Are you operating in the world, or are you working on a problem? This shift in agency can make all the difference in your career.
Can you use ChatGPT to become a better engineer? I'm not just talking about learning a language or fixing a bug with ChatGPT providing advice... I'm talking about career simulations. In this episode we discuss how the airline industry has fixed the problem of experience, and how we can learn from their insights to create low-stakes learning environments that boost our career and confidence through the roof.
In today's episode we discuss the concept of adopting self-coaching personas, and discuss the third persona, "Shoulder Socrates."
In today's episode we discuss the concept of adopting self-coaching personas, and discuss the second persona, the over-optimizer.
In today's episode we discuss the concept of adopting self-coaching personas, and discuss a critical first persona to start with.
High-leverage work often comes in the simplest form of helping another person with their efforts.
Learn to prioritize, and everything else falls into place. This is clarity through perspective and purpose.
Your career growth will be directly correlated to your ability to solve critical unsolved problems in the gaps of your organization's problems. Focus on finding the problems that have a high chance of success for you specifically - the low hanging fruit.
In this episode we discuss the delineation between culture and values. What you allow is just as important as what you value.
The blunt reality: Merit cycles are not how you build your earning power or career. They are a function of company culture and HR, and generally speaking are disconnected from your biggest opportunities for growth.
So, where should you focus? That's what we talk about in today's episode.
In today's episode we discuss focus, again. This time, through the lens of a few mental models that help us decide what is actually the right thing to focus on. You'll learn the real enemy of focus (note: it's not just distraction).
I'm joined today by Brian Pulliam. I've personally engaged Brian as a career coach. In this discussion we'll talk a bit about coaching, and about how you can set yourself up to become a much better candidate in your job search as an engineering leader.
I'm joined today by Brian Pulliam. I've personally engaged Brian as a career coach. In this discussion we'll talk a bit about coaching, and about how you can set yourself up to become a much better candidate in your job search as an engineering leader.
In this episode we talk about the concept of "resetting your base" - moving in a direction you don't necessarily want to go in order to achieve better outcomes in the long run.
In today's episode we discuss how you might build your confidence without being disingenuous. This isn't a lesson in psychology or tricks - it's about building true confidence in what you do (and importantly, don't) know.
In today's episode, we'll discuss an absolutely simple structure for prioritization and information flow in your daily work. The flow relies on a basic text editor - that's it!
You have seen "bias to action" on job requirements, but what does this really mean? Is it something that can be learned? Make sure you know the difference between this skill and a more automatic cognitive bias.
In this episode, we use the Start / Stop / Continue framework in a new way. As leaders, we should always know what outcome indicators a given discussion is based on. In this episode, we discuss the three core outcome indicators for managers to pay close attention to.
In today's episode, we talk about inversion and inverted thinking. This is a mental model inspired by considering the "negative space" instead of the space occupied by the thing you are seeking. For example, if you are trying to avoid failure, you might intuitively seek a "successful strategy" instead of looking at the reasons it may fail directly. Inversion will help you avoid these traps.
In today's episode we discuss a preparation step for your next one-on-one. Don't just wing it - do your homework... and talk to yourself a little bit.
In today's episode we'll discuss some counterintuitive advice for your interviews. This advice applies in interview settings, but also applies in 1-1 meetings as well.
After today's episode, your resumé is going to get better! In this episode I will share the biggest mistake and the best advice I've ever received about building a great resumé. This will take some work from you, but I hope you walk away from this episode feeling like you have the right mindset to improve your resumé drastically, and land more interviews, ultimately leading to better job opportunities for the Developer Tea audience!
In today's episode, we talk about the counterintuitive process of prioritizing based on critical path. This is not a novel concept that I've invented, but rather a revisiting of the classic discussion started by Eli Goldratt in his book "The Goal", and later in his book "Critical Path", based on the theory of constraints.
The most common mistake for any manager is to fail to clarify. This often happens because we mistake our average communications for having perfect clarity, when in fact we most often don't communicate at high levels of clarity. This isn't because we are bad at communication, but rather because our social communications carry less consequence when they aren't precise.
Clarity is not simply being honest. We'll discuss the importance of clarity in this episode, and your first steps towards achieving clarity above the norm.
What does your culture have to do with your values? In this episode we open up the discussion about a model of thinking for culture and values to understand how they link, and more importantly, when they don't.
Your feedback loops should be short enough that the cost of making a mistake is low enough that the value of the learning in the feedback loop exceeds the magnitude of the cost of a mistake. In other words: shorten your feedback loops to the point that you're no longer afraid to make a mistake.
In this episode we discuss the importance of being your own advocate, and why this is likely the most rational position to hold. The takeaway: At any point, the person advocating the most for you is almost definitely YOU.
In this episode we discuss a practical application of information theory. Information theory is similar to the classic theory of communication, but distinct in important ways; these two theories together are a useful combo for creating a strategy for clarification.
In today's episode we talk about working principles again. Specifically, we're looking at a problem with measurement fixation, as well as the natural curve of degradation that most communication follows.
In this episode we are revisiting some of my own personal core principles of working. I'm sharing these with you for you to do whatever you want with them, so please share however you can!
The principles we discuss today are around the relationship between clarity and focus, and about how most negotiations aren't about feasibility but instead about strategy.
In today's episode we talk about principles of productivity. Most of the advice you receive will fit in the two categories we discuss in this episode. Once you connect with these ideas, you'll be able to use them for your own gain.
In today's episode we discuss the concept of "cost of delay", and explore the fact that cost of delay does not necessarily follow a linear path. When cost of delay has a cliff, or an exponential curve, how do you weigh one opportunity versus another?
"What actions can I take to get better from here?"
This seems like a simple concept, but in practice we often are more interested in protecting our ego. In this episode we try to practice this self-accountability through an exercise.
In this episode we continue our discussion about the most overused statistical measurement. We'll talk about a few more counterintuitive properties of the average, and how you might be underserving your colleagues as a result of thinking in averages.
On average, you're probably overusing this specific type of statistic. In today's episode, we discuss the king of all misleading numbers: averages!
There's so much to talk about with averages that we're splitting this into two parts. Disclaimer: I am not a mathematician. But we will talk about some of the interesting properties of averages and why they are so addictive to use for humans, but more practically what counterintuitive ways we might be using them incorrectly.
If you're using your sprint velocity to forecast work, this episode is for you!
Today we explore the idea of treating your time as a product. Start with a wishlist: what do you wish was true about your week? What are your "if-only" statements?
Next, put on your product owner hat. How would you improve the situation, if you knew the "consumer"'s requests?
This exercise should provide unique insight and a new lens to view your time and agency through.
The Von Restorff effect says we remember things that stand out. This is probably mostly intuitive - "that stood out to me" is a common colloquialism. But what isn't intuitive is the implied downside of uniformity, which is often the product of process.
In other words, if your process creates perfect uniformity, elevating any one thing, say, in priority, is going to be exceedingly difficult.
Additionally, if your "escalation" process is overused, it will once again violate the point of the escalation in the first place. "If everything is urgent, nothing is urgent."
In today's episode, we do a journaling exercise to provide a new lens on developing your own career roadmap.
We're going to practice the power of hindsight, finding our wiser selves, and ultimately looking forward and backward...at the same time. It sounds a little odd, but it's all based in solid cognitive science. If you have a notoriously hard time figuring out your career path, I'd invite you to participate!
As you grow your career, you will continuously lean on delegation to scale your efforts and focus on the most important things.
True delegation requires ownership, and ownership can be thought of in two critical parts: agency and responsibility.
In today's episode, we discuss the fool's errand of delegating only one or the other of these parts.
Little's Law explains, in a given queuing system, what the relationships of throughput within that system are. We can garner insights both for our work, and for our own lives, by recognizing how these relationships work and what we can do to utilize them. In this episode, we talk about when it is useful to use Little's law to your advantage.
Finding leverage is difficult to do, but a lot of the reason for this is that we allow ourselves to fall into well-traveled cognitive pathways. If we reject the solution domain-set that comes to mind immediately, we may be able to consider options for solutions we had never considered. This larger solution set may also include a high-leverage option we had previously ignored.
In today's episode, we discuss turtles, resolutions, and why your beliefs and what you see as fact is probably worth questioning anyway.
Today Marks 9 Years of Developer Tea.
Thank you all for your support, and your friendship. I wish you all well on your journey, and may you find clarity, perspective, and purpose. (Don't worry, we aren't going anywhere!)
What characterizes good plans from bad ones? And how can you make your plans better on average? In this episode we discuss how to better organize your intentions and processes to yield better plans.
The "lollapalooza" effect (coined by Charlie Munger) occurs when multiple other effects have a compounded outcome that tends to create an extreme situation.
In this episode, we discuss lollapalooza effects and how you might fall victim to them, and more importantly, how you can use them to your advantage.
When you are newly joining a team, you have a huge opportunity to do something that no one on the team has: to find your "weathervane." The pressure pushing against you to adopt the beliefs of the team you are joining. What you do with it is one huge way a team can improve, or otherwise, stay the same.
Most people believe good things will happen by default.
Not to be the bearer of bad news, but there's a downside to this endless optimism. You cannot will good things to happen, and when you don't prepare for adverse events, you won't be ready when they inevitably occur.
Your team's process for managing a backlog is probably growing stale because you are running on habit rather than procedure. Break out of procedure and remind yourself why you have a process to begin with: orient yourself to the outcomes!
What is it about our present situation that changes our perspective? In today's episode we talk about the availability bias and why our present reality looms so large in our decisionmaking.
What do you expect of yourself? Are you spending your time in ways that align with those expectations?
In this episode, I provide you a simple framework as a starting lens for getting a better idea of how you are spending your time in relation to who cares the most about those investments. You'll walk away with a new lens on how to evaluate your most precious resource: time.
Almost every conversation you have will start with a question. Have you stopped to listen closely? Questions are extremely meaningful and deeply human. Paying close attention to questions is a skill that will put you head and shoulders above the average engineer or manager.
How often does reality match your expectations exactly? Sure, you may guess in the ball park, but usually there are errors in our expectations.
In today's episode, I talk about a simple shift in thinking that will help improve your expectations for your work.
In this episode we continue a little mini-series called "Backlog psychology."
How do you get better at anything? (Hopefully you said "practice" almost instinctively.) What does good practice look like?
Your team has an opportunity to practice every meeting and every day. But if your days look different from one to the next, how will you ever have the opportunity to actually do that practice?
In this episode we continue the mini-series "Backlog psychology."
Would you rather have $5 now or $50 next week? The answer to this question, though it seems logically obvious which is better, does not always produce the same response. The required incentive to convince someone to wait tends to follow an exponential curve upward.
This is not just true with money, but for any benefit and incentive: monetary, social, emotional, physical, etc.
What does this mean for our backlogs? What about our daily habits?
In this episode we kick off a little mini-series called "Backlog psychology."
You've heard you should "limit your work in progress" - why? What makes more work in progress more difficult to handle?
Cognitive load isn't just about multi-tasking in the moment - it's also about limiting your open tasks.
Your retros may feel like deadends where complaints go to die. If you're running retros and treating it only as an avenue for emotional support rather than continuous improvement, today's episode is for you.
Retros are for improving iteratively over time. That can only happen if your outcomes are aligned to that iterative mindset. Two simple adjustments can help drive that improvement.
Count the cost of learning. When you choose a path towards a goal, it's absolutely critical to optimize for the cost of learning. Often, with software, it is easier to learn by a series of smaller steps, even if they start out as random, rather than take on the major risk of a large step possibly going the wrong direction. This isn't always true; sometimes, the cost of learning is greater with small steps. Determining which is true in your situation can make or break your plans.
Decisions are made in many ways, but one important type of decisionmaking tool is the "rule." This is something you follow without any cognitive processing.
But, we eventually develop rules as a part of habit-building. These are "implicit" rules - they aren't necessarily something you have set as a rule, but they are followed as if they were.
These are worth interrogating, and perhaps replacing with more explicit rules.
Are you stuck trying to prioritize your long list of things you need to do? Maybe you're trying to establish a habitual routine or areas of investment in your schedule, budget, or decisionmaking.
Figure out what you need to avoid first. This creates the opportunities you need to say yes.
Are you measuring the wrong thing for your short term game? If so, you probably continuously change directions and are never sure if anything you do is working. It's time to rethink your scoreboard.
Your career doesn't have to take off without your approval. Slow down, and make sure you actually have goals you are setting. Control your own destiny by aligning your plan to your actual goal, or vice versa.
Accountability can be complex. When something goes wrong, fingers start flying: someone needs to be held responsible.
But true accountability starts before anything goes wrong. In this episode, we discuss the Accountability Triangle, a mental model for ensuring that your accountability structures are valid and actually usable.
Improving your clarity is the beginning of your journey in engineering leadership. This takes courage and patience, but the investment will benefit everyone you influence, including yourself.
If you've used the term Tech Debt, you probably know that the metaphor is loose at best. Taking on tech debt sometimes becomes a permanent choice, and the repayment isn't always a clear-cut investment. Most importantly, the concept of "debt" doesn't as easily take into account the human factors involved.
Tech lag (taking inspiration from jet lag) is about the thrash involved in changing the standard of quality. In this episode, we talk about how this metaphor applies where you normally might think of tech debt.
Negotiation is not about getting more of what you want out of another person. Real artful negotiation is about finding alignment, and solving the problems presented at a level of divergence.
Layoffs happen whether we want them to or not. Being prepared with a principled approach can help relieve anxiety and produce better outcomes for when layoffs occur. In this episode, I give you two principled mental tools to help you deal with layoff anxieties no matter where you are in the picture.
Everything around us is primarily governed by some kind of system. The question is, are you designing your systems intentionally, or just letting them emerge? In today's episode, I give you one piece of advice when designing your systems: limit the responsibility of a given actor in the system.
If you don't have agency over your goals, how can they help you to begin with?
Good feedback isn't about getting something off of your chest. It's not about sharing your feelings (though that doesn't mean your feelings aren't important). It's about finding a problem that you and the person you are sharing feedback with both care about, and working towards a solution.
Planning will give you the illusion of certainty. What you really need to execute on your plans is clarity. The reality is that the future is impossible to predict, and the further away from now that you get, the more difficult it becomes to predict at an exponential rate. Focus on creating the best pathways for present decision-making.
You may hate hearing the word "process." You aren't alone if you do. But, what feels like a slog today is really in place for when the most critical things happen in your career. Have a process, even if it feels useless on a standard day.
The psychological phenomenon of hedonic adaptation can seem like the enemy of your happiness, but once you understand how it works, you can use it to create lasting habit change and focus on what matters most.
Today we look at a mental model from the field of psychophysics called Weber's Law. This concept is a great analogy for a lot of problems we face as engineers and people leaders, and can help us understand just how deeply humans depend on context to understand the world.
A senior developer understands that they have to be very selective about how they apply knowledge. Know matter how vast your knowledge may be, you are limited in how you can practically use it in a given circumstance.
Your intuition says that control is the ladder you climb to improve your career. But most great leaders tend to do one thing: the opposite of increasing control.
In today's episode we explore the duality between confronting difficult realities while maintaining optimism. Specifically, we discuss a critical question: what does it mean to be optimistic?
The traits that define a senior engineer are not catalogued perfectly in one spot. But, nevertheless, we'll try to cover some of the most important traits and habits of a senior engineer.
In today's episode, we'll add more detail to the commonly recommended skill of "work breakdown." Sometimes this extremely valuable skill is the opposite of what you really need to practice.
Feel free to incorporate these into your skill matrices, reviews, or job descriptions - I'd love to hear about it if you do!
The traits that define a senior engineer are not catalogued perfectly in one spot. But, nevertheless, we'll try to cover some of the most important traits and habits of a senior engineer.
In this episode, we'll discuss the fact that difficulty does not equate to value, and hazard a guess as to why we can easily confuse this, especially as we begin to grow from junior to senior roles.
Feel free to incorporate these into your skill matrices, reviews, or job descriptions - I'd love to hear about it if you do!
The traits that define a senior engineer are not catalogued perfectly in one spot. But, nevertheless, we'll try to cover some of the most important traits and habits of a senior engineer.
In this episode, we'll discuss the importance of systematically communicating value to various audiences.
Feel free to incorporate these into your skill matrices, reviews, or job descriptions - I'd love to hear about it if you do!
The traits that define a senior engineer are not catalogued perfectly in one spot. But, nevertheless, we'll try to cover some of the most important traits and habits of a senior engineer.
Feel free to incorporate these into your skill matrices, reviews, or job descriptions - I'd love to hear about it if you do!
We play the short game so we get the chance to play the long game.
Early in our careers, we imagine the best way to play is always focus on the long game. But in reality, we need both.
Be aware of leaning too far the opposite direction, and accidentally abandoning the long game entirely.
We can become accustomed to the rate at which we experience change, and imagine that that rate will continue to increase linearly.
Eventually, change will level off. We accumulate fewer skills later in our careers, our network of connections might seem to top out, or our salary bumps slow down.
If we know that change tends to follow a logarithmic shape, we can prepare and plan better for the changing rate of change.
At the beginning of any work session, practice, performance, or any other activity you want to achieve flow during, you can give yourself the best shot at getting into flow by controlling a few simple variables. We talk about two of them in today's episode: Session Feedback and Session Goal.
Protecting your flow state may help you have more "peak experiences" - whether in your career or in your personal life. This is your opportunity to make the biggest strides and highest achievements.
In this episode we start a conversation about what it takes to protect your flow state.
Sometimes I hear advice that is worth its weight in gold. In today's episode I share one piece of advice that is almost universally applicable across life and career efforts.
If your identity is complex, your purpose is by extension complex. In this episode, we talk about purpose as an expression, rather than a regulator, of your identity.
You don't need to overthink purpose. Focus on clarity, and finding your underlying motivation. That clarity can be short-lived; purpose is a dynamic and powerful force, but only if you hold it lightly.
What you are afraid of in your career may be the thing that propels you. It's all about framing, and removing the negative and positive language. Instead, think about how you can best position yourself and that behavior to be valuable instead of a detractor.
If you aren't doing something, you either can't or won't. In today's episode, we explore this very simple starting point for behavior change and habit development, and explore the boundaries of the model.
You aren't going to put your foot in your mouth, or reveal some devastating level of ineptitude. Asking questions, especially as a beginner, is much more likely to gain you favor than disdain.
What does a feature cost? Your first answer will probably focus on the time to build, or the features needed... Maybe the amount of hiring necessary to deliver. But what about after that?
The cost of our decisions is not limited to the short term - usually, a decision has a long term cost curve. Knowing what the cost curve is for any significant investment helps you make better decisions and have clearer anticipation and planning intuition.
There is a spectrum of buy-in for behavior change. In today's episode, I'll give you a thinking model for considering different types of buy-in along this spectrum, and when one might help you make better systems for behavior change in your organization.
What is your learning strategy? If you don't have one, you are implicitly saying that all learning is equal.
Learning is an investment of time. Choose what you invest in carefully.
Developer Tea has been around for 8 years. Thank you so much for your incredible support over these years!
In today's episode we discuss how it feels to be wrong.
Most resolutions aren't as simple as saying something and then doing it. Instead, focus on breaking apart your resolution by looking at intent, strategy, tactics, and operations.
Make a commitment to determine three requests that could change your life for the better, and the people you need to give those requests. Then, in the new year, make that a part of your resolutions.
Complexity is an asset, but often it depreciates in value over time. Simplification strategies should evaluate what kind of value complexity is providing, and whether that could be replaced or if it doesn't provide sufficient exponential value versus the cost over time.
Opportunity is in front of you every day. But, you may not recognize it at first, because you by default will likely imagine yourself to be an external observer. If you change that mental model, and view yourself as an active participant with the power to influence others, your perception of opportunity will follow.
What will hold you back from achieving what you want to achieve in your future? How do you imagine your future, and what do you assume will keep you from going further? In today's episode, we'll do a visualization exercise to help understand the assumptions we make about our own problems and flaws, and why avoidance isn't helping us grow.
Practical application of psychology can help us understand how to order our days more consciously. In this episode, we talk about priming and regression to the mean, and how they could impact our work as engineers and managers.
AI and code generation will change your work... But it's time for us to find the path forward.
AI and code generation will change your work... But it's time for us to find the path forward.
Focus on things that provide asymmetrical upside. This is a personalized ROI evaluation. This is how you invest your time wisely.
We imagine others are more interested in our mistakes or self-conscious areas than they are. We also imagine they pay little to no attention to us at most other times. Both of these are errors in judgment.
We adapt to our circumstances. This dampens our capacity for gratitude, as we become less aware of what we are experiencing the longer we have the same experiences.
In today's episode, we use a version of an exercise from Julia Galef's excellent book, The Scout Mindset, to help us break out of our status quo thinking and recognize what is in front of us.
You know how to determine what would be a good decision. You have the tools and the reasoning; if you find yourself still not making the right decision, you may be tempted to focus on the "left side" - increasing the energy, gumption, reasoning, or motivation. Instead, focus on the barriers - the friction.
Determining your values isn't just about fluff. This is what you personally care about.
In this episode, we talk about two ways to use direct observation as a tool for determining your values, and why those values are not just buzzwords.
Focus on what you can control. Create incentives and language and internal narrative that produces the right actions within your locus of control. Avoid attaching your definition of success to things outside of your control.
Don't buy in to the lie that you have to overwork to succeed. Not only is it not true, it's also dangerous - and the opposite is more accurate.
In today's episode, I provide a simple coaching tip on improved communication for software engineers. It's simple: always make precision explicit, and layer context. Start with precision, then create meaning on top.
We don't think about the unexpected as a category of possible outcomes. This leads us to assign overestimated probabilities to things that are front of mind, and discount the likelihood of things we don't expect. This may lead us to prepare for expected events without consideration for what we'll do in the face of the unexpected.
Look closer at the things that don't happen. Evaluate the options you never considered. When you are looking back, don't just judge based on actions and outcomes - look at the quality of decisions through the lens of information, and wonder: was there a better decision? Was there an option that was nearly as good, but this one was better?
You can't wait for luck to strike, but you also won't always get what you deserve. Both of these are true - so, go make luck happen for you!
Habits aren't built on their own. They are the result of environments.
Reduce friction and create a positive reinforcement loop, and the habits will follow.
What happens in high-stakes environments?
Is the learning you do in your low-stakes environment actually helping you when you have skin in the game?
Having trouble setting goals? Take a look at a different angle with the guided exercise in today's episode.
Our goals usually take two forms: what we want to accomplish, and who we want to be.
When we can align these things, we find cohesion in our goals, giving us more clarity and purpose.
Two guidelines for better goal setting. First, goals don't stand alone. Second, ranges often beat arbitrary points.
Stop and think about how you are spending your time.
Time is constantly moving, whether we stop to recognize it or not. How will you spend it? These five powerful questions will help you reconfigure your time today.
A short term mindset will focus on different things than a long term mindset. Neither is right or wrong, but what are you optimizing for?
Once you answer this question, you can start to work towards finding a solution that balances both.
Your best tool is your next question.
Diffuse thinking produces options and draws connections. Focused thinking narrows things down to a specific path.
Use them both, and watch for when they collide.
Doing nothing seems like it would be easy... But it seems that action is often easier than doing nothing.
Sometimes, perhaps often, action is the right choice. However, if there is no reason to believe one action over another would be better, or action over inaction for that matter - why are we taking action at all?
If we think about our efforts as spending time and energy, we can more adequately understand that inaction may be a valuable skill, rather than a risk.
You are not the sum of your decisions. Making better decisions often relies on having a long list of mistakes to learn from.
How does the smartest person in the world solve the most complex problems that most mathemeticians can't even understand?
The same way you write code and build features at your job. The principles always apply.
Choose one thing. Only one important thing. Do that over and over. That's your way out of overwhelm.
What people ask for is not the same as why they ask for it. What people want isn't as simple as what they say they want.
Understanding the why is critical - the interest is just as important as the position.
People often erroneously plan for specific futures. This leads down a pathway to failure most times.
This is because the future is rarely what we expect it to be. We can think in terms of multiple possible futures, and prepare for most of them. This leads us towards flexibility and adaptabiity.
Making good decisions is about tuning context. If you can't determine the context that matters, the decision itself is impossible to measure against. All decisions can be framed within a context with other decisions; choosing those decisions in concert is often the best strategy.
Feedback loops shape everything around us. We make a change or adjustment, watch for what happens, and repeat. This happens with people in the most unexpected ways. Tuning in to this adjustment loop can help us use it as a tool, rather than reacting to it.
Every decision is a tradeoff. If you are looking for the "right" decision, you can reframe this to the "optimal decision based on my desired outcome." This could have the effect of aligning your biases to work in your favor.
Is your performance review judging the luck or random events of a person's career? What about the times they made the right decision in a bad situation? The outcome may not be desirable every time, even with good decision-making.
Feedback loops shape everything around us. We make a change or adjustment, watch for what happens, and repeat. This happens with people in the most unexpected ways. Tuning in to this adjustment loop can help us use it as a tool, rather than reacting to it.
Almost every complex problem can be broken down and solved. Thinking from the other side - learning general solutions and how to compose those will give you the ability to build against the broken down complex problem.
Today, we'll dismantle a few common excuses often provided for not setting goals. We also briefly discuss the SMART goal-setting framework.
Your time is full of intent, but if you reflect back - how often do you do what you intend?
Our actions are usually trying to reach some outcome, but are haphazard and habit-driven. What if we made that outcome explicit, and made our calendars reflect specific processes instead of vague outcomes?
Change is inevitable, but it's not always what we think it will be. Our framework for change should be ready for change we don't expect as much or more than for change we do expect.
The flow of change is inevitable. Are you building with it, or ignoring it in vane?
What if status meant something different? Your status meeting overload is probably a symptom of a more important problem: you're not sure what you're measuring against.
Lower cognitive load by picking your tools, and then using them. Avoid the constant evaluation of tooling; it's an intuitive response to the amazing leverage you experienced when you first picked up the tools you have, but now your highest leverage activity is focus.
Lower cognitive load by looking at your primary activities and modes, and creating cues that help you shortcut to those modes. This importantly gives you a better signal and a spike in cognitive load when something comes up that doesn't match your primary activities and modes.
Cognitive load will destroy your productivity. In this mini-series, we talk about ways to reduce your cognitive load. In this episode we talk about limiting work, and everything else, in progress.
Cognitive load will destroy your productivity. In this mini-series, we talk about ways to reduce your cognitive load. In this episode we talk about the unexpected effects of surprise on cognitive load, and what you can do about this in your work.
The systems that play a role in producing your thoughts are a huge leverage opportunity in your work and life. If you pause and examine those systems through a lens of systems-thinking, you are likely to identify opportunities for improvement, even if only as a byproduct of that investigation.
If you only look at your experience, you fall prey to anecdotal evidence and a whole host of other biases. But, we should be learning through iteration and empiricism. So how can we? Seek the outside view, without abandoning your experience.
Your organizational efficiency is directly related to how you manage information, and information is lost when your organization is chronically lacking transparency.
Once you have the right meetings with the right people, it's time to look at the content of the meeting itself.
In this episode we discuss possible red flags that may show up in your meetings, and what kinds of problems these flags may signal.
Defining your audience is critical to a good meeting. If you haven't defined your audience... who is the meeting even for?
Better meetings are not a myth, but it starts with deconstructing how you got to where you are today. A hectic calendar and meetings showing up like popcorn.
What can you do to improve this? Managers and individual contributors can start by focusing on what the goal of the meeting is. If the goal of the meeting is to solve a problem, that's a yellow flag.
Competency is not the only way you can grow your career.
If that was the case, then every engineering manager would be technically more proficient than their reports, and I can guarantee (from many experiences) this is not only not the case - it's not even the norm.
Sometimes a small question can change the course of your career. It doesn't have to be complicated, and it doesn't have to be detailed. A well placed question might unearth information you didn't realize was in you.
In today's episode, I give you one question that is considered taboo (for some unknown reason) often in the workplace: What Do You Want? Amazingly, this diverse question is at the root of some of the most important conversations you'll have in your career. You are, after all, a human working with other humans - each with their own unique desires.
Play isn't just for kids. In today's episode we'll reframe what play means, and why it's a principle for great work and lifelong learning.
When you find something that is counterintuitive, it's possible that it will create immense value to whatever problem you are trying to solve. Seek to interrogate your beliefs to build better explanations for what is true, and find those who disagree with you at an intuitive level.
Productivity is about working towards your goals, and optimization is about sharpening those efforts more directly.
We talk about two forks in the road when you choose the types of optimization you'll deploy in your career and personal life.
Determining your values doesn't have to be an extremely serious or permanent exercise. Start at the simplest place you can, and iterate. Your values are as evolving and changing as you are - keep them held lightly.
If you feel like everything is spinning around you and it's difficult to remain productive, you aren't alone. In this episode we talk about core tools and activities, and why it's so important to spend the majority of your time working in your core.
Productivity measurements often show nothing of value at all. Today we'll discuss how complexity (or "story") points may actually show exactly the opposite of productivity.
Productivity is meaningless without a goal, and no activity is banned from being considered productive.
On the whole, exceptions are not exceptional. Each one may be unpredictable or rare, but they happen very regularly. How are you prepared to handle those exceptions? Make space today for the principle of headroom.
The quality of your options is determined by the quality of your inputs. If your decisions have no good options, consider what the source of those options is.
The background noise in today's episode wasn't just a mistake, it was a choice. A tradeoff. Tradeoffs represent a decision of control and energy. You will make them every day, but towards what goal?
When you make a tradeoff and decide where to put your energy, you are necessarily deciding not to put it elsewhere. So, do so with purpose and intention.
What was the last time you prepared for a meeting? I'm not talking about the times when you were forced to prepare. I mean, when was the last time you put thought and effort into a meeting that most people just show up to?
In this episode, we talk about simple ways to go the extra mile. Also, this involves no extra work on your part.
Premortems aren't just a tool for teams launching projects. You can use these for your personal goals as well.
What are the things most likely to stop you from achieving your goals today, this month, this year, or by the end of your career?
Comparison is a powerful tool that humans are exceedingly good at wielding. However, as with any powerful tool, it can easily be misused to damaging effect.
In this episode, we'll discuss the importance of breaking false ties in a negotiation scenario. This happens more often than we realize, and the best way to do this is by breaking down the problem of "what is important" to each side in a negotiation.
Decision-making shouldn't just be about algorithms. It also shouldn't be just about intuition. Incorporating both is required to make the best decisions for your career.
Most decisions that are worth considering longer than a moment fall into the category of "intermediate decisions" we discuss in today's episode. These decisions require more than the quick snap judgments we all make, but shouldn't take significant deliberation or extended study to make. These decisions are the primary fuel for your career.
In today's episode we talk about finding perspective and purpose through the lens of two principles and one bonus exercise.
In today's episode, we discuss the principle of isolation. We use isolation in decisionmaking regularly! Now, let's learn how to harness it.
You can only optimize what you isolate.
Communication is hard. Like most things, we try to oversimplify it by turning "understanding" into a black and white, binary state. Communication and understanding is, however, a spectrum. Singular messages are low resolution, and it's our job when communicating with each other to increase the resolution of our communication. We talk about a simple framework for doing just that in today's episode.
In today's episode we discuss two types of decision evaluations, and a brief explanation of noise in decisionmaking.
You're making judgment calls every day - are they good? How do you know?
We all have some kind of motivation. But in error, we assume we know the motivations of others, and we also assume that our future selves will act in alignment with well-intentioned motivations. Both of these assumptions can lead us to poor decisions about our career. For managers, that assumption can lead you to making decisions for others that are suboptimal to their goals.
In this episode we talk about the importance of alignment and clarity for those motivations.
How do you keep the big picture in mind while also executing on the details? In today's episode we talk about the three-part pyramid that represents the big picture. We also overuse alliterations a bit in the episode, hopefully it helps you remember it!
What should I do if I don't have a manager? There's a lot of answers to this question, but the first route I want to suggest is to find someone who can provide the guidance and empowerment you need in your career. This is someone who has skin in the game and the agency and skill set to actually help you.
In today's episode, we talk with Swizec Teller, senior engineer at Tia. Swizec created SeniorMindset.com, discuss the differentiators and mindset shift when becoming a senior engineering mindset. If you missed the first episode, make sure you go back and listen to that first!
In today's episode, we talk with Swizec Teller, senior engineer at Tia. Swizec created SeniorMindset.com, discuss the differentiators and mindset shift when becoming a senior engineering mindset. If you missed the first episode, make sure you go back and listen to that first!
What does a good 1-on-1 look like? We'll answer this in many different ways. For today's episode, I want to share a micro-framework for you to try out in your next 1-on-1 that could elicit some of your career's most critical conversations.
What should I look for in a healthy relationship with my manager? In this episode we talk about a variety of signals that you can expect if you have the right kind of relationship with your manager.
In this episode we are kicking off a series called "Better Report, Better Manager" - in this series, we'll discuss how you can improve your relationship with your manager from a practical standpoint.
Your relationship with your managers is likely one of the most critical relationships you'll have in your career. In this episode, we'll start by getting you aligned with your manager by asking 3 calibration questions.
Your status meetings are an old holdover from less useful business practices. Do away with status meetings, and instead get to the core of your discussion faster.
In today's episode we discuss two principles that will help you make better software design decisions. Talk about these principles and how they apply with your manager, teammates, mentors, or other engineers in your community!
Defining what your tools, teams, processes, and even you yourself are good at is hard, and often we stray past the boundaries of focus that would keep us performing to an optimal degree.
In this episode, I encourage you to perform an exercise of inversion, to look at tasks your tools are simply not suited for.
Our ability to make sense out of things is powerful. When we hear "90% of the way there", our brain fills in the gaps and often stretches that to mean "basically 100%." However, this is a cognitive error. In this episode, we talk about the importance of combining statistical thinking with sensemaking.
Opportunity comes in moments of convergence. Loss is measured in divergence. Pay attention to what is converging now - this is how you take advantage of opportunities and reduce your cost from divergence.
Everything we do in our teams is based on trust. Trust, however, is a limited resource. We should spend it wisely.
You're a new engineer - what should you start doing in your first 30 days? In this episode, we talk about 3 behaviors you might be resisting, but that you should actually embrace in order to improve your team. Managers especially need to listen up on this one.
In the mid 20th century, Marshall Mcluhan brought philosophy into the spotlight with his claim that the "medium is the message." We discuss the meaningfulness of this, and apply it to our work as engineers and on distributed teams, in today's episode.
The world around us isn't static, but our brain processes as if it is.
In this episode we talk about subtle shifts to help break that mold for the most important interactions we have in the world.
In today's episode, we discuss the fact that intuition isn't all that bad to use when estimating... we just shouldn't use it to estimate a number. Taking advantage of things humans are already good at (rather than limiting people to processes that work around those skills) is a powerful shift in thinking.
When we have context, we predict more accurately. When we translate numbers into more meaningful concepts, we create context where previously things were fuzzy. This makes our predictions more meaningful and grounded.
In today's episode we talk about a concept called excessive cohesion - when our brains fill in the gaps when information is missing. This is an important function of our brains, but sometimes it can lead us to wrong conclusions or faulty processes.
Increasing clarity informs perspective. Changing perspective often brings new clarity.
When we manage our work through effective process, we are seeking clarity on that work. We refine our to-do list by clearing up ambiguity. We add clarity by getting input from others, breaking work down into simpler pieces.
In this episode, I talk about this relationship between clarity and perspective, and how simplification benefits my productivity drastically.
How do you consolidate all of the advice you receive? More importantly, how can you put it into practice day in and day out? We'll talk about two strategies for making this happen in today's episode.
Why are you getting blocked every sprint? Find the root cause. In this episode, we discuss 4 common root causes for engineers getting blocked. Which ones do you face?
We continue our discussion with Julian Gutman about community and culture in today's episode.
Today, Julian Gutman, Chief Product Officer at Patreon, joins us to discuss community, culture, and buy-in.
First off, thank you for an incredible 7 years! Our listeners and sponsors make it possible to do this show, and I'm incredibly grateful for every one of you.
In this episode, we continue our discussion with two more exercises for making meaningful and purpose driven behavior change resolutions.
In today's episode, we discuss purpose-oriented resolutions. We'll discuss an exercise you can use to help drive this development process. We'll also continue this discussion about resolution development in the next episode of the show.
If you can't focus, you are paralyzed. Everything you do in your career and life will be served better with clear and continuous focus. We revisit this topic after nearly seven years because it is profoundly true.
It's hard to remember sometimes, but our priorities are our own. We have agency over our time. Even our obligations are more often determined by our chosen values than they are by actual survival.
When we accept that we have agency over our priorities, we can start to reclaim time that we feel is being taken from us, eliminating a feeling of chaos and frustration and regaining a sense of calm and intention.
Mental models are very useful, and we tap into them even without knowing it. But just like any cognitive tool, our brain can play tricks on us when using mental models. In this episode we'll talk about three ways we can go wrong with mental models.
Make your decisions easier by anticipating them. Determine systems for making decisions in advance, so you don't get caught making them on the spot. Determine models of opportunities so you can quickly pattern-match against them, and create systems that make your decisions for you when possible.
In today's episode, we'll talk about two ways to improve your perception and perspective when making your new year's resolutions, or any other big decisions or changes in your life.
These two tools will help you make adjustments to what you are paying attention to, and reduce the friction in your decision-making process.
In today's episode, we discuss two tools that I believe will change your closest relationships forever.
It can be awkward to intentionally work on communication with your closest relationships. But if you employ these tools, you're nearly guaranteed to see an improvement in your relationships. This isn't a gimmick or a hack; it's the hard work of communicating clearly with another human being.
We had some gremlins in the audio processing of the first part of the interview with Ernie Miller. They've been banished!
Today I talk with Ernie Miller. Ernie is the head of engineering at Monograph. (They are hiring!)
We talk about the four-day work week, fragility of culture and the importance of taking care of it, and the differentiation of culture and values.
We have an illusion of control when things go our way, and a bias to shift the blame when things don't go our way. In retrospectives, we also believe we know all of the variables at play.
In today's episode, we talk about these tendencies, and provide a model for thinking about our efforts as functions, and different variables as inputs. We categorize these inputs into four categories on a matrix, and provide a tool you can use practically in your retrospectives.
Today I talk with Ernie Miller. Ernie is the head of engineering at Monograph. (They are hiring!) This is the second part of my interview with Ernie, and the second time Ernie has been on Developer Tea.
We talk about the four-day work week, fragility of culture and the importance of taking care of it, and the differentiation of culture and values.
Today I talk with Ernie Miller. Ernie is the head of engineering at Monograph. (They are hiring!)
We talk about the four-day work week, fragility of culture and the importance of taking care of it, and the differentiation of culture and values.
The focus is the work.
When anyone asks how they can be more productive, I give them the exercise I talk about in this episode. It's extremely simple, but not easy.
What are you focused on, right now? If you can answer this question at all times, you will be productive.
Bugs are inevitable, but individually unpredictable. Trying to use a single strategy for dealing with these events will miss a huge number of the events, while requiring massive efforts. Instead, we should focus on building a balanced approach to dealing with problems like this.
Most things are compositions of other things. Most problems are multi-factorial. Most opportunities have more than one selling point.
Sometimes, it helps to realign your thinking to composition, using tools like matrices to make better decisions.
Substitute with better questions, and you'll have more insightful answers. Questions are a major contributing factor to behavior, and the way you ask questions is a habit that can have a high-leverage cascading effect on the rest of your life.
Find better questions.
Focusing on fundamentals may seem boring, or like a sports catchphrase used to motivate people to practice. The truth is, these fundamentals are still going to be the most important value-making activities of your career. But as you continue participating in them, if you engage with intention, you will not simply be repeating the same thing over and over; you and your environment will change, sometimes as a result of those repeated cycles. You will gain intuition from the practice, and you will peel back layer after layer, developing intuition.
Metamodeling is creating a model of models. Confused yet? When we use models, we often assume they are complete. But what characteristics could make all of our models better? That's the concept of metamodeling. We talk about creating metamodels and using steering feedback to derive value from one model to another.
Stress often comes from pressure. When we experience pressure, we usually respond by trying to relieve it - often to the detriment of our work.
In today's episode, we talk about the dangers of pressure, and some strategies to employ in the face of pressure.
Confidence is often used as an artificial bluff, to help us feel less dread of failure. But this is problematic; when we put blinders on, we don't prepare adequately, often leading to blame-shifting and other techniques to maintain an inflated sense of confidence. Instead, choose bravery - the willingness to act in the face of uncertainty.
What do you want to change? The things you do repeatedly have the most impact on your life. Focus on the systems that produce repeated behaviors. We talk about these as "engines" of behavior in today's episode, and help you figure out which ones to focus on the most.
We continue talking about conducting a mindful job search in today's episode.
The truth is, that next application you put in is probably not going to end in an accepted offer. Whether by your decision or theirs, most job applications go nowhere. In this episode we'll talk about how to deal with this reality, as well as some other myths of interviewing.
If you've ever felt bad about looking for a job, or you're wondering if now is the right time because a bunch of coworkers or friends are on the move, this episode is for you. We talk about approaching making a career change decision mindfully, and considering how it will affect your internal happiness.
Pick the right tool for the job.
But who is picking? What tools can they choose from? And what is the actual job, anyway? This advice is important because it gives you a starting framework to answer some of the most important clarifying questions in any task of significance.
You are much more likely to succeed with iteration than you are with a perfect first attempt.
This is purely a function of probability, and is even more supported by the idea of progressive improvement.
When you can iterate, it is a better route to higher confidence of success than perfect preparation.
When you have to predict, you're likely to have error in your prediction. Sometimes that error is easily handled - other times, it can be catastrophic in effect.
The next time you have the urge to predict into the future, ask yourself - what benefit do you gain from predicting this now? Can you avoid unnecessary prediction all together with a different route?
Random choice may actually be your best bet. At the very least, starting with random is a good exercise in self control, and will help reveal information more easily than intuitive guessing might.
Give random a chance!
It's easy to believe that everyone you get along with agrees with you about anything and everything.
The truth is harder to confront, but often, this illusion can cause problems - especially when you actually want diverse perspectives.
In this episode, we talk about two types of illusion of agreement, and how you might combat them.
The number of things you have to choose to do in a day is constantly being fought over. Your calendar, if it's like most calendars, has very little to do with how you want to spend your time.
Limit your options. Focus on fewer things. Eliminate your obligations.
When we understand the features and boundaries of any object, we can do more with that object based on those constraints.
This doesn't just apply to code - it applies to our lives in meaningful ways, and acts as a heuristic and a powerful model for thinking.
Averages can trick you into thinking a generalized idea about a complex set of data. This kind of compression happens not only with averages but any other process that summarizes information.
Ask yourself: What am I missing in this story?
In today's episode, I have a discussion about product development and counter-intuitive decisions Dom had to make along the way in making Around (around.co). This is part two of the interview - make sure you go back and listen to the first part as well!
In today's episode, I have a discussion about product development and counter-intuitive decisions Dom had to make along the way in making Around.
Context is critical, but what does that mean? What are the parts of context you should care about?
In this episode, we talk specifically about temporal context, and how you can think about context in terms of "inner" and "outer" layers.
"What do I do about this?"
This question is one that can trigger action, even in a moment of pain. When we make a clear decision about how we are going to react to our situation, we immediately change the narrative from "this is happening to me" to "this is what I'm choosing to do." This agency is critical to processing and managing difficult situations, and it will change how we relate to our experiences for the better.
If you can make better decisions, every other effort you put forth will benefit.
One common error made when making decisions is overtuning on perfection. In today's episode, we'll talk about two razors that help combat this tendency.
Expectations can cause pain, but they can also be useful. An expectation should be a hypothesis. Where we go wrong is when we mix our expectations with our hopes or fears.
Flexibility is not something you conjure in a moment of need. It is something that is developed and gathered like a resource when you least require it.
There is something almost pseudo-religious about talking about purpose that is easy to get hung up on, especially if you don’t consider yourself a particularly spiritual person. Purpose is often equated with some kind of externally designated path. We often think of purpose as something that is destined or otherwise set out before us. If you have been hesitant or afraid to explore your own purpose, I want you to take some time to explore why.
Our brain wants beliefs to stay the same. We don't want to change, and yet progress is dependent on change.
That doesn't mean your beliefs are all wrong if you have had them for some amount of time. But confirmation of pre-existing beliefs can limit your growth and progress as an engineer and as a human being.
Put your beliefs on trial.
We see the world through stories. We communicate about the world through stories. So, the stories we tell turn out to be incredibly important to the way we operate in the world.
If you wait until your tank is empty, you've created an urgent situation you could have avoided. Keep your tank full, early and often.
This applies to almost everything in our lives, but so often we sacrifice a full tank for some marginal gain. This leads to a scarcity mentality and a lack of flexibility.
What can you do to fill your tank?
The most critical career mistake you can make isn't a secret.
Are you in control? If you aren't driving your career, who is? Is your career being driven by someone else, or worse - no one at all?
The romance of endless success is a broken picture of reality.
Instead, focus on inviting failure and taking advantage of the opportunity it brings: the opportunity to take responsibility.
What are your ideals? For many people, ideals are fragile. The moment we see a hero fall, our own lives are immediately thrown into a state of confusion. Instead of having fragile ideals, we should explore the underlying motivations, and set ourselves up for dynamic ideals that don't break easily.
Great questions trigger thought and further questions. In this episode, I pose 4 questions (and a bit of homework) to help you get a handle on where your career is headed.
Whether you are in a transition point, at the beginning of your career, or in a senior role, these questions can help point you down the pathway to better understanding and clarity for where you stand today.
Joel Beasley is the host of Modern CTO, a podcast with guests coming from IBM, Microsoft, Nasa, Reddit, and hundreds of others. Joel and I have wanted to have this discussion for a long time, and we finally found the right overlap to do it!
You can learn more about Modern CTO at https://moderncto.io and listen to this episode in the alternate podcast universe here.
Thanks for joining me on Developer Tea, Joel!
Happy Friday everyone! Today we talk about fighting the inertia of the daily slide into habits. How many days have seemed to slip through your fingers? One way to combat this is to develop a "meta-behavior" that short-circuits your other habits. Write advice to yourself from today, for tomorrow. This is best done at the end of the day, or in preparation for the week ahead.
Joel Beasley is the host of Modern CTO, a podcast with guests coming from IBM, Microsoft, Nasa, Reddit, and hundreds of others. Joel and I have wanted to have this discussion for a long time, and we finally found the right overlap to do it!
You can learn more about Modern CTO at https://moderncto.io and listen to this episode in the alternate podcast universe here.
Thanks for joining me on Developer Tea, Joel!
What if the best thing you could do was nothing?
Not indefinitely, of course - but often, we intervene in the world when the right choice is to do nothing.
This is uncomfortable because it is unfamiliar, but might be the most critical change you can make in your thought process.
Comparison is an incredibly important tool. But most of the time, the comparisons we are making are imaginary - even the ones that seem real. In this episode we'll talk about why we should be mindful of this, and in some instances, take measures to debias our decisions.
Are you acting on impulse? How would you know? One door to understanding this "acting without thinking" is to investigate our hypotheses. Implicit hypotheses are expressed as instances of our beliefs. What implicit hypotheses are you relying on today?
Model Manager episodes of Developer Tea are dedicated to helping engineering managers find models of thinking that improve their approach to management.
Great managers don't attempt, in vain, to control the actions of others. Great managers take advantage of the unique parts of being a human: that they can self-improve through learning and change, and they can create environments that encourage others to do the same.
What are you waiting on? What are you replaying? It doesn't have to only be anxiety that takes you out of this moment. You may be looking forward to something exciting, or remembering a positive experience. But what are you missing right now?
Discipline is not about punishment or punctuality. It's about perseverance in the face of changing circumstances. And it's critical to your success as an engineer.
Model Manager episodes of Developer Tea are dedicated to helping engineering managers find models of thinking that improve their approach to management.
Processes create uniform approaches and uniform outputs. But what is the output you should care about the most? In this episode, we'll discuss why human behavior is the primary and most critical output of any process.
You don't have to choose to be a generalist to have career security. If you pursue mastery, you will be building skill-acquisition at the deepest levels, and picking up skills that are ancillary to that master-set. Don't follow the latest trend - develop mastery.
We all have 24 hours in a day. How can you compound your time? In many ways, this is what "spend it wisely" means. In this episode we classify different types of decisions and actions, and provide a reminder that direction is ultimately the most critical thing to align.
If you are progressing slowly in your career, it might be because you are working in the bowl of mediocrity. This is where you are taking very little risk, but are also disconnected from the fundamentals of your business or role. In today's episode, I challenge you to work on the edges of this bowl instead of the middle.
The execution phase of any work you do is where you find the most satisfaction. But it's possible that you aren't finding flow because you have a broken working process.
It's difficult to stop working and fix the process, and especially difficult to balance fixing process with actually being productive. In this episode, we'll discuss this dichotomy and the practice of staying mindful during execution.
Everyone has the tendency to procrastinate.
Is there something you're putting off? It seems simple, but finding the first step and putting it on your calendar in as much detail as possible is a proven way to break through the barrier of inaction.
Should you live every day like it's your last? What about preparing for the future? Chasing your goals and dreams? How can you both be mindful of the present moment and plan for the future? We don't have every answer to that question, but we'll discuss the tension on today's episode.
There's too much to remember. Instead, integrate that information. You don't need to memorize everything. Develop your intuition.
When two smart people or groups disagree, what is happening? Sometimes one is plainly wrong about the facts. But more often than not, these two people are arguing from a local rationale. We'll talk about local vs global rationale in this episode and how they apply to your job as an engineer or manager.
We intuitively imagine our skills and capabilities to be one-dimensional and permanent. However, what goes into whether we can actually execute on our skills is multi-dimensional. In today's episode, we'll discuss a frame of thinking for capabilities that provides a lens for thinking about constraints and context.
Call it luck, serendipity, or chance - all of these unexpected moments of life require entropy to occur. On the other hand, if we don't control our lives to some extent, we'll never be able to make meaningful progress in a chosen direction. How do we invite luck into our lives without floundering in place endlessly?
When you think about probabilities, you likely think in one of two ways. We'll talk about both of these models for probabilistic analysis, their drawbacks, and decision-making in the face of uncertainty.
Humans are driven to resolve cognitive dissonance as efficiently as possible. We pay little regard to whether our solutions are accurate or correct, but rather we only seek harmony in our minds. Unfortunately this can mean reinforcing unhealthy thought patterns and incorrect beliefs. However, cognitive dissonance can be turned around and used towards positive gains.
How does learning happen? In one fell swoop - linear? Or is there another path that learning takes? We pass judgment on ourselves and others, designing our attempts in ways that are suboptimal based on the assumption of linearity.
Almost nothing is truly linear.
If you don't understand the motivations underlying your goals, you will always deal with brittle, high-stakes situations. If you understand your goals through the lens of your deeper human motivations, you will be more able to see the flexibility and many pathways to success.
We grow up believing there is a continuum from serious to fun, and that as you get older, you traverse towards the serious side.
The truth is, the more serious you are, the more fun you need to be able to incorporate in your audacious goals. Throw out the continuum - it's a fallacy.
Your obstacles are not a test of pride or an opportunity to prove yourself. They are in your way. There's more than one way to deal with this - so why do we so often choose a difficult path? Perhaps it is pride, or maybe we like testing our fortitude. But if you care less about proving yourself and more about accomplishing your goals, you need to look at obstacles with more nuance. In this episode, we talk about making your obstacles irrelevant.
Growth and comfort rarely mix. But there's more to growth than getting uncomfortable. Different kinds of growth produce different kinds of uncomfortability; which types are you seeking?
What specific components of your situation have an outsized effect on you? What resonates in a given scenario? This mental model will help us understand and come to accept why sometimes things just "click."
You've hit a plateau - now what?
Today we'll discuss two models for reframing your plateaus; perhaps you haven't hit the wall you think you've hit.
In today's episode, we talk about how your baseline perceptions and assumptions are the building blocks of your leverage.
Ethan Kross joins me today to talk about the importance of our inner voices. In his new book, Chatter, Ethan outlines how our inner voices affect us and how we can shape them as a helpful tool.
Ethan Kross joins me today to talk about the importance of our inner voices. In his new book, Chatter, Ethan outlines how our inner voices affect us and how we can shape them as a helpful tool.
Humans have the unique ability to intentionally practice and better ourselves. What makes you grow? Are you inviting those triggers and contexts into your regular schedule? How are you making time for growth?
You have the greatest potential to coach yourself. But first, you need to understand the ground rules, and build your coaching skills. We start that journey in this episode.
How do you determine what is valid, authoritative, useful, and true in your daily decisions and actions?
Ben Franklin used a system of improvement that we can learn from. The idea is simple: focus on one thing at a time.
On today's episode, I interview a personal hero of mine in the podcasting world, Katy Milkman. Katy is the host of Choiceology, a podcast about why and how we make the choices we make. Katy also just released a brand new book, How To Change - be sure to check out both of these incredible resources!
The previous episode's audio had a bit of a hiccup - this one is fixed. Sorry about that! On today's episode, I interview a personal hero of mine in the podcasting world, Katy Milkman. Katy is the host of Choiceology, a podcast about why and how we make the choices we make. Katy also just released a brand new book, How To Change - be sure to check out both of these incredible resources!
Our inside view is not on the outside of others' inside views. In order to think empathetically, we need to develop skepticism about our own perspectives.
Our inside view is made up of invisible, inescapable walls. Can we simulate an outside view?
Uniqueness is not inherently valuable. Our heuristic brains interpret uniqueness as worth paying attention to and possibly valuable, and for that reason we tend to over-index on protecting that value by resisting things that make us less unique. But this can lead to inefficiency or an inaccurate picture of what actually generates value for your venture.
Best practices feel universally and always applicable, but like anything, best practices require context.
In today's episode, we welcome back to the show Ali Spittel! Ali is a developer advocate at AWS Amplify. So, naturally in this episode, we discuss topics around what it means to be a developer advocate! Ali has a passion for making code accessible and fun, and you'll hear that in this episode.
In today's episode, we welcome back to the show Ali Spittel! Ali is a developer advocate at AWS Amplify. So, naturally in this episode, we discuss topics around what it means to be a developer advocate! Ali has a passion for making code accessible and fun, and you'll hear that in this and the next episode.
It's easy to imagine we are more complex and others are more simple than is true. Often, we see ourselves as having nuance, while others are characterized once and that characterization may never be updated. In this episode we'll talk about this inversion, and how to push back on it.
It's easy to imagine we are more complex and others are more simple than is true. Often, we see ourselves as having nuance, while others are characterized once and that characterization may never be updated. In this episode we'll talk about this inversion, and how to push back on it.
In today's episode, I have the joy of interviewing Julia Galef. Julia and I talk about updating your beliefs, the difficulty of fighting our biases, seeking truth, and her new book, The Scout Mindset.
In today's episode, I have the joy of interviewing Julia Galef. Julia and I talk about updating your beliefs, the difficulty of fighting our biases, seeking truth, and her new book, The Scout Mindset.
Friday refill - happy Friday! We have a drive to balance everything. Move back towards the middle, maintain status quo. But usually, balance is wasteful and an illusion.
In today's episode we run a thought experiment. What happens when a story changes? Can we ever get back "on track"? History is complex. Predicting history gets more and more complex the further away we try to predict. We should be careful with our predictions.
Huge transitions are happening for most people right now. As this occurs, our environments will change. Partially as a result of the availability bias, we'll also see peoples' behaviors and thought patterns will also change. We'll talk about how this bias works in today's episode.
How do you make work look good on your resumé when you feel like you haven't done anything impressive? Only the people who work with you know the value of what you did, so how can you communicate that in a bullet point?
As we transition together through strange periods (whether at large scale like the present moment, or at a smaller scale within your organization or culture), the way we look at each other changes. This observation shift brings behavior change - that's what we're talking about in today's episode.
Uncomfortable places may feel dark, but they often carry the most illuminating lessons. In today's episode we discuss using these darker moments as a compass to find your values.
Look at your calendar. What doors are opening? What exponential gains are you building? Leverage and access are the key to building your career long term.
Today's guest is Dan Pupius, CEO and co-founder of Range. Dan cares deeply about creating products that make healthy and sustainable workplaces a common occurrence. We talk in depth about designing constraints and opinions into products with the long term in mind.
Today's guest is Dan Pupius, CEO and co-founder of Range. Dan cares deeply about creating products that make healthy and sustainable workplaces a common occurrence. We talk in depth about designing constraints and opinions into products with the long term in mind. Don't miss the next episode - subscribe today!
We're all guilty of it - not letting that thing go that happened at work on Friday. But by giving it only partial energy over the weekend, we are likely not going to improve how we deal with it on Monday, and we degrade our rest and recovery time over the weekend. How do you deal with this? Consciously choose to stop.
Heroes appear when something has gone wrong. What does a team look like with no heroics?
Hey folks - this is the corrected version of yesterday's episode. Apologies for the error! You need intuition to build incredible skill. But it's important to develop a healthy caution towards intuition, as it can create a brittle framework for thinking. In this episode, we discuss both sides of this.
You need intuition to build incredible skill. But it's important to develop a healthy caution towards intuition, as it can create a brittle framework for thinking. In this episode, we discuss both sides of this.
Patience is more than a virtue. Patience is a signal that you understand the importance of gratitude and the vanity of rushing or attempting to control what you cannot. In this Friday refill, we'll discuss some of the mechanics of patience and how it relates to other parts of our lives.
Geoff Schmidt joins me to discuss GraphQL, Apollo, and how the responsibilities are shifting and roles are changing to give more leverage and better separation of concerns between client side and service architectures.
Geoff Schmidt joins me to discuss GraphQL, Apollo, and how the responsibilities are shifting and roles are changing to give more leverage and better separation of concerns between client side and service architectures.
We spend a lot of energy trying to predict our lives and priorities. This is mostly wasted - instead, we should spend our time understanding our values and planning to make margin for the principles in our lives.
Much of our attention and effort is used trying to remove human influence and finding "raw" truth. Today, I want to ask you to do the opposite of that.
There is far more information that we ignore than what we pay attention to. This selective attention is important to understand as both a necessary skill and a potential pitfall.
We seek agreement by default. It feels good. But is it what we really want? What we really need?
In today's episode we talk about good key results and objectives, and how to clean up your goals. Having a goal is not enough and knowing your principles and what makes you different from others is the hardest part.
There are only so many ways you can manipulate LEGO. In today's episode we talk about those fundamental transformation steps and how they apply to your daily problem solving.
When you feel a sense of chaos has overwhelmed your week, it can be tempting to want to check out for the weekend. But in today's episode we discuss a tool I've used to combat this sense of aimlessness.
Quincy Larson might be responsible for at least one very important part of your career: the beginning. That's because Quincy is the founder of freeCodeCamp, a non-profit teaching millions of people to code.
In this and the last episode we talk all about what it means to be a beginner.
Quincy Larson might be responsible for at least one very important part of your career: the beginning. That's because Quincy is the founder of freeCodeCamp, a non-profit teaching millions of people to code.
In this and the next episode we talk all about what it means to be a beginner.
Your obligations are usually the result of your systemic choices. You have no choice but to rest and recover. Choose to affirm your choices instead of living under the illusion that those choices were imposed on you.
In today's discussion, we will look at what it will take to prepare for the changes we will see as we transition out of the worldwide pandemic, and into a post-pandemic world.
In today's episode we continue our discussion about what life will be like when the pandemic ends... whenever that will be. Will we go back to normal? How can we think about "normal" when so much has changed?
Your own internal voice may need to back off a little bit. Distancing from our self-talk and imagining a distant future (or distant present) might be one important way to reduce negative self-talk and improve decision making.
Jonas Downey is the design lead at Basecamp. In this interview we discuss the ethics of designing and building constraints into your product that change human behavior.
Jonas Downey is the design lead at Basecamp. In this interview we discuss the ethics of designing and building constraints into your product that change human behavior.
We are not well adapted to focus and filter information. For the majority of human history, the information available was virtually all relevant.
But now, we have an overload of information. Our first reaction is to believe we need to know it all to succeed... But we immediately run into a problem: there's vastly more than we can ever handle. So we resort to silly brain tricks to convince ourselves and others that we either know it all, or that most information isn't important.
We can do better.
In this episode, we continue series of episodes about how COVID has and will continue to affect our lives and jobs as software engineers. We'll talk about where we will work, and how COVID has changed the question all together.
In this episode, we kick off a series of episodes about how COVID has and will continue to affect our lives and jobs as software engineers.
Much of our lives are determined by our internal voices. These voices tell us a story that is hard to imagine differently. But it's an important skill to consider an alternate story.
Every episode has its downside. In this episode we talk about a mental model called the "Strategy Tax", and how it applies beyond business strategy.
We underestimate the knowledge we have. (Interestingly, we also over-estimate the knowledge we have, just a different type of knowledge.) We also underestimate the knowledge we don't have.
We overestimate the downside to failure, and we underestimate the downside to inaction.
We are afraid of failure, but perhaps we should be more afraid of inaction.
Our first Friday Refill!
Ignore motivation. Remove obstacles.
Motivation is not your fuel. You already have enough motivation. Don’t add more. Focus on removing the small distractions, things that will add resistance. Tilt the scales.
Discrete and continuous data are all around us. In today's episode, we talk about a specific model of thinking that combines discrete and continuous. We'll also talk a little bit about non-linear curves and how they fit into this model.
In today's episode, we talk about how much of our behavior is shaped by the invisible assumptions we make about our constraints, abilities, and context.
Why do we believe we are right, even when it's easy to see we're wrong?
There are psychological reasons, and there are basic biological and even logical reasons why believing you are right is easier than questioning yourself.
Portfolios benefit from diversity and risk management. You can think about your skills in the same way. But skills are more than just a portfolio. They also require an integrated approach; one skill modifies another. Learning to stack your skills will make your learning and growth much higher leverage.
Today, we talk about options.
A few thoughts we consider: Are options always good? How often do we think about all of our options? Is there a way to trend towards having only good options? And, most importantly, how can we strike the right balance between time invested and optimal choice?
You want to measure what matters. But your measurements might change what matters.
Understanding that anything that is measured might modify behaviors, it's important to then understand what should be targeted. How can we incentivize the right actions that produce the side effects we want, rather than incentivizing direct manipulation of those side effects?
Your actions speak louder than words. You already know that. But have you asked yourself what your actions are saying about who you are?
It's hard to construct with deconstruction in mind. It's difficult to imagine designing for final shutdown. In this episode, we talk about the importance of transformation and change, and the ultimate reality of everything: it all ends, at some point. If we want to build better software and lead better lives, we should build with open eyes about the end.
Today, we also celebrate the shutdown of Spec.fm, the podcast network Developer Tea has been a part of for over 5 years!
Our conscious thinking is optimized to remove as much as possible. The more we can accomplish without hard thinking, the easier it is on our brains. As a side effect, much of the reality of our lives becomes invisible to us.
Becoming enlightened may not mean rising above everything. Instead, maybe it means zooming in.
Exceptions are, by definition, unusual. An exception is something we wouldn't expect - out of the norm. Yet, we often craft much of our behavior around an abundance of perceived exceptions. In this episode, we talk about how this is a problem in code and in life, and a way to look at things differently.
As the year comes to a close, many are thinking about their resolutions. In today's episode, we'll discuss one thing that I hope makes it into your resolution-making efforts.
This week we're talking to another person who is dedicated to learning in public.
Today's guest is Shawn Swyx Wang and this week we're talking about his new book, "The Coding Career Handbook".
In today's episode we talk to another person who is dedicated to learning in public. Today's guest is Shawn Swyx Wang and this week we're talking about his new book, "The Coding Career Handbook".
This week, we sit down with Kent C. Dodds to talk about learning and teaching code in public.
This week, we sit down with Kent C. Dodds to talk about learning and teaching code in public.
Keith Pitt, co-founder and CTO of Buildkite joins the show this week to talk about his journey into building Buildkite.
Keith Pitt, co-founder and CTO of Buildkite joins the show this week to talk about his journey into building Buildkite.
Robby is the co-founder and CEO of Planet Argon and the original creator of OH-MY-ZSH.
Robby is the co-founder and CEO of Planet Argon and the original creator of OH-MY-ZSH.
In this part 1 of the two part interview with Robby we focus on Robby's background and importance of maintainability on your team.
In today's episode we sit down with Venkat Venkataramani to talk about his role as a co-founder and CEO of Rockset.
In today's episode we sit down with Venkat Venkataramani to talk about his role as a co-founder and CEO of Rockset.
In this part 1 of our two part interview, we dig into leading a company during difficult times.
We've been talking about making decisions and in today's episode, we're going to focus on the status quo.
As we come new to the close of 2020, we're thinking about a category of information that's hard to think about come naturally.
What are you most likely to be right about, and how do yo know?
We all know things that we want to be better at. In today's episode, we're talking about things that we choose not to be good at.
If you're listening to this podcast, you probably aspire to make good decisions.
In today's episode of Developer Tea, we're going to talk about 4 ways that smart people can make bad decisions.
Your culture of leadership and management comes from the top.
On today's episode of Developer Tea we're joined by Ravs Kaur. Ravs is the CTO at Uplevel and in the next two episodes she joins us to talk about leadership and management.
Your culture of leadership and management comes from the top.
In today's episode of Developer Tea we're joined by Ravs Kaur. Ravs is the CTO at Uplevel and in the next two episodes she joins us to talk about leadership and management.
What are the benefits of picking up a new language?
In today's episode, we're talking to Richard Feldman about Elm and some of the benefits of using Elm both in your career development and beyond.
In this part two of our interview, we cover Richard's personal experiences with programming and writing.
What are the benefits of picking up a new language?
In today's episode, we're talking to Richard Feldman about Elm and some of the benefits of using Elm both in your career development and beyond.
In this part 1 of the two part interview with Richard we discuss his journey into programming and in becoming an author.
We talk about trust all the time on this show. In today's episode, we're talking about trust from the lens of looking at yourself.
Today, we continue the conversation with the host of the Talk Python To Me Podcast, Michael Kennedy.
In this part two of our interview with Michael, we cover hard questions for developers and how Michael would approach situations like, low points in his career.
Today's guest is the host of the Talk Python To Me Podcast, Michael Kennedy.
In this part 1 of our two part interview with Michael, we cover how he got started with the Talk Python To Me Podcast and why he started it.
Part 2 coming this Wednesday!
How does your language effect your work and your team? If you're a leader, your language is everything.
In today's episode, we sit down with the author of Leadership is Language, David Marquet, about how leadership and language are intertwined and what you can do to share your language to be a positive influence on your team.
What if you found out the things you thought were good for you, are actually the opposite.
In today's episode, we're talking about the paradox of perception, and how it can be better to let certain things go.
How will you feel when you're 20 years into the job?
In today's episode we talk to the author of the "The Quick Python Book," and Chair Person of the Python Software Foundation, Naomi Ceder.
In this Part 2 of our interview with Naomi, we talk about staying consistent for 20 years, and how to keep going when the going gets tough.
How will you feel when you're 20 years into the job?
In today's episode we talk to the author of the "The Quick Python Book," and Chair Person of the Python Software Foundation, Naomi Ceder.
In this Part 1 of our interview with Naomi, we talk about how she got started with Python.
What do you want?
What would you like to accomplish in the next year?
These are difficult questions to answer, and in truth, they are too simple.
In today's episode of Developer Tea, we dig into questions typically asked of developers during reviews, and how to make broad questions more specific and easier to answer.
Complexity is often given a bad rap as an engineer. We're always trying to reduce complexity.
In today's episode, we're viewing complexity as an expendable resource that helps us make better decisions.
What is your relationship with mistakes?
The thing about mistakes is that they will always happen. In today's episode, we're talking about acceptance of mistakes and how we can behave to deal with mistakes better.
Where do you feel most limited?
In today's episode of Developer Tea, we're talking about cognitive distortions and the effects these make on how we make decisions.
In today's episode, we sat down with Nicole Archambault to talk about problem solving and the steps to take when solving a coding problem.
In this part 2 of the interview, we dig a little deeper into the steps of code problem solving with examples and best practices.
In today's episode, we sat down with Nicole Archambault to talk about problem solving and the steps to take when solving a coding problem.
In this part 1 of our interview with Nicole, we dive into her background in tech and go over the first steps to problem solving.
There's a lot of discussion around what you should bring with you when you begin a career as an engineer, but rarely do people talk about what to leave behind.
In today's episode, we're going to talk about 4 things you should leave behind when you choose to be a developer.
What happens next? This is a question that developers should be asking more frequently.
If you're trying to develop a stronger sense of intuition, this episode is for you.
Humans are no strangers to being beginners.
In today's episode of Developer Tea we're talking about the unique advantages we have in beginning something and how to take advantage of that opportunity.
In today's episode of Developer Tea, we're talking about how we operate as developers.
How do you determine what tools or rules you apply to problems you're solving as a developer?
What exactly is a label? What is a name?
In today's episode of Developer Tea, we're talking about the impact of naming or labeling our work as developers.
We'll talk about why it is important to label well and why use a well through naming structure makes all the difference in our work.
What does it mean to "use" your brain, and how is that different than simply thinking?
As developers we engage in thinking all the time, but how can we use our brains better when solving problems?
In today's interview with Aaron Upright, cofounder of Zenhub, we talk about being forgiving to ourselves as developers.
Aaron Upright is a cofounder of Zenhub and in this part 1 of the interview with Aaron we talk about his background, how he got going with Zenhub and what he's working on today.
We've been told all our lives that we're unique. In today's episode of Developer Tea, we're talking about the difference between being unique and being an exception.
One of the most important things you'll do as an engineer is participate in feedback sessions. In good feedback sessions things look very different than they do in bad feedback sessions.
In today's episode of Developer Tea, we're talking about feedback and how to build a good feedback mechanism.
If you could pause everything right now, what would you feel the need to do?
Breaking big problems down into smaller, easier to tackle problems and in today's episode we talk about exactly why breaking down problems into small forms is effective.
What is the story of your code?
Most of the time when we're writing code, we think about what the code is meant to do for us, we think of it as an offensive response to what we're solving, but what if we think of our code as a defensive strategy?
Your perspective is centered on now. It's very hard to imagine that the now, will soon be considered the past.
It's easy to imagine a duel system. A duel sense of identity - The impulsive side of us and the thoughtful side and it can change the way we think about how we work as engineers.
Think back to the times you learned your most important lessons. What exactly was the teacher?
When do you expect to achieve your goals? When do you expect to have the feeling that you have arrived?
What is it about engineering that you love? What keeps you coming back to work? In today's episode, we're talking about why we continue to be engineers.
In today's episode, we're continuing the conversation from our last episode and talking about what you can do once you admit that you don't know an answer to a question as a developer.
How will you handle the pressure of not knowing something?
Your actions and beliefs have a strong relation to each other. In today's episode, we're talking about how beliefs are formed.
Today, we're answering a listener question from Saul:
How do you communicate a technical solution to a non-technical team member? Specifically, when that team member needs to be involved in making a decision that has technical implications?
When you are solving difficult problems, the questions you ask can help determine the path you go down to solve those problems.
At the youngest stage of your career you are most likely to quit. In today's episode, we're providing encouragement to those new developers for when the career decision gets tough.
What does it take to change your mind?
Most of us haven't thought about that before and often times, it's hard to remember the last time we changed a belief or significant behavior.
How important is learning in your career?
In today's episode, we're talking about the importance of both learning and play in the development of your career.
What are you willing to give up for your goals?
What does it mean when we use the term "balance"?
In today's episode, we're talking about balance as it relates to decision making.
What is a useful default and when can they lead you astray?
One of the most frustrating things developers can face is writing a bunch of code, working hard on features and then waiting around for PR reviews. In today's episode, we're talking about how you can submit PRs better so reviews go quickly and smoothly.
What does it mean to collaborate as an engineer with other engineers? In today's episode, we're talking about the pull request process and the lack of attention it seems to get from engineers.
How does our brain perceive code in our environment and how does our mind make meaning out of our code?
Correlation is not causation.
In today's episode, we're talking about how we get twisted around, thinking data correlation equals causation.
Which language should you learn? Which book should you read next?
In today's episode we're talking about intentional decisions we make and how those decisions can shape our immediate and long-term reality.
What causes us to fail? In today's episode we're talking about some of the answers to why we fail.
Today's episode is a visualization exercise. Think about the 10-20 minute tasks that will eventually make up your day.
In today's episode we're talking about the shape of our restrictions and what we take for granted in our current situations.
In today's episode, we're answering a reviewer question; "When do you walk away from a problem to find the solution?"
What is your problem solving strategy in the face of uncertainty?
There is some level of order that we all inherit. In today, we're talking about the pre-determined systems and facts that we grow up to rely on and guide our decisions.
Today, we conclude the interview with Dan Heath. In this part 2 of our conversation, we dive into respect and heroics for efforts of individuals who have prevented a team member from having to save the day or come to the rescue when a system fails.
In today's episode, we sit down with Dan Heath, author of a new book , Upstream. In this part 1 of the conversation with Dan, we discuss preventative work over reactive work among teams.
In today's episode we're talking about what we don't know as a healthy marker for successful teams.
We are addicted to knowledge and knowing more. In today's episode, we're talking about learning and seeing the world in a way that encourages more learning.
In today's episode we're talking about changing habits and how to adapt to drastic changes.
How often do you think about what you don't know? In today's episode we're talking about the feeling of guilt when coming across a skill that you don't know.
In today's episode, we're talking about the social instinct that prevents us from sharing silly or bad ideas and asking dumb questions during meetings.
In today's episode we're talking about different challenges we face and creating tough situations on purpose to drive us forward in career development.
In today's episode, we're talking about intensional discomfort and knowing when it's a growth practice and when to identify it debilitating.
What words are you using to describe a problem you're working on? Today, we're talking about framing and how to effectively communicate what you're trying to solve.
Every developer at least at one point in their career gets the feeling that they are falling behind. In today's episode, we're talking about overlooking the things you already know.
In today's episode we're talking about stress responses during difficult times.
Change is hard and complex and yet it is all around us. That's what we're talking about on today's episode of Developer Tea.
Habits are not built over-night. In today's episode, we're discussing when mental models are standing in your way and what you can do about it.
In today's episode, we're talking about overreactions to events around us as you work from home and in isolation. When is overreaction acceptable and when does it cause a larger problem?
Many of you are working from home for the first time in a long time. In today's episode, we're talking about mindful remote work.
Stress can either stretch you or hurt you. In today's second part of the interview with Carl Yates Perry, General Manager at Square, we're discussing jobs that give you more energy than they take and how to maintain a healthy working life.
How do you know when it's the right time to leave your job? In today's part 1 of this 2-part interview, we're talking to Carl Yates Perry about his job transitions and how he made the decision to become the General Manager at Square.
Today we're talking about future-proofing your code and cost of change curves.
Picking the best tool for the job is a smart solution for developers, but in today's episode, we're talking about how choosing the best tool for the job can sometimes limit us from the best solution to a problem.
Questions are the most powerful tool you can use to clarify situations and solve problems. Today, we're talking about finding different sources for questions that require you to pause and think.
This episode is about quality over quantity when it comes to finding a solution to a problem. When is it right to take time and do something right vs. moving fast?
In today's episode, we're talking about changing your approach to looking for a job.
The actions that you take today are not representative of who you are. In today's episode, we're talking about enjoying the small things and finding meaning in even the smallest tasks.
It's easy to look at our daily lives to evaluate what we're doing as individuals. In today's episode, we're getting introspective and talking about our influence from another person's perspective.
Each day you're living a piece of your life and if you were to think of time as a currency that is always flowing out. You have an account and that account has a certain amount of time in it but you don't know how much you have in that account. In today's episode we're talking time as a limited account.
One of the most critical skills is the ability to map information and relate it to other information. In today's episode, we're talking about mapping models that go wrong and how forcing a concept into the wrong model can cause major problems in software and your career as a developer.
What actions have you taken in the last hour? In today's episode we're talking about the simple fact that everything we do is governed by some sort of process.
Why is it so hard for managers to create freedom and autonomy for their teams in a modern work environment? Today, we'll talk about how we can offer more autonomy to our team as well as bring value to the company.
What does it mean to be confused? What is happening in our brains and what is happening in reality? In today's episode, we're digging into confusion and the role of perception in the work you do.
Today we've got a thought experiment with the goal of flexing your lateral thinking muscles.
Why do you think you need to be great? In today's episode, we're getting clear on why we're motivated to reach our goals as developers and why we can so easily get caught in a trap of working in one particular area when we should be focusing on a bigger picture.
What makes something worth doing? How do you decide what activities are worth doing?
What was the last question someone asked you that changed the way you think today?
What are the outcomes that you expect in your day-to-day life? That's what we're talking about in today's episode of Developer Tea
The plans we make shape our lives. In today's episode, we're talking about the things we actively choose to do with our time and the process of planning that plays into our futures.
One of the things you notice when observing great writers or coaches is that they've got a simplicity in their work. In today's episode we discuss the relationships between simplicity, complexity and value.
In today's episode we're talking about getting too much in the weeds vs. being too far removed. We'll talk about the pros and cons of each and offer suggestions to get out of the weeds and get down from the clouds.
If you're standing in a building or riding in a vehicle, look around and think about some of the details around you. Who's job is it to manage the details?
What are you focused on today?
Focus is perhaps the one superpower that's common in successful people. In today's episode, we're talking about a management anti-pattern that totally destroys focus and provide a solution to get focus back.
If you're listening to this episode in the morning, find a few moments with a piece of paper to write down your top three responsibilities for this week. In today's episode, we're talking about assigning responsibility.
Think about a recent simple decision you made. How rational was your decision making process? In today's episode, we're talking about two biases that can change the way you approach you work and your relationships with that work and the people who work around you.
Information gathering and solving problems is a fun part of the developer role. In today's episode we're talking about the pros and cons of gathering too much information.
Trying to find the most productive way to work. In today's episode we're talking about different ways to think about productivity.
One of the most misunderstood relationships on cross-functional teams are the role of the designer and developer. Often conflicts can go unresolved and assumptions arise of designers and developer stereotypes, and how these two departments can work better together.
What will be different at the end of today as a result of the actions you take?
We can't promise that we can make anyone successful, but we can talk about success as a concept from the perspective of systems.
As you begin this new year, we shouldn't overlook the transition of this decade. In today's episode we're talking about a major misconception that can inhibit us from
Happy holidays! Today we re-air part two of our interview with Gabriel Weinberg, CEO of DuckDuckGo. Thank you for listening. We hope you enjoy the episode and we're looking forward to sharing new episodes in the new year.
Today we re-air an interview from 2019 with Gabriel Weinberg, the CEO of DuckDuckGO. Happy holidays and hope you enjoy this interview!
In this episode, we're talking about working with distraction and how we can focus better in the new year.
Today's episode is about perspective. When you have the perspective that most of what you experience will eventually be forgotten.
Think about any relationship you've had, specifically a professional relationship. These relationships have either explicit or implicit agreements. In today's episode we're talking about explanations if breaking expectations.
Are your processes useful? In the last couple of episodes, we've been talking about feedback loops and in today's episode we're continuing that discussion and zooming out to make sure our feedback loops are proving useful.
In the last episode we talked about feedback loops and in today's episode, we're talking about how that feedback loop can lead to automatic responses.
In today's episode, we're focusing on self-improvement, specifically focusing on the idea of a feedback loop and how we can use them to change and improve.
What was the last feature you built that wasn't as useful as you'd hoped? How can we avoid this scenario?
Can you experience a feeling that you don't have a name for? In today's episode we're talking about complex feelings and building a framework for creating memories and knowledge.
How do titles and roles function on a team and how can they lead us astray? Today, we're talking about roles on development teams and what they mean.
Today we're talking about how to think about requests and different ways to manage too many requests.
We're taking a moment to express a bit of gratitude for our environment that gave us the opportunity to work in the development field.
The conflict you face on your team is likely due to competing priorities. Ultimately, it's on us to determine what our priorities are when pulled in different directions. In today's episode, we're talking about why priority is not a sole decision but a team decision.
Take a minute to think about the amount of responsibilities you have.
Everybody's words have influence on the people around them. In today's episode, we're going to talk about how our words can give us leverage as a professional and fellow team mate.
How can we avoid the false sense of positivity that can occur after meetings and how can we engage in the right kinds of meetings?
Today, we're talking about how your companies sub-cultural language and how that relates to clarity in knowledge transfer.
In the last episode, we talked about modifier functions. In today's episode, we're talking about modes and paradigms in the form of everyday goals and processes.
Context is a big deal in the job of a developer. In today's episode, we're applying a zoomed out model of thinking to everyday behavior to make us better developers, co-workers and leaders.
In today's episode, we're talking about how we can practice values and stay focused without overanalyzing every detail.
What causes us to do the things we do? In today's episode, we're discussing the complexity of motivations and identifying the chains of motivations in our actions as developers.
A senior engineer will often answer every question starting with "It Depends..." In today's episode, we're talking about context and decision making beyond, "It Depends".
What do your questions create? Every question we ask as a developer or manager has an impact on the person or people we are asking. In today's episode, we're talking about shifting question asking from the way we intuitively ask to a new way.
Today we air part 2 of our interview with Anil Glitch, CEO of Glitch.
In this part 1 of our two part interview with Anil Dash, CEO of Glitch we talk about how Glitch got its start, and whiteboard interview processes.
In today's episode, we're going to use a visualization to understand our perspective.
Accountability can have a profound impact on your willingness to follow through with commitments. In today's episode we're talking about what it means to have accountability.
Habits of Successful Software Engineers is a series here at Developer Tea and today we'll continue those skills with an episode on system thinking.
A lot of the work of a developer and determining how things come together, comes down to the developers themselves.
In today's episode we're talking about intentionally thinking about the future and reflecting on the past.
In today's episode, we're talking about a specific heuristic to drive your career growth.
In today's episode we're talking about a behavior that's gained a lot of traction lately and that's being radically candid with your co-workers.
What does it mean to be a bad developer? That's what we're talking about on today's episode of Developer Tea
When we think about what we can do, the possibilities are virtually infinite, but what we will do is a completely different story.
Imagine you're at your home and it's late at night, watching a thriller with a lot of jump-scares that that startle you.
You have a lot to do and sometimes it feels like life can't get any more stressful, until it does. So what do you do when faces with overwhelm?
A lot of bad advice is given when experiencing a bad interview. In today's episode we're going to talk about how to handle bad interviews in a positive way.
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