Issue #94, 12th September 2014

This Week's Favorite


Why Does Your Company Exist?
12 minutes read.

Wonderful and inspiring talk by Paul Adams on the importance of having a great answer to "why does your company exist other than to make money?". When you're lacking purpose at work, every small annoyance scales out of proportion.

Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.


Culture


Pair Programming Life
3 minutes read.

This week's funny post goes to the Pair Programming Life blog. Great GIFs of real-life situations. Share it to win some geek points.

Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.


Decluttering the Company
5 minutes read.

I wish everyone who's passionate about building a company will read this post - "Businesses must fight a relentless battle against bureaucracy... The best way to institutionalise decluttering is to force managers to justify any bureaucracy they introduce."

Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.


Lessons Learned in Engineering & Management
7 minutes read.

Greg Bayer shares his journey at Pulse and it's packed with insights. My favorite part was about "Collaboration / Mentoring", so if you're short on time, give it a look - "One of the things I like most about Silicon Valley is the culture of helping others without asking for anything in return.. Help someone and you will start to build a relationship. "

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Share it via Twitter or email.


Peopleware


Three Books Developers Should Read When They Graduate
7 minutes read.

Arthur Johnston will save you a lot of time with his post. This is my bookmarked answer for people who seek my advice on what to read as a CS grad.

Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.


Bad Managers Talk, Good Managers Write
5 minutes read.

What concerns you about your challenges at work? What do you believe is a potential team killer that you should work on next? Is it hiring? Is it fixing low moral in the team? How would you define your team's mission? Is it inspiring or just meh? Did you ever try to write it down and share it with your team? I truly believe that writing should be part of our job description as leaders. Writing is scalable - it sends a strong signal to your team and it could inspire future candidates to join our mission.

Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.


How 3 Startup CEOs Gave Up Fortunes to Turn Half Their Employees Into Millionaires
7 minutes read.

These examples of founders who seek for ways to spread the fortune with their teammates is not common enough. Are you doing enough to take care of your people? As people switch jobs (roughly) every 3-5 years, your actions today could be a game changer for your career. The ability to retain talent and attract talent with you to new companies is an unfair advantage very few people have.

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Share it via Twitter or email.


Inspiring Tweets


@shanselman: Other people's success does not diminish your own. Help people, don't hold them back.

@berkun: Every tradition we hold dear was once a new idea someone proposed, inspired by a previous tradition that had been outgrown.

- Oren

P.S. Can you share this email? I'd love for more people to experiment and improve their company's culture.

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