Environment

This week was weird. Something happened to my RSS reader. Anyway … still some good stuff — the interview with Kelsey Hightower, and the piece on how Meta is messing up its culture. Quote of the Week Remember, Peter Drucker said that if people spend more than 25 percent of their time in meetings, it is a sign of malorganization. I would put it another way: the real sign of malorganization is when people spend more than 25 percent of their time in ad hoc mission-oriented meetings. High Output Management Andrew S. Grove Leadership Why is Meta destroying its engineering organization? - sign of maturity :-) ...

Two good engineering podcasts to listen to this week, the one about OpenCode and the one about spec-driven development. I also really enjoyed the video about the Watchmen comic and film. Quote of the Week I had not quite realized that the interruptions were the journey. Jupiter's Travels Ted Simon Engineering Building OpenCode with Dax Raad [Podcast] - I have been trying to use it with local models. Those are just not as good yet. ...

Again a few good podcasts, I especially liked the one about The Pre-Training Wall and the Mythical Man Month. Quote of the Week Rule of thumb: When the debate is no longer productive, it’s time to make a decision. Managing Humans Michael Lopp Leadership The Ask - what is this meeting actually about? ...

Two weeks of links again! Three podcast recommendations from me, if you got the time: Dadaism, Cow Resistance, and Desert Island with Si King. The post by Rands about being overwhelmed as a leader is also great. Quote of the Week Nothing travels faster than the speed of light with the possible exception of bad news, which obeys its own special laws. Mostly Harmless Douglas Adams Leadership Barely Treading Water - I can relate very much. “Say No” is a good start. ...

Quite a few articles about AI costs getting out of control. For something different I recommend the podcast about the origins of Rose Bikes. Quote of the Week What they found instead was that “who is on a team matters less than how the team members interact, structure their work, and view their contributions” (Google 2015). In other words, it all comes down to team dynamics. Accelerate Nicole Forsgren PhD, Jez Humble, Gene Kim Engineering Do I belong in tech anymore? - I can relate to some of this. ...