SWLW #422: The hottest new title in tech, Staying sane as an executive in hypergrowth, and more.

I hope that you and your family are doing well, and you are able to find a new rhythm in this hard situation.

As always, below you can read my best findings for the week -
 

This Week's Favorite

​​Alignment: Should You Work Hard?
4 minutes read.

Jacob O'Bryant captures it well: "If you want to spend your life working really hard, it's critical to mould yourself and your situation until working hard is actually worth it. [...] You have to figure out what it means for you and how to get it. But being aware of the concept is at least the first step." -- I like Naval's question that often provides a helpful check for alignment (if it happens enough hours a day): "What feels like play to you, but looks like work to others?"

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Culture

Annual Planning
1 minute read.

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

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A Comprehensive Survey of Product Management
5 minutes read.

Lenny Rachitsky shares massive survey results for how the PM role is perceived or valued in different companies. Every company is a bit different in terms of its preferences. Which questions you'd ask in the interview to see if there is a good match between your style and what the company optimizes?

Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
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Repeat Founders: What Do You Wish You Knew at the Beginning of Your First Company? (Thread)
3 minutes read.

I enjoyed reading the responses to Andy Sparks's question. I love this one: "Somethings get easier, but most of it is just as hard. Focus on making decisions and learning as a practice."

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The Hottest New Title in Tech: Head of Remote Work
4 minutes read.

As the hybrid model will probably stay with us longer than covid-19, getting people to work a few days from home every week, it will be interesting to see new roles such as "Head of Remote Work." In a way, people will expect a very different experience, and companies will have to reimagine their culture from the ground up.

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Peopleware

Staying Sane as an Executive in Hypergrowth
4 minutes read.

"You can only push >100% for a time but burnout is real and is often a bigger problem than underperformance due to incompetence." -- Ohad Samet offers three tips you should take to make sure you push yourself in a sustainable manner. This is something I've been thinking a lot lately, so reading Ohad's thoughts gave me more ideas to experiment with (e.g. Renegotiate operating mechanism)

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A Thread on My Most-Read Essays of 2020 and My Thoughts 3-11 Months Later (Thread)
5 minutes read.

Matthew Ball covers areas I don't read enough about (gaming, streaming, audio), and there are very few who can do it to such depth as him. These are two huge categories, with many product and marketing insights you can apply to your field. Skim around and see what picks your interest.

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The Strength of Being Misunderstood
3 minutes read.

"what makes them unusual is that they generally care about other people’s opinions on a very long time horizon—as long as the history books get it right, they take some pride in letting the newspapers get it wrong." -- the things that keep you highly motivated are often picking an opponent to "prove wrong" while looking at the data and evidence that very few have.

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And finally, inspiring tweets...

@tef_ebooks: "junior devs write bad code" sure but senior devs write bad systems and i can tell you right now which one's easier to fix

@SamuelHulick: Don't design products; design user value.



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 and my work by becoming a SWLW Patron. Thank you ❤️




Keep reading, keep learning.
-- Oren Ellenbogen.