The text discusses the difference in leadership styles between two VPs of Engineering based on their calendars. One had a packed calendar and made hasty decisions, while the other had a mostly-free calendar and was calm and relaxe...
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The text discusses the concept of task-relevant maturity and how it can be used by managers to effectively manage their teams. It explains the varying approaches that managers should take based on the experience and competence of ...
0Vision before goals
2024-05-04 •
The text discusses the importance of having a shared vision in leadership and management. It emphasizes that a shared vision can obviate many management tasks and lead to better decision-making. It also highlights that managing to...
0Useful models: the barbell strategy
2024-01-13 •
The barbell strategy, popularized by Nassim Taleb, is a way to navigate risk/reward tradeoffs when skeptical about the accuracy of risk estimates. It originated in financial investing but can apply to product and business strategy...
The text discusses the challenges of using normalized schemas for web apps and encourages an alternative access-oriented approach to designing schemas. It highlights the importance of prioritizing scalable, extensible data access ...
0A new model for social energy
2022-10-10 •
The author discusses a new model for understanding social energy, finding the traditional introversion/extraversion spectrum inadequate. They propose creating 'buckets' of solitary and social time, divided into structured, task-or...
0What I used to believe about happiness
2022-06-27 •
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0Anatomy of a Job Search
2022-06-05 •
The text is about the author's job search experience after leaving a role at a small e-commerce company. The author shares their search criteria, the companies they considered, the hiring process, and the lessons learned from the ...
0Leading for proficiency versus creativity
2022-05-30 •
The text discusses the difference between leading for proficiency and leading for creativity, using examples from various industries. The author reflects on their own leadership style and how it relates to their background in oper...
0A paradigm for developer productivity
2022-05-25 •
The text discusses the complexity of developer productivity and the need for a paradigm shift to simplify understanding. It compares the situation to the Core Web Vitals paradigm shift and outlines the key features that enabled it...
0How to invest in documentation
2022-04-26 •
The text is an interview about how to invest in documentation, with practical advice on the goals of documentation and techniques for choosing what to document first.
03 ways to construct a narrative
2022-04-18 •
The text discusses the construction of narratives to make sense of reality and inspire teams. It describes 3 perspectives for building a narrative and vision: rational decisions, organizational process, and people and politics. It...
0Handy iOS Shortcuts
2022-03-07 •
The text discusses various iOS shortcuts that the author uses to make life easier, including automating text messages for after-school pickups, setting up office music with NFC stickers, and creating shortcuts to change Slack stat...
0Left ditch, right ditch
2022-02-19 •
The text discusses the concept of 'left ditch' and 'right ditch' solutions as a mental model for addressing challenges, using the analogy of steering a vehicle along a winding road. It emphasizes the importance of finding a 'just ...
06 metrics for system observability
2022-02-14 •
The text discusses 6 metrics for system observability, aimed at software engineers, managers, and adjacent teams like marketing and finance. The metrics include throughput, waste, lead time, utilization, quality, and queue depth, ...
0Gratitude — 2021
2021-11-24 •
The author reflects on their gratitude for the year, including the health and safety of their loved ones, the advice they received, the effort they put into self-discovery and learning, and the new opportunities that have come the...
0Types of Analysis
2021-11-07 •
The text discusses the different types of analysis, including forensic, predictive, causal, and mechanistic analysis, and how they are used in various fields such as software development, medicine, and engineering. It explains the...
0Completed staff work and Commander’s intent
2021-10-31 •
The text discusses two leadership techniques, completed staff work and commander's intent, and how they empower those around the author to work effectively with less direct input and coordination. The author shares how they have a...
0Incident anecdote: The one with the weird A/B test
2021-10-20 •
The author shares an incident anecdote about an A/B test that helped broaden their thinking about appropriate uses for A/B tests. The team had spent 8 months rewriting their e-comm frontend and decided to do an A/B test on the con...
0Personal productivity advice
2021-09-26 •
The author shares personal productivity advice, including resources and techniques that have been useful to him. He emphasizes the importance of avoiding constant anxiety and shares six strategies that help him remember details an...
0Resiliency generator
2021-09-07 •
The text discusses a mental model for designing or reviewing web services to fail gracefully by enumerating common failure types and ensuring engineers plan for them. It emphasizes the importance of appropriate error handling, ins...