’m better than this, that my past performance is a guarantee of future success, that I’m too professional to be playing in the amateur league again... Every day the dust comes back. Every day we must sweep."
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
Culture
"Documentation? No, Just Read the Code... It's All Pretty Straightforward."
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.
How Do You Replicate the Warmth and Friendliness of a Referral Hire, Even With a Stranger Engineer?
7 minutes read.
If you want to improve your appearance to potential candidates, write a blog post with answers to the questions under "The Toughest Questions a Candidate Will Ask". Include a link to that blog post to every candidate you're contacting. This will set the right tone for the entire process.
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
7 minutes read.
If you want to improve your appearance to potential candidates, write a blog post with answers to the questions under "The Toughest Questions a Candidate Will Ask". Include a link to that blog post to every candidate you're contacting. This will set the right tone for the entire process.
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
Five Lessons From Scaling Pinterest (From 5 Employees Through 650)
9 minutes read.
Great insights based on Pinterest's journey. If you're short on time, read the sections about "org chart matters" and "stay focused on the long term" as it boils down to understanding the org's value stream and adjusting it on the go to take you to the next level: "When an org structure doesn’t reflect your strategy or is overly matrixed, it acts as a tax on your company’s ability to execute."
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
9 minutes read.
Great insights based on Pinterest's journey. If you're short on time, read the sections about "org chart matters" and "stay focused on the long term" as it boils down to understanding the org's value stream and adjusting it on the go to take you to the next level: "When an org structure doesn’t reflect your strategy or is overly matrixed, it acts as a tax on your company’s ability to execute."
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
3X — Explore, Expand, Extract: Navigating the Path of Winning Ideas
5 minutes read.
I was lucky to hear Kent Beck's talk about "3X" while he was visiting the Facebook team in Israel, and I think it's a great framework for figuring out your best leverage to assist the company to grow. Some people are better at different phases of the curve, as they find it more fun and challenging. Do you have the right people? Are you the right fit for the current phase of the product?
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
5 minutes read.
I was lucky to hear Kent Beck's talk about "3X" while he was visiting the Facebook team in Israel, and I think it's a great framework for figuring out your best leverage to assist the company to grow. Some people are better at different phases of the curve, as they find it more fun and challenging. Do you have the right people? Are you the right fit for the current phase of the product?
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
Peopleware
From Engineer to Manager: Keeping Your Technical Skills
7 minutes read.
Mandatory read for engineers who take the path of managing a team. It's so good, just take a few minutes and read it. Then share with Engineering Managers in your organization, and talk about the way you balance "Your words have more weight".
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
7 minutes read.
Mandatory read for engineers who take the path of managing a team. It's so good, just take a few minutes and read it. Then share with Engineering Managers in your organization, and talk about the way you balance "Your words have more weight".
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
How to Become a More Effective Engineer
12 minutes read.
Edmond Lau's insights are always spot on. His book (The Effective Engineer) is great, and this interview captures a lot of tips you can share with your Senior Egngineers. My favorite part was around "Working toward better prioritization" as it requires a lot of thinking towards clear vision and mission statement on teh team's level.
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
12 minutes read.
Edmond Lau's insights are always spot on. His book (The Effective Engineer) is great, and this interview captures a lot of tips you can share with your Senior Egngineers. My favorite part was around "Working toward better prioritization" as it requires a lot of thinking towards clear vision and mission statement on teh team's level.
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
To Perform at Your Best, Focus on Goals Not Tasks
3 minutes read.
Paul Adams (VP Product @ Intercom) with a good tip on how to move the needle for your team, your product and your career. I truly agree with this: "So what’s the difference? For me, there is one main thing: Goals are strategic and aspirational, whereas tasks are tactical and will likely happen anyway. Goals are progress oriented, not event oriented. Because of this, goals tend to have much higher impact over time for people. I have more tasks than I know what to do with, but addressing all these tasks would simply result in me being very busy, but having very low impact." -- check the way Paul converts tasks into inspirational goals.
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
3 minutes read.
Paul Adams (VP Product @ Intercom) with a good tip on how to move the needle for your team, your product and your career. I truly agree with this: "So what’s the difference? For me, there is one main thing: Goals are strategic and aspirational, whereas tasks are tactical and will likely happen anyway. Goals are progress oriented, not event oriented. Because of this, goals tend to have much higher impact over time for people. I have more tasks than I know what to do with, but addressing all these tasks would simply result in me being very busy, but having very low impact." -- check the way Paul converts tasks into inspirational goals.
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
Inspiring Tweets
- 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.