SWLW #633: AI and cognitive offloading, The story in your head, and more.

Like always, I am sharing my best findings for the week. Under "Culture," you'll find content worth reading and sharing with others; you'll need others' help to pull it off. Under "Peopleware," you'll find content that can help you approach situations differently with new perspectives and frameworks.   

 

This Week's Favorite

AI and Cognitive Offloading: Sharing the Thinking Process With Machines
11 minutes read.

Companies will be required to adjust the way they think about their UX in the AI-first era, very much like in the mobile-first era. Considering cognitive load offloading can be a powerful way to craft the experience: "Building on the idea of distributed cognition, where thinking emerges through the interplay of minds, tools, and environments, one key principle stands out: the concept of cognitive offloading. This refers to the way humans offload mental tasks onto the environment, using artifacts, technologies, and even other people to reduce the burden on their cognitive systems and enhance their ability to think, reason, and solve problems."

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Culture

“Yes I Feel Fully Recharged After a Restful Holiday”
1 minute read.

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

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What Happens When AI Joins the Org Chart?
7 minutes read.

Katie Parrott writes on a topic most of us think about when trying to imagine how AI will continue transforming the industry (agentic workers). Given that one of the most challenging parts of management is handling the emotional load and how little we know about how our brain (and its chemistry) works, it's fair to say we're not there just yet, even if AGI. We'll start with efficiency gains and, with enough time, move to a complete transformation and integration (humans with machines).

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Explore vs Execute
9 minutes read.

"But these [Explore vs. Execute] aren’t the same personalities. It’s probably not the same person. Sometimes people can make the transition; sometimes they can’t. This is difficult to manage, especially when those people were critical to your early success. It’s most difficult when that person is you." -- The challenge of many successful companies is to continue exploring new upsides: Building trust and mutual respect between people with different appetites for risk and overall chaos.

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The 30 Best Pieces of Company Building Advice We Heard in 2024
24 minutes read.

There are so many gems for you to learn from in this article, and you can go deeper if you want to read the original interview, by skimming the insights (ToC on the left side) based on your current interests and challenges. I paused after each piece of advice here to consider how I'd apply it where I work and the hidden tradeoffs behind it.

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Peopleware

Why I Left My Director Role at Google: A Case for Intentional Career Breaks
4 minutes read.

Reading posts on people increasing optionality is always interesting. There are always more options to do that (and I do hope that people will stop using burnout to explain everything and anything, but that's a side rant), and Mor Schlesinger's path can help expand your thinking on looking deeper into your journey. The biggest downside with a sabbatical is that you might become even more emotionally volatile, hoping to find some profound discoveries, thus increasing your expectations vs. reality gap.

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The Story in Your Head…
3 minutes read.

"Your startup lives and dies by the story in your head. That story sets the ceiling. Not the market. Not the competition. Just the story. Want different results? Write a different story. [...] Your story isn't your destiny but it shapes every decision you make. And decisions compound." -- Understanding that most of our drivers are stories and not facts is a critical realization that every high-agency individual develops. Hiten Shah recommends one exercise you can try today to help you consider your story, the limitations you've placed and make decisions to challenge some of them.

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Second-Order Thinking - Mental Model
4 minutes read.

Michał Poczwardowski reminds us of the power of looking at decisions as a decision tree (shifting realities), combining Suzy Welch's 10-10-10 rule: "Consider the consequences of the option you choose: In 10 minutes? In 10 months? In 10 years?"

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And finally, inspiring tweets...

@AdamMGrant: Bad bosses keep people stuck in dead-end jobs. Good bosses create opportunities for people to grow and advance. Great bosses encourage people to pursue growth and advancement even if it means leaving for another organization.

@thejustinwelsh: Fear disguised as preparation is still just fear. You have enough information. Just go do things.



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.