Software Lead Weekly
Issue #645, 4th April 2025
This Week's Favorite
GOD Mode: Growth, Optimization, Destruction
5 minutes read.
I appreciate Sahil Lavingia's original thinking. He built a great product that I've been using for many years. While I disagree with his philosophy, it's helpful to take the points I highly agree with - thinking of ways to cannibalize the business to grow it further (Sahil calls it the Destruction phase), the power of wartime CEO (a single leader makes difficult unpopular decisions), and automating everything that is unfun in the business. Sahil is a solo founder, and as such, he wants to promote his style as we all do to justify the path we took. He's brave enough to say so, and he is open about the bad sides around it and the challenges he had to overcome to keep Gumroad in business.
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
5 minutes read.
I appreciate Sahil Lavingia's original thinking. He built a great product that I've been using for many years. While I disagree with his philosophy, it's helpful to take the points I highly agree with - thinking of ways to cannibalize the business to grow it further (Sahil calls it the Destruction phase), the power of wartime CEO (a single leader makes difficult unpopular decisions), and automating everything that is unfun in the business. Sahil is a solo founder, and as such, he wants to promote his style as we all do to justify the path we took. He's brave enough to say so, and he is open about the bad sides around it and the challenges he had to overcome to keep Gumroad in business.
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
Culture
Rare Picture of Two Founders Vibe Coding Their Product
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.
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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.
Everything Is a Product
7 minutes read.
"Outside-in thinking: Look to the customers and users outside the product to understand what should be inside the product. Minimize output, maximize outcome and impact. We can treat anything we make or do as a product simply by looking at it’s customers and users, value proposition, and use." -- There are so many brilliant takeaways and quotes in this post worth sharing with the team. Everything is a product. Your company, what you sell, how you work.
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
7 minutes read.
"Outside-in thinking: Look to the customers and users outside the product to understand what should be inside the product. Minimize output, maximize outcome and impact. We can treat anything we make or do as a product simply by looking at it’s customers and users, value proposition, and use." -- There are so many brilliant takeaways and quotes in this post worth sharing with the team. Everything is a product. Your company, what you sell, how you work.
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
If Your AI Still Needs a Prompt, You’re Already Behind.
3 minutes read.
"Here’s the real unlock: Assistants = smart interns. Agents = trusted operators. One needs direction. The other gives you time back. That’s when your product stops being a tool and starts acting like a teammate. You don’t open it to do something. You open it to see what it’s already done." -- Great framing for how leveraging GenAI will look in the future when building products.
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
3 minutes read.
"Here’s the real unlock: Assistants = smart interns. Agents = trusted operators. One needs direction. The other gives you time back. That’s when your product stops being a tool and starts acting like a teammate. You don’t open it to do something. You open it to see what it’s already done." -- Great framing for how leveraging GenAI will look in the future when building products.
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
Models, Models Every Where, So Let’s Have a Think
4 minutes read.
"And yet, the two fields [Formal methods, Resilience engineering] both have something in common: they both recognize the value of creating explicit models of aspects of systems that are not typically modeled." -- Even the attempt to reason about systems makes you build better products. If you have both types of people on the team, leverage them to bring their insights and intuition to build a better picture. Lorin captures it nicely: "Whether we’re building a formal model of a software system, or participating in a post-incident review meeting, we’re trying to get the maximum amount of insight for the modeling effort that we put in."
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
4 minutes read.
"And yet, the two fields [Formal methods, Resilience engineering] both have something in common: they both recognize the value of creating explicit models of aspects of systems that are not typically modeled." -- Even the attempt to reason about systems makes you build better products. If you have both types of people on the team, leverage them to bring their insights and intuition to build a better picture. Lorin captures it nicely: "Whether we’re building a formal model of a software system, or participating in a post-incident review meeting, we’re trying to get the maximum amount of insight for the modeling effort that we put in."
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
Peopleware
Strategic Opportunism
6 minutes read.
Matt Holford shares a powerful mindset: "Constraints are important and often helpful, but I like to think about this mindset as one of abundance. If you know generally where you’re going, and you’re willing to improvise a bit along the way, then the vista of surprises and demands that comprise the immediate moment offer enormous possibility[...] One of the main benefits I’ve found of an opportunistic mindset is that it breeds resilience and flexibility. If you’re always on the lookout for opportunities, you become less worried about threats and setbacks and risks."
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
6 minutes read.
Matt Holford shares a powerful mindset: "Constraints are important and often helpful, but I like to think about this mindset as one of abundance. If you know generally where you’re going, and you’re willing to improvise a bit along the way, then the vista of surprises and demands that comprise the immediate moment offer enormous possibility[...] One of the main benefits I’ve found of an opportunistic mindset is that it breeds resilience and flexibility. If you’re always on the lookout for opportunities, you become less worried about threats and setbacks and risks."
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
High Agency Razors
3 minutes read.
A few of my favorites from George Mack's high agency signals: "Write down what the 5 typical responses would be in this situation. Avoid them all," "Increase bias to action by reframing most decisions as experiments," "If unsure on a decision, ask: What's the best story?"
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
3 minutes read.
A few of my favorites from George Mack's high agency signals: "Write down what the 5 typical responses would be in this situation. Avoid them all," "Increase bias to action by reframing most decisions as experiments," "If unsure on a decision, ask: What's the best story?"
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
How to Get a Standing Ovation as a Conference Speaker
5 minutes read.
Given that many of us need to present something at work, this is a great post to reload some tips and observations. It may be a Design Review, giving a "lightning talk," explaining an interesting concept, providing context to the team, and more. Practice.
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
5 minutes read.
Given that many of us need to present something at work, this is a great post to reload some tips and observations. It may be a Design Review, giving a "lightning talk," explaining an interesting concept, providing context to the team, and more. Practice.
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
Inspiring Tweets
@blakeaburge: My grandfather used to say: “Show up on time, with a good attitude, and do what you said you’d do. That’s it. That’s 90% of winning in life."
- 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.