Software Lead Weekly

How Using a Decision Journal Can Help You Make Better Decisions
5 minutes read.

If you've been reading my blog or following my newsletter for long enough, you know how much I recommend self-retrospection to grow and improve. Shane Parrish with a wonderful post, explaining why and how keeping track of your decisions can lead to better decision making skills over time. The practice of writing things down is just like saving money: the sooner you start, the faster you improve your output and scale of decisions. Great decisions lead to new opportunities with higher return on investment, both for your career and the company you're working for. A classic compound interest.

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How to Insult a Computer Scientist (Funny Image)
1 minutes read.

If you want a good laugh to start the weekend, here is a funny poster you can forward at the office. And the winner is: introduce your engineer as "the IT guy". Close second: owning 50% for being the "idea guy".

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Uber’s New Sound-Proof Office
3 minutes read.

Start competing for talent with quiet. While it's great to have some music played during the day, I find myself most productive in complete silence, where I'm able to focus around the task at hand without random "just one question" or hearing a cold call from one of our sales team. Building sound-proof rooms can be a great way to mix environments, as we all have our own style and preferences to work effectively.

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What We Actually Know About Software Development, and Why We Believe It's True (Video)
66 minutes read.

This one is pretty substantial time investment, but it's just a wonderful (and funny) talk by Greg Wilson. Get it as an audio for your next commute to work, you can thank me later.

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How to “Be a Manager” if You Don’t Like Bossing People Around
5 minutes read.

Rich Armstrong with another epic post. One key advice I'd like to emphasis is "finding out where each person’s professional goals intersect with those of the organization" - the real bonus here is that not only you're helping your teammate reach a professional goal, you also create new opportunities for that person in the company. You help them to get noticed for their impact. It may lead to new responsibilities, a more desired role and sometimes better compensation (or market value).

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The Single Most Sure-Fire Hiring Decision You Will Ever Make
7 minutes read.

When should you begin intern recruiting and how should you approach it? Amazing post by the team at Fog Creek, sharing all of their tips & tricks for building a kick-ass intern program. It includes the all funnel, money and time investment and conversion numbers to full-time employees. It doesn't get any better than this.

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@kamens: Little makes me smile like a coworker putting extraordinary effort into an otherwise ordinary task. Make others think "you're crazy."

@StartupLJackson: Process is like culture, you can't not have it. The question is whether you define that shit sensibly, or declare anarchy your catch-all.