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Last week, I've stumbled upon a pitch for a role-playing game from 1994. That game turned out to be one of the most successful games in history. And recently got its fourth title in the series.

Diablo turned out to be extremely influential part of my life. Not because I've spent countless hours grinding the medieval catacombs but because I've built a website about it.

It wasn't the best website. It had yellow text on black background. Bleeding title. Clipart designed headers. The obligatory marquee. Burning flames. It wasn't popular – only a few friends reading and writing about their virtual adventures.

But I've built a website. And after that, I've made another one. And then another one for a business.

Diablo got me started in tech. From a simple website with burning flames 25 years ago to running teams and building amazing products today.

How did you get into tech? Would you like to share your story? Reply to this email and I’ll share the best ones in future issue.

Top reads

Accountability for Effective Teams 2 minutes

Accountability for measurable outcomes is "not the most important kind." It's the easy kind.

People love Snowflake, but…. (sponsor)

Delivering sub-second analytics over large datasets can get pricey. When it comes to optimizing performance and cost, there are many great players. See how Snowflake compares to Firebolt, Clickhouse, Databricks, and more in the 2023 Cloud Data Warehouse Comparison Guide.

Estimation Isn't for Everyone 10 minutes by The NYT Open Team

Reduce overhead by removing one of them: estimation. We believe that mature Agile teams can evolve beyond the tedium of debating Fibonacci scores and operate better without them. Once your team turns its focus to breaking problems down to their component parts, all you need is a little math to plan your next project.

Primer for planning BIG platform changes 6 minutes by David Lush

The process I describe below is intended to be short and sharp. It will give you a systems architecture that you can pressure test and refine. It will also guide on how to carve out the first meaningful slice.

Linking Modular Architecture to Development Teams 22 minutes by Matthew Foster

Can a modular architecture improve software delivery? Yes! -but with some caveats. This article charts the journey of an enterprise who set out to shift their architecture to a more modular one in order to ease their growing pains.

From Technical Debt to Technical Health with HealthCheck 20 minutes by Mikael Vesavuori

Why software fails and how you can practically address it with a 6-step plan.

Prioritising effectively and getting work done as managers 6 minutes by James Samuel

Losing control of your time? Here is how to break free from the chaos, prioritise and get stuff done.

Giving more tools to software engineers: the reorganization of the factory 13 minutes by Erik Bernhardsson

When the output of software engineers goes up, what happens to the companies they work for?

What Strategy Questions are You Asking? 9 minutes by Roger Martin

The most popular view of the nature of competitive advantage is that it is represented by a moat. The person who popularized this view is Warren Buffett who famously spoke on the subject during the 1995 Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting.

The dark side of the leadership 3 minutes by Elena Verna

That nobody talks about.

Tiny bits

• The real story of how Facebook almost acquired Waze, but we ended up with Google
• Humans Aren't Mentally Ready for an AI-Saturated 'Post-Truth World'
• Google warns its own employees: Do not use code generated by Bard
• Twitter's Lawyers Admit They're Overwhelmed As Nearly 2000 Laid Off Employees File Arbitration Claims
• EU: Smartphones Must Have User-Replaceable Batteries by 2027
• One software product from every year since 1977
• How we tried to book a train ticket and ended up with a databreach with 245,000 records

How did you find this issue? Too much? Too little? Just about right? Let me know your feedback by replying to this email.