Culture
Microservices, Monoliths and Laser Nail Guns: Etsy Tech Boss on Finding the Right Focus 15 minutes read.
"I’ll be even more descriptive about it. I would say that we want to prefer a small number of well-known tools... I would rather have carpenters because they’re really passionate about solving hard problems, given the choice between them and those candidates who say, "I don’t care what I build. I just need to use the laser nail gun."" -- I can understand and relate to the sentiment by John Allspaw, looking for clear and repeatable patterns so the team could remain focused and effective working on the problem. Here is an important distinction though: it's not because of the decision to keep the number of tools small that they are effective, it's because they managed to bring in people who believe this is the right thing to do, and made it their strength.
Read it later via
Instapaper.
Share
it via
Twitter
or
email.
Hacking Performance Review Meetings in a Startup 5 minutes read.
Performance Reviews can be a huge catalyst for people's growth. You have to assume that people will learn new technologies, languages, libraries or techniques in almost every company they'd work for, so ask yourself: "How can I personally, as their direct manager, and the company, help them to grow in 6 months in a way that they won't receive in other places?" -- This will require you and them to think of bigger goals, making the most out of the process. If these goals don't make you both excited about the possibility of achieving them, try again. Make it count.
Read it later via
Instapaper.
Share
it via
Twitter
or
email.
What I Learned Building Medium (So Far) 4 minutes read.
Old one by Ev Williams but still highly relevant. This insight is spot on: "Even if they’re awesome, having too big of a team will slow you down." -- Ask yourself if you're really need to grow, and what would be the purpose of such growth -- "Capable people need meaty challenges. There are no meaty challenges in the very beginning except defining what it is exactly (or approximately) you’re doing. That’s a job you can’t divide up too finely. And the communication costs of keeping everyone in sync with the daily changes is daunting."
Read it later via
Instapaper.
Share
it via
Twitter
or
email.