Software Lead Weekly Software Lead Weekly

You Are Not Google
6 minutes read.

This post should printed and hanged at the office, as a good reminder for almost every design review you're doing for a technical solution: "if you’re using a technology that originated at a large company, but your use case is very different, it’s unlikely that you arrived there deliberately; no, it’s more likely you got there through a ritualistic belief that imitating the giants would bring the same riches."

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Oh God I Think Someone Is Trapped Inside This Captcha I Just Got What Do I Do
1 minutes read.

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

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Kickstarter Engineering Ladder
8 minutes read.

Having a career ladder is important as it sets a clear expectation on what people need to accomplish in order to progress. Use it to trigger a conversation in your company, if you feel that it's needed at your scale.

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Take a Walk on the Dark Side: Branding for Startups & Sith Lords (Slides)
4 minutes read.

Dave McClure is always interesting and different - some love his opinions, some hate, that's part of the game: "you cannot build a brand around indifference". How would you like to brand your product? What about your engineering brand? What about your career?

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6 Weeks: Why It’s the Goldilocks of Product Timeframes
6 minutes read.

Figuring out the right size of planning, execution and learning cycles is probably the most important part of experimenting within any organization. It made me think a lot about our process, and what I'd like to tweak going forward.

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Why You Shouldn’t Be Fooled by Your Own Expertise
5 minutes read.

Naive optimism can be addictive in a way you see others doing things you thought would never be possible. It helps you to stay humble, and also understand that shifts in the market (and people/culture) opens up doors that your experience thought you to assume will always be closed. An important read for any leader out there, who want to help their teammates to win where you'd never thought it's possible.

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Use the 5-Hour Rule for Learning
5 minutes read.

While it's remarkably simple set of ideas, so very few people actually follow up on it that I believe it's worth repeating: setting time to read, think, share your thoughts on paper and 1:1s and practice it, can be what levels up a good career to a great one.

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Hire a VP of Engineering
7 minutes read.

Martin Casado shares the tips for hiring a VP Engineering, or the qualities you'll need to develop in order to become a VP Engineering. Martin's point on "Building boxes, not arches" is key to balance short-term and long-term risk, providing your senior engineers the context and framework to reach hard decisions.

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@patio11: A thing that I actively remind myself to do since it doesn't come naturally, which people seem to like: explicitly comment on good work.

@QuinnyPig: The more senior I get, the easier it becomes to admit when I'm completely wrong. It boosts credibility rather than damages it.