Friday

Quick one this week. I really liked the sustainability post by Etsy. They are about measuring stuff and advocating for change in the industry. Quote of the Week How does a manager motivate his subordinates? For most of us, the word implies doing something to another person. But I don’t think that can happen, because motivation has to come from within somebody. Accordingly, all a manager can do is create an environment in which motivated people can flourish. High Output Management Andrew S. Grove Leadership The simple answer to improving productivity: asking employees [Podcast] - I really wish more organisations would take employee surveys more seriously. ...

A bit of a catch-up from recent weeks today. I recommend the two Book Overflow episodes about The Pragmatic Programmer and with Uncle Bob. The long post from Charity about Slop is also worth a read. Quote of the Week Another benefit of writing a test for every logged message is that it’s painful. Sometimes pain is a good thing. Agile Java™ Jeff Langr Leadership Managers Are Catalysts - “Your job, as a manager, is lowering that activation energy.” ...

A short one this week. The management reading list gave me some new ideas and the interview with Mr. T is great. Quote of the Week I’ve become absolutely convinced that the seminal difference between successful companies and mediocre or unsuccessful ones has little, if anything, to do with what they know or how smart they are; it has everything to do with how healthy they are. The Advantage Patrick M. Lencioni Leadership Good Culture is the Biggest Productivity Hack, Not AI - It relates to the quote above. ...

I skipped a week again. Some good podcasts this week, have a listen to the ones about The Pragmatic Programmer and the one about performance. For some fun, play Snek and watch the relaxing visualisation of train movements. Quote of the Week You look at where you’re going and where you are and it never makes sense, but then you look back at where you’ve been and a pattern seems to emerge. And if you project forward from that pattern, then sometimes you can come up with something. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Robert M. Pirsig Leadership Headed for the Exit: the Great Engineering Leader Career Break - I can definitely relate. I would say that this doesn’t affect only leaders. ...

My tip for this week: search for more videos of Danny Leon’s amazing skate in front of the eclipse. If you speak German, the podcast about people believing in pseudoscience is great too. Quote of the Week Paradoxically, change only has a chance of succeeding if failure—at least a little bit of failure—is also okay. Peopleware Tom DeMarco, Tim Lister Leadership Roadmap decisions rather than dates. - I find dates generally a bad smell and a throwback to quarterly thinking. ...