Future-you will be as busy as current-you
Stop planning to do this or that when you aren’t as busy as you are right now.
People can’t change, so what’s the point of coaching?
And why do we care so much about giving feedback? And why the frick are we wasting so much time with our people on personal development?
Why don’t Computer Science degrees teach Software Engineering?
Professors don’t have the time to completely rewrite their course materials every year.
The perks of social anxiety
Most positives have their negatives, and most negatives have their positives.
Color-coded calendars
Now I can see at a glance where my days are going! And I can group related meetings together easier! And it’s colorful!
Ohhh, I see. I have social anxiety.
A few weeks ago, I wrote about dealing with imposter syndrome. Then I read a book about it and noticed that it didn’t resonate with what I was feeling after all. So I spent a few weeks pondering…
To maximize or to satisfy…ze
Think about your core values. Is the goal to maximize each of them? Or do you want to find some satisfactory level and stay there?
Curing my Slack addiction
A while back, I wrote about my group chat addiction. I’ve done two things that have helped a lot since then.
Interpret silence as disagreement
Because if someone is staying quiet, that doesn’t mean they’re on board.
The evolution of my ebook highlights
Interesting how much school creeps into adulthood, long after you’ve graduated.
The 12 Week Year: 2021 round 1 wrap up
I wrapped up a 12 week goals cycle. Here’s a summary of how it went.
Team bonding in misery
What’s an engineering team’s version of “hanging off a cliff together, and being wet and cold and miserable together”?
Teams aren’t built, they’re grown
Let’s stop talking about team building and start talking about team growing.
People can’t jell with multiple teams
There are a lot of reasons not to split someone’s time between two or more teams. But the one that never gets talked about is jelling.
The buddy/coach spectrum of direct reports
There are 2 ends of the spectrum: the “be my buddy” end and the “be my coach” end.
Rebel leadership, rebel innovation
This quote from Peopleware touched my soul. It’s about becoming a leader, the hard (and only) way. Read it.
Stop blaming office politics
Blaming “politics” is a lazy way of saying “not my fault.” But it is your fault, because everything is your fault.
Never put up with low engagement meetings
Think of the recurring meeting on your calendar with the lowest engagement, and try these options for fixing it.
Servant leadership is a trap
Too many people use “I’m a servant leader” as a defense for doing nothing unless someone asks for help. It’s a tasty phrase that bad leaders use to justify inaction.
Managing people more senior than yourself
I’ve been in this position. The whole “Wait, why am I managing her? She should be managing me!” thing.
Give gifts that people want
The vast majority of gifts are a waste of money. But the receivers are so experienced at faking excitement that the givers never realize how much their gifts suck.
Take pride in ending meetings early
Subconsciously, I’ve always felt like I needed to fill the time. A shortened meeting was a source of embarrassment for me, not pride.
The wisdom of procrastination
It sucks when the thing I’m procrastinating is unavoidable, but most “unavoidable” things actually aren’t.
Working through “The Imposter Cure”
Imposter syndrome sucks and I’m working through a rough case of it. Whenever something’s hard for me, I read a book about it.
Imposter syndrome is self-fulfilling
By feeling like an imposter, I end up acting like one. We become what we are told we are, and I told myself that I’m an imposter.
Retros shouldn’t be easy
When someone says retros aren’t valuable, they usually mean easy retros aren’t valuable.
Meeting everyone at a new job
If you ask everyone you meet who else you should meet, they’ll try hard to think of someone that nobody else has suggested.
Automatically lower your hand when you start talking in Google Meet
I hope this helps someone besides myself!
Anticipation is the greatest joy
The pleasure isn’t in doing the thing, the pleasure is in planning it. – John Green
Respect the silly
“The silliness level of a team is a decent proxy for jelling, which is a decent proxy for performance.”
Stop fixing problems, start fixing relationships
How many thousands of problems have I “solved” in my career, when really I was just treating the symptoms of bad relationships?
Slack standups aren’t standups
Async standups are a way for teams to kill standups without feeling guilty about it.
Beware of exception debt
It’s hard to make a small group suffer for the sake of a larger goal, but it’s necessary.
A template for writing strategies
Next time you need to put together a strategy for solving a problem, try this out.
Who cares if you’re liked?
Being liked is a trap, so put on your big boy britches and muster up the courage to be disliked.
Blogging as a Zettelkasten
Write a bunch of short, atomic posts and cross-reference them and you’re golden.
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