Dates covered: January 21-27, 2019 (week 4 of 52)
Business
The Era of “Move Fast and Break Things” Is Over (via Harvard Business Review)
The impact of the technologies of tomorrow (genomics, AR/VR, blockchain) will have considerable impact on lives well into the future. VCs should be asking these questions:
- What systemic, societal change do you aspire to create with your product?
- How will you sustain the virtue of your product?
- How do you drive the greatest impact on an individual level?
- What do you think is an optimal growth rate? How will you keep yourself accountable as you scale?
- What’s your framework for leveraging data and AI responsibly?
- Does your business foster an ecosystem in which innovation thrives?
- How do you define and promote diversity in the context of your business?
- How does your company dynamically evolve in response to regulation and account for the various stakeholders your product impacts?
One Way to Finance Tech Startups Outside of Superstar Cities (via Harvard Business Review)
There are many ideas that will never get funded because they’re too small or won’t make fast-growth exits to attract venture capitalists. Also, there are many smaller and non-coastal cities that don’t have access to VC. The author proposes a new financial instrument called a local innovation bond (LIB) to keep money local for small- and medium-scale ideas.
Career
Why Easy Software Development Is Making Things Hard for Development Careers (via The Software Mentor)
The process of writing code has changed considerably since the 1960s; tasks are comparatively easier and the depth of skill is not as great to get rudimentary tasks complete. So where does that leave software developers? This article suggests getting onboard with DevOps, focusing on optimization (not just implementation), and adding security skills.
Surprises as a Software Developer (via The Software Mentor)
This list is a great start for things you never thought you’d need to consider before embarking on your career as a software developer. One I’m grappling with is best practices; they’re subjective (based on who the “experts” are) and can rot over time. All the other observations Dan puts forth are well-considered, so read the post and take a look.
The worst career advice I ever received (via Software Lead Weekly)
“Stay! When all of these other people leave there will be a power vacuum, open positions, and you’ll be able get promoted quickly.” It can be tempting to stay where it’s comfortable and wait for opportunities to appear. (However, those who know me realize the bad advice given here has worked for me…so far.) No opportunity will be perfect; if you need to change, change.
Communication
4 Things to Do Before a Tough Conversation (via Harvard Business Review)
- Get your motives right — sometimes the short-term goal of keeping the peace comes at the expense of your team. What do you really want?
- Get your emotions right — we often play the victim (“I did everything I could for him”) while we consider the other person as the villain (“She’s lazy”); try reversing those mindsets
- Gather the facts — lay out your case and what led you to your conclusion
- Get curious — be open to facts you hadn’t considered that might change your conclusion
Avoiding Common Writing Mistakes (via Communication for Technologists path)
This course covers the mechanics of effective writing and many of the common mistakes people make with English. I didn’t find this course quite as useful as some of the other communication courses; I’d definitely recommend it to people whose first language isn’t English. A key concept I took from the course was that writing is still very important in our careers — think of how much you read/write every day. Why not do that well?
Guy Israeli: Dashboard Driven Development (lightning talk) (via Software Lead Weekly)
The content isn’t what made this 5-minute talk stand out; I thought it was a clever presentation of an analogy from value-monitoring to woodchucks chucking wood. The visuals are simple, and it’s a clever way of using humor to make a topic more appealing.
Culture
What to Do When a Work Friendship Becomes Emotionally Draining (via Harvard Business Review)
Do: 1) watch for signs that energy spent on the relationship is interfering with work, 2) find ways to communicate less often, 3) offer to connect them with someone who can help with their problems. Don’t: 1) blame the other person, 2) cut them off entirely, 3) let them pull you back in and disrespect needed boundaries.
Leadership
The Best Leaders Aren’t Afraid to Ask for Help (via Harvard Business Review)
There’s a difference between being weak and having weakness. We’re all human, so it’s unsustainable to think we can do it all, and the people you lead won’t connect with you if they never see any flaws.
Process
How to Spend Way Less Time on Email Every Day (via Harvard Business Review)
- Turn off notifications and instead check your email hourly
- Move every email out of your inbox the first time you read it (we waste time rereading emails in our inbox while looking for other emails)
- Use the search functionality with search operators to re-find emails
- Set up just two email folders (Reading and Archive) and use shortcuts to move emails there
- Avoid processing irrelevant or less important emails individually
OKRs, Explained with “Star Wars” (via Software Lead Weekly)
This short presentation cleverly relates Objectives and Key Results (OKR) to a common story from Star Wars.
Software development
Test-driven Development: The Big Picture (via Understanding DevOps path)
If you already understand TDD, you can skip this course. However, if you’re new to the concept or need some selling points — as TDD aligns with high-quality code in rapid cycles, a key tenet of DevOps — this course could help. I enjoyed watching it just to ensure my knowledge was still current with what’s being taught these days.