/Career Advice

Lessons

- Joe Lonsdale tl;dr: “These lessons summarize what Joe Lonsdale learned from working over many years with Peter Thiel, a chairman and founder of Palantir. These are very much worth reading — they will change the way you think.”

featured in #567


Please Just Stop Saying “Just"

- Scott Ringwelski tl;dr: “Not because anyone is being rude, or because anything they are saying is necessarily wrong. Nobody is being intentionally malice, here. It’s that (in my opinion) the word “just” added as a qualifier to an idea carries with it a whole bunch of implied baggage.”

featured in #567


The Art Of Workplace Finesse (Part II)

- Wes Kao tl;dr: In this week’s post, we’ll cover examples of finesse in the workplace. (1) Identify when to ask for forgiveness vs permission. (2) Acknowledge that perception matters. (3) Know what you can get away with. (4) Don’t be too literal. (5) Know when to be discreet. (6) Never bet against incentives.

featured in #566


5 Frameworks To Master Communication And Influence As An Engineer

- Jordan Cutler Wes Kao tl;dr: Wes and Jordan discuss the following frameworks: (1) Reduce cognitive load using phrases like “For example”, “Action Items”, “Action Needed”, “Next Steps,” etc... (2) MP-CB: Main point, context below. (3) Anticipate the objection. (4) CEDAF for delegating tasks. (5) QBQ: Question behind the question. 

featured in #565


How To Become A More Effective Engineer

- Gergely Orosz Cindy Sridharan tl;dr: This post is broken into the following: (1) Know how your org works. (2) Soft skills: these are hard skills. (3) Implicit hierarchies. (4) Cultures: top-down, bottom-up, and both at the same time. (5) Get comfortable with the “mess.” (6) Look for small wins. (7) Understand organizational constraints. 

featured in #565


How To Become A More Effective Engineer

- Gergely Orosz Cindy Sridharan tl;dr: This post is broken into the following: (1) Know how your org works. (2) Soft skills: these are hard skills. (3) Implicit hierarchies. (4) Cultures: top-down, bottom-up, and both at the same time. (5) Get comfortable with the “mess.” (6) Look for small wins. (7) Understand organizational constraints. 

featured in #564


Frustrated By Rejection? How To Plan Before You Ask

- Wes Kao tl;dr: “The truth is, it can hurt to ask. Asking when you shouldn’t is expensive: (1) Asking can use your social capital. (2) Asking can make someone question your sense of judgment. (3) Asking can be off-putting and create awkwardness. (4) Asking can put a strain on a relationship. (5) Asking can change the nature of a relationship going forward (and be hard to undo). You can ask—but don’t just “put it out there” without a strategy. Think about whether what you’re asking a specific person makes sense given your level of trust.”

featured in #561


Manage Your Priorities And Energy

- Will Larson tl;dr: Will reflect on his shift from a 'company, team, self' framework to an eventual ‘quid pro quo' approach during his management tenure at Uber. His ‘quid pro quo' approach is: (1) Generally, prioritize company and team priorities over your own. (2) If you are getting de-energized, artificially prioritize some energizing work. Increase the quantity until equilibrium is restored. (3) If the long-term balance between energy and proper priorities can’t be balanced for more than a year, stop everything else and work on solving this issue e.g. change your role or quit. Will emphasizes the importance of remaining flexible and curious.

featured in #560


Manage Your Priorities And Energy

- Will Larson tl;dr: Will reflect on his shift from a 'company, team, self' framework to an eventual ‘quid pro quo' approach during his management tenure at Uber. His ‘quid pro quo' approach is: (1) Generally, prioritize company and team priorities over your own. (2) If you are getting de-energized, artificially prioritize some energizing work. Increase the quantity until equilibrium is restored. (3) If the long-term balance between energy and proper priorities can’t be balanced for more than a year, stop everything else and work on solving this issue e.g. change your role or quit. Will emphasizes the importance of remaining flexible and curious.

featured in #559


Why Techies Leave Big Tech

- Gergely Orosz tl;dr: Gergely asked several software engineers and engineering leaders why they left the lure of big tech. He covers: (1) How big tech is less stable than it was. (2) Professional growth in a startup environment vs big tech. (3) Closed career paths. (4) Employees being forced out due to politics. (5) Scaleups becoming “too Big Tech.” (6) Steep compensation drops. (7) Raw feedback.”

featured in #559