More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
Michael Lopp
Read between
November 20 - December 27, 2019
A clear agenda that anoints the anchor right out of the gate is the best way to make sure everyone knows who the decision maker is.
If notes must be taken, designate one person to do it;
A useful meeting is not a speech; it’s a debate.
Fact is, for any given technical or product problem, there’s a completionist who knows exactly what to do. Problem is, not only can they see the immediate solution; they see the two-year solution and the five-year solution. By the way, the five-year solution drastically changes the immediate solution, which is why everyone else has a problem with it.
when an incrementalist is facing a hard problem, they’re constantly coming up with new ways to tackle the problem rather than actually tackling the problem.
I want to talk about Worst Manager Ever because, chances are, you’re right . . . you are speaking a different language and he’s just as frustrated as you.
In order to understand how to speak to your manager, you’ve gotta figure out how they acquire information, and chances are, they gather it either organically or mechanically.
When confronted with a horrible situation, you’re going to think they’re insane because they appear to be still smiling.
I consistently leave his office feeling like I’ve been doing nothing with my 72-hour work week.
Don’t confuse an extremely open mind with cluelessness.
“A purely mechanical organization lacks inspiration. A purely organic organization is total chaos.”
The common names for these classes are first line manager , middle manager , and executive or senior manager .
An inward manager’s vision is focused on their team and their product.
The holistic’s main job is to figure out what the hell is going on everywhere in the organization.
Wait, don’t these holistics have product to ship? No, they have multiple products, but they’ve hired rock-star inwards to get the products built to specification and on time so they can focus on figuring out what to build next and who they’re going to need to build it.
The well-being of the company is the responsibility of the holistics.
The outward’s vision is focused on the outside world. They care about the public perception of the company, the company’s relationship with its customers, the financial community, the world.
while it’s not their job to run the company on a daily basis, they are accountable for it. Tough gig.
You might be working for a manager who fancies himself a holistic when the organization has him pegged as an inward. This means he’s out combing the hallway looking for strategic advantage when he should really be paying attention to you, the senior engineer who has indicated, loudly, “There is no way this product is going to ship on time.”
Problem is, the political intrigue over in building 27 will ultimately determine that your product is irrelevant. Now you’re out of a job because your manager’s manager didn’t attend that cross-functional meeting because what he really wanted to do was code. Sorry about that.
What you need to know about your manager is how much he cares about this growth and, more importantly whether he sees this as his growth opportunity or the team’s.
My preference is to stock my team with holistic managers and inwards geared to become holistics.
I prefer the enthusiasm of employees who are ready for the next thing, especially when the next thing for them is my job.
the Wolf generates disproportionate value for the company with their unparalleled ability to identify and rapidly work on projects essential to the future of the company.
The reason was the same both times: the influence earned by the Wolf can never ever be granted by a manager.
You are not that person, because once you are rewarded for releasing crap, you begin a blind walk down a path of mediocrity that ends up with you working at Computer Associates on a product no one has heard of and that no one cares about.
they can dive into a tremendous pile of spaghetti code , make sense of it, and actually get it working.
All engineers like to be on the bleeding edge, but free electrons simply must be defining it. A departing free electron will permanently damage the productivity of your group.
The first question is, “How does this process reflect our values?”
Reorgs are when teams and products are shifted around in order to account for a shift in company strategy.
Jokes are memorized comedy retold with moxie. Wit is original comedy created in real time and delivered with precise timing. Nerds are witty because they connect the relevant to the present quickly and in clever ways.
The definition of a healthy business is a business that is growing, and by growing I mean it is making more money each year.
the basic law of business physics that you should never forget is “As a business grows, so shall its employees.”
People do care about cash.
Every month, your team produced something and it’s your job to document that production.
When is the last time you know he learned something new?
When is the last time she generated a great idea that blew your mind?
High skill (I’m good at what I do) and high will (I like what I do).
See, Fez’s skill used to be high, but it’s fading. It’s middle-of-the-road skill now and the slow erosion is also affecting his confidence . . . his will. His diminishing skill is diminishing his will, which, in turn, further diminishes his skill because he has zero confidence to go gather new skills. Yikes. A skill/will negative feedback loop.
fights only prove who can punch harder.
there is nothing like having bright people nipping at your heels to keep you running.
Seeing a non-computer science degree is not a warning flag. In fact, I’m a huge fan of hiring physics majors as engineers. For whatever reason, the curriculum for physics has a good intersection with computer science. Any technical major for me is perfectly acceptable, and even non-technical majors with a technical job history make for a résumé worth thinking about.
I’m asking you to market yourself in a way that I’m going to remember. A résumé is not a statement of facts. It’s a declaration of intent.
I’m talking an hour or so of background research so that you can do one thing when the phone screen shows up: you need to ask great questions.
at some point during the phone screen I’m going to ask you, “Do you have any questions for me?” and this is the most important question I’m going to ask.
you should have your résumé sitting in front of you because it’s sitting in front of me as well. It’s my only source material.
if you don’t have a list of questions lined up for me, all I hear is: You don’t want this job.
If a candidate is willing to pick a fight in a 30-minute phone screen, I’m wondering how often they’re going to fight once they’re in the building.
what you’re really looking for is a specific next step like, “I’m going to bring you in,” or “Let’s have you talk with more of the team.”
If—everywhere. If is uncertainty. If is fear. If there were no if I’d be able to focus on my job, but I couldn’t because no one was sure what was going to happen.
