Software Lead Weekly

Clearbit's Approach to Management
9 minutes read.

Alex MacCaw, the CEO of Clearbit, with a short teaser to Clearbit Manager's Handbook. I'd put extra focus on reading "Zone of Genius" as I believe this is an area we don't pay enough attention to: "It’s often clear when talent isn’t present. Strengths are less clear. Beware the zone of competence, where someone is good at doing a function but doesn’t get energy from it — it will ultimately lead to burn out."

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MVP Fence Design
1 minutes read.

My humble effort to help you start the weekend with a smile on your face.

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Fast Software, the Best Software: The Benefits of Speedy Software, and How It Affects User Perception of Engineering Quality and Overall Usability
10 minutes read.

I do wish that more people will read this post and apply it to the software we build: "Speed in software is probably the most valuable, least valued asset.[...] Speed and reliability are often intuited hand-in-hand. Speed can be a good proxy for general engineering quality." -- I had a long discussion at work in areas I believe we should have been better. Speed is a critical part of great software UX.

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Reclaim Unreasonable Software
8 minutes read.

"Behaviors are aspects of software that can be validated empirically against an environment. Properties are aspects of software that can be validated statically or through local exercise." -- The framing Will Larson suggests can be powerful when looking at the different stages of behaviors and properties. It can help in the design phase, where you can decide how to invest in Verified Behaviors and Asserted Properties, making it part of your development plan.

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Bicycle of the Mind (Video)
2 minutes read.

An inspiring short clip by Steve Jobs, on the potential impact computers will have on our life. I'm still waiting to see how computers (not only the internet) will change the way we learn new skills.

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The Feedback Log
3 minutes read.

Mathias Meyer shares a concept he calls "The Feedback Log" as a way to capture past and future feedback with his teammates: "Why is this useful? It helps me keep track of feedback when I observe a situation worthy of it. I can go back to my future log before every 1:1 and see if there’s something I should bring up. The timeline helps me be more balanced in my feedback. I can ensure that I give both affirmative and constructive feedback in equal measure."

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The First Email I Send Every Founder After We Fund Them. Some Slight Variations Depending on Their Business Model.
3 minutes read.

I like this concept of having an email with recommended reading material (and context) for new people. Delian Asparouhov made me think a lot about the email and reading materials I share today with new employees. It's time for an additional round of improvements there. What is yours? Willing to share with me and others in our Slack community?

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The Day You Became A Better Writer
2 minutes read.

Scott Adams will boost your writing skills in less than 2 minutes. Practice his advice on your next email, design review, status meeting or production incident.

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@hmemcpy: The best pair programming partner you could have is a type checker.

@csallen: It's impossible to be 10x smarter than someone, but it's possible to be 100,000,000,000x richer. As a founder, it's tough to execute 100x or even 10x better, but it's quite possible to have an idea that's 100,000x better. There's a lot of leverage in working on the right thing.