SWLW #640: The burdens of data, Creating a sense of stability, 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

Thinking in Maximums
13 minutes read.

Arjun Shah captures the notion of maximal thinking well in this paragraph: "big thinking uses data to validate or refine a path toward an ultimate goal. Minimal thinking uses data to guess whether a small product is worth keeping around for another round of iteration. One has the capacity to shape entire industries, while the other might produce fleeting hype that disappears after the next pivot. This dynamic has real consequences for employees, as well. Work cultures that focus on constant short sprints can breed burnout. Engineers come to see their labor as disposable. Projects start and die with whiplash speed. When there is no overarching aim, workers eventually lose morale. Companies that think in maximums, by contrast, tend to inspire loyalty."

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Culture

“I Don’t Get It. We Followed Best Practices.”
1 minute read.

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

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What Makes Entrepreneurs Entrepreneurial?
5 minutes read.

The framing of "causal thinker" and "effectual thinker" is very useful. It crystallized for me how people approach challenges at work and how they see life. We're capable of both types of thinking. It requires some awareness of our defaults and practicing a different approach.

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Creating a Sense of Stability
6 minutes read.

The four approaches Claire Lew shares should be bookmarked and used next time you face challenges with your team. During "war time," a leader should explain how success looks like and help build the confidence that the team can achieve it. Tell them what you need from them, and ask what they expect from you. Never let a good crisis go to waste.

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The Biggest HR Trend of 2025
5 minutes read.

The best companies will continue to adopt the latest technologies and practices, and seek ways to differentiate in the market. This is what you do if you want to attract and retain top talent: "What’s the key to making hybrid work work? Trust. And trust is built by leaders who communicate clear expectations, measure performance effectively, and treat employees like adults instead of wayward children trying to escape supervision."

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Peopleware

“You Need to Be More Strategic”
6 minutes read.

Dan Pupius covers helpful frameworks you can use to drive better decisions over time for complex questions and challenges. Try them out, write them down, and share them with your peers to drive interesting discussions.

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FAQs From Coaching Technical Leadership
4 minutes read.

Short and high-value dilemmas and suggestions. Kellan Elliott-McCrea's insight for investing in a candidate's experience (and investing more time in hiring!) can help you build a brand to attract future employees: "Optimize your interviews for great candidate experience. You’ll increase the chances that you’ll find someone who might succeed in your organization and increase the chances that the 95% of people you interview who don’t end up joining your team are positive brand ambassadors for you."

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The Burdens of Data
8 minutes read.

Wilco Kruijer covers an area that all companies face as they grow - effectively dealing with the data they gathered during the years: "Being declarative about obtaining data is a powerful force multiplier when it comes to software development. I cannot stress this enough. Within organizations it is hard to align backlogs so multiple teams can work towards the same goal. By making publishing data a small effort, the burden of integration is moved solely to the integrator. This sidesteps all the alignment work. On a technical note, the fact that data can be synchronized directly to a team/product’s database means that the integrating team only has to adjust their database queries to join the newly available data. This is end-to-end declarative data integration between products! This way the code can be almost purely business logic."

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And finally, inspiring tweets...

@EricMelillo_: Fast people quit slow companies. So it's safe to say your speed limit is their exit sign.

@Julian: People don't have short attention spans: (1) They finish 3 hour Joe Rogan episodes (2) They binge 14 hour shows.They have short *consideration spans:* they must be hooked quickly. Point: Don't fear making great, in-depth content. But, ensure your first minute is incredible.



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.