Software Lead Weekly Software Lead Weekly

The Happy Secret to Better Work
12 minutes read.

Shawn Achor's TED talk will make you laugh so hard, that you should probably watch it with your door closed. His findings about internal motivation, happiness and success really inspired me, and taught me a new side to the power of being around positive individuals. Highly recommended!

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Are 10X Employees Working Too Hard?
5 minutes read.

This post by Ivan Kirgin really made me stop and think for a few minutes about the number of hours I work, and the number of hours my teammates invested in various companies I worked for. I agree with Ivan that we tend to over-glorify hustling and working long hours, but looking back at my most memorable days, many of them took place in those late hours at the office. What made them unforgettable though, wasn't the long hours but rather the commitment of the team to help each other meet deadlines, working together to build great things we believed in. Read this post and ask yourself if you're working with people you appreciate, company you believe in and only then about the number of hours you put it. Work/Life balance is not about working less hours. It's about investing the right amount of time, in things you're actually passionate about.

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Twilio: Scaling Company Values (Slides)
5 minutes read.

Jeff Lawson shares Twillio's secrets to scale the team, ranging from welcoming new hires to their 9 core values. Really loved slides 19-21. Honest, no BS values I could really relate to.

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What Are Some of the Funniest Comments in Source Code?
5 minutes read.

What can I say, I'm a sucker for funny comments in source code. It's like little gems of fun, waiting for you to find them while working on some feature.

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Is Leadership Effectiveness All About Acting?
10 minutes read.

I really feel ambiguous about this post, but it's imperative to understand the power of self-confidence in a leading position. What helped me in my early years as a team lead, was to never fake intent or passion. The post provides plenty of tools you could use to enhance your skills, so use what you believe will help you build the right team - "In fact, ninety percent of team success is determined before they start work".

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Hiring: The Lake Wobegon Strategy
5 minutes read.

Old one but a real gem from the legendary Peter Norvig (of Google). I'm going to steal his two tips on hire-above-the-mean and no hiring manager. I can see how they are going to help in terms of internal conversation for judging candidates, comparing them to our current teammates and our long-term goals.

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Effectively Reacting
5 minutes read.

Wonderful post by Cap Watkins (of Etsy), with a useful solution for most of us, who tend to quickly respond when a new suggestion is landing in our inbox. My suggestion - read it and share it around the office. It's that good! I believe it can help everyone in your company to raise more suggestions, provide better constructive feedback and keep creativity levels high.

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@levie: The 10% Between "90% Done" to "100% Done" Takes Most of the Time, Causes Most of the Stress, but Is All of the Value.

@dharmesh: I'd Rather Occasionally Experience Failure Than Continuously Experience Obscurity.