I cannot start this edition of SWLW without including Naval is the first choice. His twitter threads are always insightful and this one is also spawned a lot of interesting observations. Using the mental model of compounding learning is something I got from him.
Titles and hierarchy are bad when given as a prize to bring people in or to keep people around. It's a sin I've seen before in small startups and naturally in bigger companies (more opportunities for it to happen). Some people respect the profession of being a manager, thinking about how to make this formula work: 1 Manager + 3 IC> 4 IC. Promote these people, who care about making others around them much better.
I'll add one to James Clear's list - Starting a newsletter about leadership in the software world in 2013, where most people thought that "newsletters are not cool anymore." Taking the time to write my favorite takeaways every Friday in the past 313 weeks created more opportunities (e.g. speaking engagements) and relationships that I could have ever anticipated.
"What are the things that if you do, today, make it easier for you to have the career opportunities and resources you desire, tomorrow, in a way that compounds and is defensible?" -- Try to ask yourself this question. What would be your answer? Share it with a few colleagues at work, and try to learn from each other on how to set the right habits to make a step forward in that direction every day.
Devon knows how to ask big and terrific questions (follow her!). I thought a lot about this question, and I don't have a good answer yet, but here it is: "Aligning companies and individuals through narratives & incentives to enable exponential growth." What would be your answer?
@lucperkins: "Software engineers don’t care about docs and they don’t want to write them." That is almost always false. We’re just not giving them the resources to do so. Give them the time, tools, and training. Make it part of hiring and advancement.
@unativ: One of the challenges as a manager is to differentiate between speaking your opinion and sharing from your experience.
- Oren
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