SWLW #462: Invisible asymptotes, Engineering teams are just networks, and more.

Heya,

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

This Week's Favorite

​​Invisible Asymptotes
18 minutes read.

This post is one of my favorites for understanding business and thinking of your next S-shape growth curve. It can be applied to personal growth or as a business. Once you become good enough at what you do, how do you find your next growth phase?

Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
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Culture

Startup Journey Rollercoaster
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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Don't Assume Consensus in the Absence of Objection
4 minutes read.

An important reminder from Candost Dagdeviren: "Assuming consensus in the absence of objection leaves out the good, bad, and diverse ideas—all of them. Many companies work hard to create a diverse culture yet fail to take advantage." -- consider asking during and after meetings how people feel about the decision made or the process that got us there.

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Engineering Teams Are Just Networks
6 minutes read.

"In my experience when people do not work out it’s often because they are not actually set up for success. Their strengths do not align with the incentives the network creates or network structures play into their weaknesses." -- Marianne Bellotti will challenge your thinking on how to set up teams for success. Worth sharing with hiring managers in your company and ask them if it changed something about the profile they're looking to hire.

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Good People, Big Dreams
6 minutes read.

Lemonade took an interesting approach to hire and train inexperienced engineers while paving a better onboarding experience to maximize success. I learned a lot from it, thinking about what I can adopt and leverage to improve our experience for new engineers with less experience in our stack or domain.

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Peopleware

Why Limiting WIP, Starting Together, Being Less Busy, and Working Together Is SO HARD
5 minutes read.

"A promising experiment to get buy-in for reducing WIP is to visualize (all) work in progress -- and I mean work in the broadest sense. Visualize everything people are thinking about. From that original pitch or one-pager, through repeated experiments, to it providing value in the customer’s hands. Development is typically a very small part of the journey. SEEING that can cause things to click." -- You should share John Cutler's with both product and technical leaders in the org. There is no value for multiple in-progress deliverables that customers cannot use.

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


8 Real Life Examples of the Power of Compounding (Thread)
4 minutes read.

A short and helpful thread that I think is both inspiring and practical to ask yourself which habits you have (or want to practice) that compounds well. Reading books early on in my career (and even more now), sharing my learning (blog posts, conference talks, writing this newsletter) made a significant impact on my career. What works for you? What would you like to start doing more often to form a habit that will compound and serve you well in your life?

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The Greatest Resume I've Ever Seen
5 minutes read.

What a remarkable journey to see someone leverage their talent and skills to learn a new profession and improve their life. Daniel's post (A Plumber's Guide to Cloud) is so inspiring; I hope that some of you will share it with friends you know of that might need this push to start.

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And finally, inspiring tweets...

@patrick_oshag: Interesting way to think about stages of a good career: 1) becoming worthwhile 2) helping others do the same

@hnshah: You aren’t really busy. You just don’t have energy to do more because you manage your time, not your energy. Time materializes when the energy is available.



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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.