SWLW #522: The Staff Engineer’s path, How do you interview a VP of Engineering, and more.

Heya,

As always, below you can read my best findings for the week. I'll send another email soon to offer my book & interviews with a huge discount for you and all readers of SWLW to celebrate Black Friday as I do every year. Promoting my work feels a bit strange as an engineer, but this is a great way to level up at work.
 

This Week's Favorite

​​Narratives
14 minutes read.

"The Internet, after all, is about abundance, not scarcity. The end result is that instead of infrastructure leading to a movement, a movement, via the stock market, funded the building out of infrastructure." -- Ben Thompson with an excellent essay on the narratives we see today around Twitter, Generative AI, FTX, etc. I like how Steven Sinofsky wrote it: "It isn't just that narratives are lazy reporting, analysis, or sharing but they have real impact that can further amplify the very narrative that is not based on a foundation of fact."

Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
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Product [sponsored]

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Culture

Sign of the Times
1 minute read.

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

Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
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Tension: Why Product Development Requires Balancing Conflicting Goals
13 minutes read.

This is one of the best posts I've read about the difficulties of balancing business, product, technology, and company building. Learning to live with the tension inside the company and with customers is a skill worth learning rather than hoping to find a model to avoid it altogether. "Notice that what makes a product great are the things our customers and users say after they see it and try it. It’s really up to them whether your product is great, not you. [...] Paying attention to product outcomes is paying attention to how our customers get value from our product."

Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
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How to Prevent Your Quest for Teams’ Autonomy From Turning Into Chaos
7 minutes read.

"Without these many “we intend to…” from everyone it is not autonomy, it is chaos." -- Thomas Pierrain's analogy of many boats going together and the need to let each boat operate while having a single vector of movement is powerful.

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There's a Tradition of Film Directors and Studios Congratulating Each Other for Beating Their Box Office Records (Thread)
3 minutes read.

What an incredible tradition, one that gets you to appreciate how competitors can play. Life is usually not a zero-sum game where someone needs to lose for others to win. Sometimes looking at others being successful is all you need to be inspired and push yourself further.

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Jobs [sponsored]

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Peopleware

The Staff Engineer’s Path: Tanya Reilly in Conversation (Video)
48 minutes read.

Share this interview with technical leaders in the organization who are trying to grasp the Staff+ role better. This will help them better understand their opportunities to increase their impact and clarify the possible expectations others have of them.

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Share it via Twitter or email.


Holding Two Opposing Ideas in My Mind
4 minutes read.

"But life is easier when you realize things are never so clear-cut. It’s this and that, black and white, yes and no." -- Reading Alfred Lua's post reminded me that life is much more complex (and interesting!) than trying to formalize it into simple observations.

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How Do You Interview a VP of Engineering? 25 Questions I’ve Been Asked in Previous Interviews
8 minutes read.

Karim Fanous shares the questions he got asked while interviewing for VP Engineering, helping you prepare for similar positions. Copy it to a google doc and write your responses. Share these responses with someone you trust to spot areas you should pay more attention to or consider a different approach.

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

And finally, inspiring tweets...

@scottbelsky: Good stuff scales with a lot of work and bad stuff scales with very little

@SahilBloom: A good rule for life: Always give people a second chance, but never give them a third.



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.