SWLW #571: Solving the Engineering Strategy crisis, Why I sold my company, and more.

As war continues in Israel (where I'm based), I continue praying for our loved ones and for better days. For those of you, like me, who find comfort in reading, I share my best findings for the week. May we all find the strength to make the world better even when we see hell.

 

This Week's Favorite

Solving the Engineering Strategy Crisis (Video)
50 minutes read.

Will Larson covers how you can apply the concepts behind "Good Strategy Bad Strategy" to your engineering organization. This is a great intro to how to think about leveraging the concepts and seeing real-world usage of it for various companies such as Uber, Stripe, and Calm. The benefit of having such a strategy is to set expectations that will attract and retain talent that will align well with what the business seeks to optimize for. It will also push out people who disagree with the strategy (saving everyone from endless arguments) and clarify for candidates if they should apply: "Strategy is about tradeoffs, not about making everyone happy, not about having no consequences."

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

Product [sponsored]

 Promote your product on SWLW and reach over 32,530 leaders 

Culture

When Kids Who Play Minecraft Grow Up and Become Architects
1 minute read.

My humble effort to help you start the weekend with a smile on your face. Yes, even in this difficult times.

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


Architects, Anti-Patterns, and Organizational Fuckery
9 minutes read.

I believe that being an Architect is a hat you put on, a role you serve as part of your craft, very much like a Coder, Tester, Operator, and Mentor. We should expect most people to be the Architects of the solutions they work on. Yes, the scope of effort and complexity might change given experience and skills, but the mindset and accountability remain the same.

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


Rich vs. King in the Real World: Why I Sold My Company
4 minutes read.

Jason Cohen provides a great insight into the founder's mindset. If you're a company founder, his perspective can get you to ask good questions about your motivation and business goals. If you're an employee, it's helpful to understand the mindset founders have, regardless of what they say when standing in front of the team, or talking with investors. Jason puts it well: "In short, although the goal was “Rich,” I achieved it by behaving like the goal was “King.” I don’t know why people find this contradictory; after all, acting like “King” means building a long-term, sustainable business, and that’s exactly the kind of business that gets acquired."

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


Are You Ready to Be a Public Company?
6 minutes read.

The market is still difficult in 2023 for more companies to become public. Having this context for how successful companies IPO and what you need to ensure you have before and after will serve as a good background for the fundamentals you need to set. This goes into the team you build, the processes and tools you have, and above all - how well you execute.

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

Jobs [sponsored]

 Looking to hire for your team? Promote your open positions on SWLW! 

Peopleware

This Is the Most Powerful Word in the World
4 minutes read.

Anthony Vicino shares why adding "Yet" as a suffix, doing positive self-talk, and leveraging tools like "Spaced Repteition" can be very powerful. For knowledge workers, it is a job requirement to adopt this mindset: "Myelin coats your neuronal pathway, creating an insulated tunnel (aka: sheath) through which electrical impulses can travel. When we talk about muscle memory, what we’re really saying is: You’ve thought a thought so often, it’s become deeply coated in Myelin. [...] Practice doesn’t make perfect… it makes permanent." and "The power of 'yet' is profound, because it simultaneously acknowledges the difficulty before us, and the challenges we’ve faced in the past (to not do so would be outright self-delusion and that’s not helping anybody), but it also leaves the door open for success. 'Yet' is a statement of future intent."

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


40 Things Rockefeller Wrote to His Son (Thread)
3 minutes read.

I love reading about the principles and beliefs people operate with. For example, "Do it now. Opportunity comes from opportunity." is a powerful observation. Very much like "work creates more work" yet framed on the upside - noticing energy, being positive, and striving for action.

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


Productivity
6 minutes read.

"I make sure to leave enough time in my schedule to think about what to work on. The best ways for me to do this are reading books, hanging out with interesting people, and spending time in nature. [...] Doing great work usually requires colleagues of some sort. Try to be around smart, productive, happy, and positive people that don’t belittle your ambitions. I love being around people who push me and inspire me to be better. To the degree you able to, avoid the opposite kind of people—the cost of letting them take up your mental cycles is horrific." -- I wanted to mention this as we often talk about being productive, focusing too much on short-term practices. The right environment, energy, and inspiration will help us be productive in the long run.

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

And finally, inspiring tweets...

@sama: Plans should be measured in decades, execution should be measured in weeks. You gotta have both.

@Suhail: There is no point in arguing with people who have no curiosity about a topic. You’d be wasting your time unless you were the curious one.



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.