First published June 2017. I had been coaching at Facebook for 6 years at this point. I wanted to reflect on how the most effective people got to where they were. After coaching hundreds of engineers,
3 min read· Sep 2, 2024 There’s a new pg article making the rounds called “Founder Mode”. The biggest surprise to me is how, despite saying almost nothing, it has attracted wide attention; possibly be
HTML is the foundation of web development. While most developers are familiar with the basic elements like HTML offers a plethora of advanced features that can significantly enhance the functionality
An assassin is coming to kill you! At midnight tonight! Unless you do 100 pushups first, that is. If this were true, you would do the pushups, no question, no problem. Any motivation issues would evap
After experimenting with a number of management roles over the last few years, 37signals is back to its original configuration: None. We once more have no full-time managers whose sole function is to
I’ve been practicing and studying Stoicism for a decade. Here are 22 stoic lessons I’ve learned from the greatest Stoic philosophers. Life is about managing your reactions — We give too much time and
A strange thing has happened on the path to marijuana legalization. Users across all ages and experience levels are noticing that a drug they once turned to for fun and relaxation now triggers existen
Last fall, a reader asked me what they could really do, as one person, to aid people living on the streets. “I often feel helpless to enact change,” they wrote. I’d been covering homelessness in Ameri
10 min read· Jul 6, 2024 Photo by Birmingham Museums Trust on Unsplash A few years ago, I read The Toyota Way, driven by my curiosity about the origins of Agile software development. However, I became
One of the key tasks when it comes to leadership of a large team is being able to define and communicate a strategy. When strategies are done well, they are a powerful tool for aligning individuals th
My first Instacart board meeting was in November 2015. I had joined a month earlier as CFO. Our financials were ugly. We had $2M of revenue but were chewing through $11M of cash every four weeks, and
One of my favorite things to do: Stop working right in the middle of something and leave the unfinished work for the next day. On the next day, you know exactly where to pick up and can start right aw
Something is always on fire when you're growing. You can't fix everything. Time, budget, and physics constraints cause engineering. Constraints help you know the difference between a nice-to-have and
It is no secret that I am not a fan of logs; I’ve baited (rapala in work lingo. Rapala is a Finnish brand of fishing lure, and used to mean baiting in this context) discussion in our work chat with th
I spend a lot of time thinking about how to learn more efficiently. Given the same amount of time and resources, how can we learn more? While efficiency is beneficial, focusing too much on it can lead
Many companies make the same sorts of mistakes with their managers, over and over again. If they were software designs, we'd call them antipatterns. 31 December 2024 Ever had a manager who was clearly
The narrative around the infiltration of artificial intelligence (AI) into our professional lives is often tinged with fear. Can a computer do what I do faster and more cheaply? Will my skills become
Search is hard. It’s a critical part of many apps, but getting it right isn’t easy. This is especially true for RAG-pipelines where the quality of retrieval can make or break the entire process. While
As a manager, doing one on one meetings with your direct reports is your most important tool. I’ve talked a bit before about opening lines, but I figured it could be interesting to dig into how I hand
Note: Rapid Learner—my six-week course that teaches you the best way to learn anything—will reopen on Monday for a new session. If you like my books or challenges and want to master the art of learnin
W e tend to position work against a series of opposites. Some of these are lauded, or at least tolerated: leisure, play, meditation, contemplation, rest. But one of the antonyms of work is, in most ac
Earlier this year, Justin Murphy, the founder of the media and education company Other Life, wanted to offer a premium product to his newsletter subscribers. But for months, he’d been grappling with a
This article was featured in the One Story to Read Today newsletter. Sign up for it here. I had been avoiding my friend Jens Söring for months. Whenever his emails arrived, I’d open a reply window and
Our Mistaken Ideas About What Makes Us Happy By Leo Babauta Most of us are operating on mistaken ideas about what gives us happiness — and these errors are costly. Think about how you normally spend y
👋 Hey, it’s Wes. Welcome to my weekly newsletter on managing up, driving growth, and standing out as a high-performing leader. In this week’s newsletter, you’ll learn how to respond when stakeholders
Today (3rd July, 2024) is my 35th anniversary working in and around the software industry. All but 18 months of that have been spent on software development teams; those errant 18 months were spent ed
Dropbox offers a handful of features that use machine learning to understand content much like a human would. For example, Dropbox can generate summaries and answer questions about files when those fi
Want to stay current with Arthur’s writing? Sign up to get an email every time a new column comes out. If you are looking for a job right now, you’re not alone. According to the Bureau of Labor Statis
The Linear team runs on strong opinions that might seem counterintuitive to outsiders. Here’s how those principles show up in both the product and their processes. Well-designed interfaces don’t just
Need to get your creative juices flowing? Get moving. A long line of influential thinkers have instinctively moved their bodies to open their minds, from Darwin, who advanced his theory of evolution w
Dear subscribers, Today, I want to share 15 life and work quotes from Jensen Huang (NVIDIA’s CEO). Jensen cleaned toilets and washed dishes before leading NVIDIA to become the most valuable company in
For more than 40 years in a row, Ford’s F-150 and its family of pickup trucks have been the best-selling vehicles in America. So when Ford released an electric version in 2022, the F-150 Lightning, it
This article was originally published by Quanta Magazine. Each summer, like clockwork, millions of beech trees throughout Europe sync up, tuning their reproductive physiology to one another. Within a
I find that almost all problems are a breakdown in trusting ourselves. If we could trust ourselves fully, so many things become effortless. Let me give some examples of where we don’t trust ourselves:
It is 5.15am and I am walking down my street, feeling smug. The buildings are bathed in peachy dawn light. “Win the morning and you win the day,” suggests productivity guru Tim Ferriss. The prize is w
Someone just attempted to assassinate former President Donald Trump. We don’t know who, and we don’t know why, but we know they came terribly close to succeeding. We should all be terrified about what
Work in Progress The meeting-industrial complex has grown to the point that communications has eclipsed creativity as the central skill of modern work. Illustration by Ben Kothe / The Atlantic. Source
When answering the Orion questionnaire, a question stopped me up short by contracting an incomprehensible expanse of complexity into a binary: Are you the same person you were as a child? It is fundam
After a long anticipated wait, the Bank of Canada has finally decided to cut interest rates by 25 basis points. The decision marks a departure from the series of interest rate hikes that were previous
Do androids dream of executing routines? We are stuck in a world of routines: Wake up, answer email, go to a meeting, then another meeting, check off an item from a todo list, and repeat. The “hustle