/Career Advice

How Do I Progress To The Next Level In My Career?

- James Stanier tl;dr: James helps us: (1) Explore what careers may look like and what motivates us. These topics are well worth revisiting when you feel like you are getting frustrated or stuck, or are wondering what the future may hold for you. (2) Think about some practical ways in which you begin to take your progression into your own hands. Once you know what you’re after, how do you get there? James discusses his insights to both of these prompts.

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Random Thoughts 15 years Into Software Engineering

- Ryan O'Neill tl;dr: A total of 10 random thoughts, the first 3 of which are: (1) Debuggability is highly underrated: When writing code, you have to think about how it will execute. Leave yourself audit trails, store data in human readable formats, and invest in admin tooling. (2) Projects are late, a lot. This is not unique to software. The reality is that time is constantly moving against us, and when unexpected things happen they can take an order of magnitude longer than we planned. (3) Aggressively manage scope: related to the above, protect your project’s scope. You don’t have to push back if you don’t want, but be transparent about how it will affect the project delivery and communicate it widely.

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The Strength Of Being Misunderstood

- Sam Altman tl;dr: A founder asked Sam how to stop caring what other people think. After reflecting on the question more, he thinks it's the wrong question… “The most impressive people I know care a lot about what people think, even people whose opinions they really shouldn’t value. But what makes them unusual is that they generally care about other people’s opinions on a very long time horizon — as long as the history books get it right, they take some pride in letting the newspapers get it wrong.” Many people are not willing to function on this time horizon.

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Ask Vs Guess Culture

- Jean Hsu tl;dr: Jean discusses the contrasting dynamics of "ask culture" and "guess culture." While "ask culture" promotes direct requests and clear communication, "guess culture" relies on subtle hints and indirect cues,  often gauging the likelihood of a positive response before making a request. Jean provides examples to illustrate these, emphasizing the potential for misunderstandings and frustrations. She offers advice for guess-culture individuals: (1) Seek help when feeling stuck, without fearing inconvenience to others. (2) Express interest in opportunities e.g publishing on the company blog. (3) Cultivate comfort with receiving "no" as an answer. If people aren't occasionally declining, one might still be operating within guess culture. (4) Use the thought exercise "If I could have my way..." to bypass others' needs and focus on personal desires, which can then be turned into requests.

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7 Strategies To Cope With The Stress Of Career Uncertainty

- Bryan Robinson tl;dr: (1) Focus on what you can control: concentrate on actionable tasks. (2) Exercise self-care: prioritize mental and physical health. (3) Look for the opportunity in the difficulty: view uncertainty as beneficial for cognitive growth. (4) Keep a curious mind: embrace an open mindset. (5) Cultivate optimism: stay positive for better career outcomes. (6) Turn unknowns into adventures: see challenges as opportunities. (7) Take chances: venture outside the comfort zone for career growth.

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The Top 7 Software Engineering Workflow Tips I Wish I Knew Earlier

- Jordan Cutler tl;dr: Jordan delves into the following areas: (1) Git & terminal workflow. (2) Coding, notably tracing code down or up a stack, navigating between locations & typing. (3) Saving what you learnt in accessible ways. (4) Offloading ideas and tasks immediately so you don’t carry them in your thoughts. (5) Communicating through visuals. (6) Using a password manager. (7) Window management.

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Forty Years Of Programming

- Fabien Sanglard tl;dr: “I am about to turn forty-six. This means I have been programming for forty years, half of them professionally. During most of that time, I used a "standard" setup with 104 keyboard, a flat mouse, and a sitting desk. Things evolved ten years ago when I started to experience pain in my forearms and shoulders when I programmed. Here is what I did to solve my problem, it may work for someone else.”

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Making Hard Things Easy

- Julia Evans tl;dr: When you face a topic that’s hard to understand, you are likely not alone. Julia talks about how to move folks from the "I really don't get it" column, to the "okay, I can mostly deal with this” column using some of the following tricks: sharing useful tools, sharing references, telling a chronological story of what happens on your computer, turning a big list into a small list of the things you actually use, showing the hidden things, and demoing the tool. Julia gives examples of how these have made learning for her easier.

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Lessons From Bootstrapped Companies Founded By Software Engineers

- Gergely Orosz tl;dr: “Bootstrapped companies tends to get little coverage across the media. This can be by design, as many of these companies prefer to fly under the radar, and focus on building a sustainable, profitable business, and don’t seek a bigger profile.” Gergely profiles five  companies, discussing: (1) Taking the leap to bootstrap a company. (2) Tech stack and engineering approaches. (3) Growing the company. (4) The contrast to working at a large company. (5) What works.

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Working At A Startup Vs In Big Tech

- Gergely Orosz Willem Spruijt tl;dr: Willem, who Gergely met at Uber, share his experience and insights working as a developer, transitioning between startups and big tech companies. Willem recalls the "rapid skill development" and "direct influence" at startups, juxtaposed with the financial uncertainties and heightened stress. Big tech provided a platform for deep domain expertise, financial perks, and expansive networking, albeit with potential bureaucratic hurdles and diluted individual impact. “Doing work that results in a great performance review is not always the same work that best helps the company. And this can create pretty twisted, political situations.”

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