Fast/Slow In 3X: Explore/Expand/Extract
- Kent Beck tl;dr: As an idea, product or company grows, "value-maximizing behavior" changes dramatically and comes in three phases: (1) Explore - where companies try small experiments. (2) Expand, as an experiments takes off, bottlenecks are identified and tackled. (3) Extract, these projects can increase revenue or decrease costs.featured in #231
Forget Multi-Tasking. It's Context-Switching That Matters
- Saverio Morpurgo tl;dr: How do you juggle multiple projects simultaneously and (almost) never miss something? Usually that’s defined as multitasking, but it’s actually context-switching that’s the key. And they’re very different things.featured in #228
“Asynchronous” Working In 2021
- James Beshara tl;dr: Asynch working allows you to prioritize work more easily and comes with less costs, especially to those making vs managing. James cites the use of Loom videos here to communicate with others.featured in #228
Maximizing Developer Effectiveness
- Tim Cochran tl;dr: The primary reason for low effectiveness is working environment. "There are too many new processes, too many new tools and new technologies" increasing complexity and friction. Tim contrasts a day in the life of both a high and low effective environment, and recommends optimizing key feedback loops.featured in #221
Attention Is My Most Valuable Asset for Productivity as a Software Developer
- Zachary Wade Betz tl;dr: Zachary counteracts distractions by (1) building physical strength, (2) creating a "boring" and "tidy" workspace, (3) making his smart phone "dumb," (4) being an "OS minimalist," (5) organizing browser bookmarks (6) minimize meetings, (7) use the The Eisenhower Method to categorize tasks.featured in #215
Time Is Not A Measure Of Productivity
- Anne-Laure Le Cunff tl;dr: 5 strategies to stop conflating time spent with productivity: (1) Avoid unnecessary meetings. (2) Define productive goals. (3) Reduce repetitive tasks. (4) 80% of your work will come from 20% of your efforts. Focus on the 20%. (5) Protect your time.featured in #210
A Framework For Focusing Your Learning Goals
- Sally Lait tl;dr: With overwhelming amounts of languages, frameworks and tools to learn, decisions about where to invest your time to learn can be challenging. Sally has outlined key questions and a framework to help guide this decision.featured in #209
Motivation And Why Finishing A Personal Project Is Hard
tl;dr: There are several reasons this could be true but, to finish a project, you need to be a "mad hatter." You need a broad skillset i.e. systems architect, db admin, backend developer, essentially all the roles in a team.featured in #209
featured in #208
Learning To Love Meta Productivity
- Nickolas Means tl;dr: "Before you transitioned to management," productivity is valued by code written, PRs reviewed, features released." When you manage, your "primary output is work done by other people." Nickolas outlines how you value productivity as a manager.featured in #207