SWLW #593: How to identify great talent, On generating ideas, and more.

Like always, sharing my best findings for the week. 

 

This Week's Favorite

Zigging vs. Zagging: How HubSpot Built a $30B Company (Video)
102 minutes read.

Dharmesh Shah is one of my favorite humans and technologies to follow. He's weird (in the very best way possible), funny, intelligent, thoughtful, and inspiring. He has built a life and career designed to leverage his strengths without apologizing or trying to fit any narrative others set for him.

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Culture

Signing Up to a Competitor's Product and Hoping They Won't Notice
1 minute read.

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

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Simple Ways to Show Appreciation at Work
6 minutes read.

"While appreciation is something you can express, it’s also something you can show through your actions and behaviors. If you – as a manager or an individual contributor — want to build the kind of relationships where people feel valued, communication flows, and great work gets done, it’s important to expand your understanding of appreciation beyond verbal expressions and learn to show people you value them as well." -- We all want to be recognized and feel seen. It feels more authentic when it's concrete and honest, rather than a random "good job." Christopher Littlefield covers four areas to observe and show a meaningful appreciation for your teammates.

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On Generating Ideas - Leadership & Work
4 minutes read.

Using Michal Poczwardowski's "Quiet Idea Generation" is an interesting take that might help a team with more introverts (or maybe newer members who don't feel confident just yet) to expose their thoughts. For "External Processor," it might not work well, so finding a proper balance between the different thinking styles of each member is a challenge. You can discuss the format as a team, and figure out the right approach together to optimize participation rate and number of ideas.

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Thoughts on Pair Programming
4 minutes read.

Shahar Kedar covers when to use Pair Programming to optimize for discovery (increase certainty) and when to use it for training and knowledge sharing. Set expectations early on with the team on how and when to use Pair Programming to get the most out of it.

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Peopleware

What I Think About When I Edit
7 minutes read.

Eva Parish shares excellent writing advice you can use next time you write an email, blog post, technical design document, project status, and more. "Repeat yourself (within reason)" is a powerful approach to drive your point all the way: "when editing, look for ways that you can restate your point, clarify, or provide closure for the reader."

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Keith Rabois Explains How to Identify Great Talent
2 minutes read.

Keith Rabois is a highly successful, brilliant, and controversial leader. The notion of continuously examining our limits and our teammates' limits is a good framing: "Everybody has some level of complexity that they can handle, and what you want to do is keep expanding it until you see where it breaks and that’s the role that they should stay in… But some people will surprise you." I also liked the idea of looking around for people who others consult with them, even if they don't have to. I use it during interviews to ask, "On which topics do people come to consult with you even if they don't need to? Why do you think it is?"

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Tomorrow Is the Start of Q2 2024. I Ask Myself These Questions at the Beginning of Every Quarter.
3 minutes read.

Greg Isenberg shares 16 questions for evaluating the goals and desires you aspire to achieve. Some of them require being honest with ourselves, e.g., "Am I really trying my best, or am I only telling myself I am?" and "Am I doing it for myself or because someone?"

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And finally, inspiring tweets...

@david_perell: The Paradox of Reading: The books you read will profoundly change you even though you'll forget the vast majority of what you read.

@vonfreud: This is the single career advice that I've followed and worked for me: Be comfortable being uncomfortable.


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.