Software Lead Weekly
Issue #333, 12th April 2019
This Week's Favorite
How to Remember Anything Forever-Ish
14 minutes read.
"you forget most of what you learn in the first 24 hours, then – if you don’t practice recall – your remaining memories decay exponentially. [...] the best way to keep yourself motivated while learning - making sure your learning is in service of doing something you care about." -- What a wonderful way to learn and practice Spaced Repetition. Share this at other curious humans. They will love this!
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
14 minutes read.
"you forget most of what you learn in the first 24 hours, then – if you don’t practice recall – your remaining memories decay exponentially. [...] the best way to keep yourself motivated while learning - making sure your learning is in service of doing something you care about." -- What a wonderful way to learn and practice Spaced Repetition. Share this at other curious humans. They will love this!
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
Culture
Picard Management Tip: A Visit to a Less Pleasant Organization Can Remind You How Much You Value Your Current Job.
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.
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.
What Seven Years at Airbnb Taught Me About Building a Company
11 minutes read.
"When it feels uncomfortable, get more data" -- Please read this section multiple times. A dangerous "org smell" is when people argue passionately about things they never validated in the real world. We let the title or the loudest person take the lead, and with that set the culture where people stop trying to innovate or challenge core assumptions. Another section I highly recommend taking the time to think about is "Think of your org design as a product"
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
11 minutes read.
"When it feels uncomfortable, get more data" -- Please read this section multiple times. A dangerous "org smell" is when people argue passionately about things they never validated in the real world. We let the title or the loudest person take the lead, and with that set the culture where people stop trying to innovate or challenge core assumptions. Another section I highly recommend taking the time to think about is "Think of your org design as a product"
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
From "Show HN" to Series D
11 minutes read.
Calvin French-Owen from Segment shares the exciting journey they had so far, from 6 pivots to finding a product that customers want and love. I enjoy reading these stories as you can feel the ups & downs people felt during that time, and how they remained positive and optimistic about their future, focusing on their customers and their vision.
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
11 minutes read.
Calvin French-Owen from Segment shares the exciting journey they had so far, from 6 pivots to finding a product that customers want and love. I enjoy reading these stories as you can feel the ups & downs people felt during that time, and how they remained positive and optimistic about their future, focusing on their customers and their vision.
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
Google Asked 5,600 Employees About Remote Work. This Is What They Learned
4 minutes read.
Google is always striving to conduct real research to validate a hypothesis most of us debate based on our (limited) past experience. The takeaway for me was the amount of effort you need to invest in order to gain that productivity. To gain actual value from this structure, people in your organizations have to be minded and actively seek to build relationships between people. They need to have the budget (fly people around, tools to have in the office etc.) and leadership support to invest in areas where short feedback loops are hard to create.
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
4 minutes read.
Google is always striving to conduct real research to validate a hypothesis most of us debate based on our (limited) past experience. The takeaway for me was the amount of effort you need to invest in order to gain that productivity. To gain actual value from this structure, people in your organizations have to be minded and actively seek to build relationships between people. They need to have the budget (fly people around, tools to have in the office etc.) and leadership support to invest in areas where short feedback loops are hard to create.
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
Peopleware
Hiring SOP
10 minutes read.
"The goal of this [job description] is to be irresistible to the right candidate. Describe the pains they have experience in their role in the past and to position this listing as the ultimate solution for them. It’s a sales letter to the perfect candidate." -- Bryan Harris from Videofruit shares their hiring process, with the questions, email templates, things to look for and anything you can think of. Take what you feel is relevant for you but above all - can you write your Hiring SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) for your company?
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
10 minutes read.
"The goal of this [job description] is to be irresistible to the right candidate. Describe the pains they have experience in their role in the past and to position this listing as the ultimate solution for them. It’s a sales letter to the perfect candidate." -- Bryan Harris from Videofruit shares their hiring process, with the questions, email templates, things to look for and anything you can think of. Take what you feel is relevant for you but above all - can you write your Hiring SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) for your company?
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
Three Types of Risk: Making Decisions in the Face of Uncertainty
4 minutes read.
Adam Nash shares a couple of useful frameworks to map out the risk and decision type you need to take in a given situation. It's helpful to share these observations with other leaders (managers or technical leads) as it would provide a common language when debating a new dilemma. Quickly putting it in the right "Risk bucket" and "Decision type bucket" can focus the conversation on the emotional and data investment required to deal with it.
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
4 minutes read.
Adam Nash shares a couple of useful frameworks to map out the risk and decision type you need to take in a given situation. It's helpful to share these observations with other leaders (managers or technical leads) as it would provide a common language when debating a new dilemma. Quickly putting it in the right "Risk bucket" and "Decision type bucket" can focus the conversation on the emotional and data investment required to deal with it.
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
The 3 Stages of Failure in Life and Work (And How to Fix Them)
11 minutes read.
James Clear with another epic post I enjoyed reading this week: "So if your original idea is a failure and you feel like you’re constantly revising and adjusting, cut yourself a break. Changing your strategy is normal. It is literally the way the world works. You have to stay on the bus." -- This resonates well with me, just like the better alternative (I think) of "The harder I work the luckier I get" --> "The more ideas I have the luckier I get". Go out there and try to provide value to others in areas that feel like a game to you while it looks like hard work to others.
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
11 minutes read.
James Clear with another epic post I enjoyed reading this week: "So if your original idea is a failure and you feel like you’re constantly revising and adjusting, cut yourself a break. Changing your strategy is normal. It is literally the way the world works. You have to stay on the bus." -- This resonates well with me, just like the better alternative (I think) of "The harder I work the luckier I get" --> "The more ideas I have the luckier I get". Go out there and try to provide value to others in areas that feel like a game to you while it looks like hard work to others.
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
Inspiring Tweets
@CrazyPolymath: Our brain constantly seeks and amplifies negative stuff. It does that for a good reason - to prevent you from harm. But most of the positive things pass by without much notice. Try cultivating the opposite. We live in a safer society now.
@iamdevloper: browser extension idea: find and replace “AI” with “some IF statements“ in articles you read online ie. VCs invest $1.2B in some IF statements
- 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.