SWLW #498: Living in a commitment crisis, Cargo Culting software engineering practices, and more

Heya,

As always, below you can read my best findings for the week. If you want to support my work or join SWLW community in Slack - scroll down to the bottom of the email to see how.
 

This Week's Favorite

​​We're Living in a Commitment Crisis (Thread)
4 minutes read.

The entire thread and responses David Perell got from others are so good. I love this framing: "Long time horizons change our incentives, usually for good. This is one of the core findings of game theory: people treat each other better when they intend to interact many times in the future. The same goes for objects. As the saying goes: Nobody's ever washed a rented car."

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Culture

Actual Footage of Me Reconfiguring Production on the Fly to Mitigate an Incident
1 minute read.

My humble effort to help you start the weekend with a smile on your face.

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Cargo Culting Software Engineering Practices
5 minutes read.

"In an ideal world the Software Engineering we do, and the practices we carry out, should be the absolute minimum required. Where this minimum is some combination of product value, reliability, maintainability, team happiness, etc." -- Important read not to blindly chase ideas and practices but instead try to make the minimum flow (process) that works for you.

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Optimism Shapes Reality: How to Go at Warp Speed
2 minutes read.

"While definitionally it seems like how long things inherently take to get done influence the scope, the causality actually mostly goes the other direction. The scope influences how long things takes. When we say things will take a long time, they will take a long time. When we say things will take a short amount of time, they will take less time." -- Alexandr Wang shares a good insight that might sound obvious but rarely happens. Our mindset is critical in creating momentum.

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Top 10 Insights From the 2022 Startup Sentiment Survey
5 minutes read.

Tomasz Tunguz shares interesting statistics worth knowing as companies try to estimate and adjust to the current market conditions.

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Peopleware

Antifragile Planning: Optimizing for Optionality (Without Chasing Shiny Objects)
13 minutes read.

There are very few essays better than this one by Taylor Pearson on how to set big (long-term) goals for yourself. If you're looking for a good framework to review and adjust your path in life, you'll enjoy Taylor's suggestions.

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Incident Response Is a Team Sport
2 minutes read.

Short and to the point: "The group of incident responders, that ad-hoc team that forms in the moment, is what’s referred to as a joint cognitive system. It’s the responsibility of the individual responders to coordinate effectively so that the cognitive system can solve the problem."

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Taming the Mammoth: Why You Should Stop Caring What Other People Think
14 minutes read.

Tim Urban is a great thinker and writer I enjoy following, and this post is my go-to place when I need a friendly reminder that "No one really cares that much about what you’re doing. People are highly self-absorbed."

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And finally, inspiring tweets...

@davidhoang: Twice a year, I send an email update to a group of people who made a huge impact on my career. I write an update similar founders do with investor to let them know how I’m doing and asks. I also remind them the impact they made on me. Keep thanking those who backed you.

@JenMsft: A programmer had a problem. He thought — "I know, I'll use async!" has problems Now . two he



p.s. if you're interested in joining SWLW's Slack channel, simply reply to this email and let me know. If you're leading a team, consider writing your Manager README (it's free) or getting my e-book and interviews Leading Snowflakes: The New Engineering Manager's Handbook. You can also support me by becoming a SWLW Patron. Thank you ❤️




Keep reading, keep learning.
-- Oren Ellenbogen.