New year, new links! It has been fairly quiet on the blogs and podcasts recently, and I am focusing on some books at the moment. For some fun, have a look at the Jungle & Tetris posts in the random section. Leadership Productivity Measurement as a Tradeoff - good view from Kent Beck. Questionable Advice: “My boss says we don’t need any engineering managers. Is he right?” - I hope not! It’s a good summary of the purpose of managers. ...

Last year I did have too much time on my hand, and while I spent a lot of time chilling, I did miss using my brain at least a little. So I worked on these two challenges. Excercism #12in23 Screenshot Exercism #12in23 I am a big fan of exercism, which is a site with exercises to learn all kinds of programming languages. The quality of the tracks varies a lot, nonetheless the most popular ones are very useful. There is also a mentoring element, which I haven’t used myself. ...

My year in books (according to Goodreads). 8443 pages read in 26 books. I mostly binged on thrillers and series I am already following. Just one non-fiction! I am currently reading / being stuck in these: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values by Robert M. Pirsig - this is a reread. I read it as a teenager, and I am not getting through it at the moment. Obsessive Compulsive Cycling Disorder by Dave Barter - collection of articles. The title might be the best bit. Edges by Linda Nagata - I am not very excited. Fiction Mark Dawson I just continue reading his multiple series. ...

I was lazy due to the festive season and travels. That means plenty of links for today. Leadership Engineering strategy notes. - I think I posted the articles in a previous edition. Many good resources in this one. Navigators - interesting approach. I guess in some companies these are architects or staff engineers. TBM 257: How to Make the Case for Slowing Down to Speed Up - many strategies, align with the main values and strategies. ...

I liked the story about Backstage from Spotify. The monaspace font is also lovely. Leadership Adam Bryant on how to know if you’re ready to become a leader. [Podcast] - lots of good stuff. A Practical Handbook For Engineering Management- another guide. I have just browsed a bit for now. Team Charters are a trap. - oh, I quite like them, but … “Empowering bottoms up mission-setting in an organization that practices top-down resource allocation is a trap.” ...