I think we need to pay more attention to those things that matter every day.
Instead our attention gets absorbed by one unusual tragic event after the other. Now it's been a week of reporting on a sailboat disaster.
It is a tragedy and I feel for the families. But I don't understand why the media reports around the clock on it and why so many read this.
By focusing so much on such rare, unusual events, we are missing what matters every day.
The rot starts at the top. If there is one thing I have learned running a company, it's that you don't get to blame the people who are doing their jobs.
Their job is their job. The system is your job. If the system is turning out shitty fruit, that's on you.
Performance improvement plans (PIPs, Pivots) almost always end in you being fired or quitting. There are psychological reasons this is inevitable. Here is why, and how to avoid them as an employee and to be a better manager.
Well this seems to have taken off! And judging from the responses… wow, some people really hate humanity! 😬
A couple additional points to mention… so a quick 🧵
Reminder for my future self: regardless of your confidence level, always wait for version x.0.1 of any library, framework or app before upgrading. This will save you hours of life time.
The DE Ministry of the Economy just published its long-awaited industrial strategy. It does not add many new measures but provides a pretty honest description of what DE is doing and why it is doing it. And for the EU it has some actual news. Here are the 3 most important points
All companies hiring developers: "We use modern tech, cool tech stack. Lots of perks."
What I am looking for: "We have great people and processes. Developers can build end2end and talk with customers when they want. You have an impact on what we built."
Remote works biggest problem is the dogmatic belief that everything has to be async or a planned 30-60 minute meeting several days from now
The interactions that drive momentum, velocity, and productivity? 2-15 minute spontaneous calls
I guess most of you have by now seen the recent TED talk of my colleague @_HannahRitchie ?
If you haven't, I very much recommend listening to Hannah's talk about our generation's opportunity to improve both people's living conditions and our environment:
https://t.co/zHiImMRAl6
Heute Morgen sind Dutzende von bewaffneten Hamas-Terroristen aus dem Gazastreifen nach Israel eingedrungen.
Tausende von Israelis sind derzeit in ihren Häusern eingeschlossen, während Hamas-Terroristen in den Gemeinden im Süden Israels patrouillieren und versuchen, in Häuser einzudringen und unschuldige israelische Familien zu ermorden.
Wir werden weiterhin über aktuelle Entwicklungen vor Ort berichten.
A good engineer _could_ make a fortune starting a competitor to Okta ($13B market cap, mediocre product), but then they would have to dedicate 10 years of their life to SAML and that seems miserable
When dealing with humans, please note:
* Humans are curious.
* Humans can smell a mystery at a distance.
* Humans like drama.
* Humans hate vacuums of information.
* Humans will create stories to fill the vacuum.
"Attempting to change an organization’s culture is a folly; it always fails. People’s behavior (the culture) is a product of the system; when you change the system, peoples’ behavior changes." (John Seddon) →
This tendency to believe you discovered a silver bullet when you had learned a new methodology or technology.
But in the end, it always comes down to people and their interactions.
My favorite bad (inaccurate, flawed) take from the past few years has to be "XP is meant to be aspirational; nobody's actually done it that way."
The furthest thing from the truth, but people nod and say "yeah, I guess that's true."
It isn't. XP arose from practice, is real.
as a founder, people expect you to swan around with an absolutely delusional amount of confidence. you are supposed to TRUST YOURSELF and BELIEVE IN YOUR IDEAS even — no! especially! — when no one else does.
I don’t, I can’t, and frankly.. I don’t even want to.
Talked with a founder who shared a low during their career: when they were a TML with 20 reports, expected to produce the output of a senior engineer (plus lead the team) at the same time.
This doesn't get old: