Software Lead Weekly Software Lead Weekly

Happiness Is a Boring Stack
3 minutes read.

I think this is true regarding risks taking while building a company: "I can't tell you how nice it is to have software in production on a boring stack. It gives you freedom to do other things... I see it as analogous to Compound Interest, but to productivity. The less effort you need to spend on maintenance, the more pace you can keep going forward." -- reminds me of the great post by Dan McKinley "Choose Boring Technology" which I've shared before. So sure, choose the right technology for the problem, but just take into consideration the fact there are plenty of humans involved. That is key.

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I Made a Venn Diagram to Describe Conference Talks
1 minutes read.

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

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How to Open Source at Zalando
7 minutes read.

As a VP Eng of a company that is pushing for releasing open-source libraries/projects when we can help the community, having a guideline with clear FAQ can truly increase the ratio of successful projects getting released. Zalando's guide can serve many companies out there, including mine. The parts about "What Makes a Project "Open Source"", "Never open-source these" and "About Licensing" are priceless.

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All You Ever Wanted to Know About All-Hands
8 minutes read.

Gokul Rajaram (Product eng lead @ Square) with some good format and interesting observations on running a good "all-hands" sessions within your company. I'm going to take a lot of ideas and talk about them internally, as I believe we can gain a lot by the practices Gokul suggests.

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5 Unconventional Benefits Your Startup Will Get From a Hackathon
5 minutes read.

Gur Dotan (Software Eng @ Datorama) shares the biggest takeaways from running a Hackathon in his company. One of my favorite parts of running a Hackathon is as Gur calls it "Everyone Becomes a Product Manager" -- there is a lot of power letting everyone to try and figure out how something should work, how it should behave, what should it do (and avoid doing). The process of creation is rewarding, and presenting it to others can put a huge spotlight on many people who usually stay in the shadow.

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Management in 10 Tweets by Marc Hedlund
3 minutes read.

Great tips by Marc (ex-VP Eng at Stripe & Etsy), my favorites: "You have to be your team's best ally and biggest challenger. You can't be a great leader by care-taking alone. Push for their best work." and "My team wants to work on ___ because it is more fun for them, is that okay?" No. Never. Quoting @jasonk: "Winning is fun." Go win.

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What Do I Do at Work All Day?
5 minutes read.

The wonderful Julie Zhuo (VP Product design @ Facebook) audited and then analyzed her calendar. This exercise is an important tool for every manager who seeks to better understand how they manage their time and improve it by deliberately investing in areas you'd like to promote.

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Michael Lopp's Non-Intuitive Strategies for Success (Video)
42 minutes read.

I've attended Stretch conference, watching Michael Lopp's talk and it was great inspiration for me. You'll enjoy Michael's ideas and his unique style of telling a story.

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@leifwalsh: Good documentation is a love letter to your future self and your users. Relish writing it.

@supershabam: I just refinanced my tech debt and got a great new rate.