Objective 1: Create a high performing engineering team

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For the fourth time in my adult memory, humanity has collectively, visibly lost the plot at a global level. My criteria are fairly restrictive: The dotcom bust and the 2007 crash don’t make my list for instance, and neither do previous …

Over the last decade, WordPress has established itself as the go-to content management platform for online newspapers, magazines, and blogs of all sizes. It’s also begun to gain footholds in the broader world of publishing: corporate …

Last year while thinking about product management in infrastructure

What do executives do, anyway?

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The English word avatar is derived from the Sanskrit avatāra, meaning “to descend,” which came to signify a deity who has come down to earth and taken human form. Lord Rama, above, was the seventh avatar of the Hindu god Vishnu, summoned to …

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My coaching clients are typically senior leaders with rapidly growing or very large organizations who are responsible for hiring a management team, identifying a winning strategy, and building a culture that supports their goals. A theme …

Most companies are looking for outcomes, unfortunately the majority of what they get is output.

Most of my coaching clients are senior leaders in rapidly growing companies, and they often find themselves in the midst of a difficult transition. Previously they were in a position to add value by doing–because they knew the most about …

In the Enchiridion (or handbook) of Epictetus [1], the Stoic philosopher offers guidance to those of us with high aspirations:

I don’t get to write very often about productivity these days. I’m too busy doing things. There’s some sad irony there.

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One of the most significant steps in a leader’s development is cultivating the ability to 1) tolerate greater uncertainty 2) over longer periods of time 3) on a larger number 4) of increasingly important issues. A coaching client once …

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Tal Joffe Nov 26, 2019 · 10 min read

This post is about the interview process for an engineering leader. Hiring involves a lot more than the interview part – everything from reviewing resumes, sourcing great candidates, getting them to come onsite, the interview itself, …

Different engineering teams function in different ways. Each employ various strategies and processes, informed and shaped by changing technologies, markets, personnel, competitive landscapes, and company culture.

Skyscanner Engineering Mar 13, 2018 · 5 min read

Today we introduce the Marketplace 100, a ranking of the largest and fastest-growing consumer-facing marketplace startups and private companies.

Here in the Wasatch mountains, 2020 arrived with fresh snowfall and the promise of more powder to come in the first few days of the new year. For those who traveled here for the Christmas and New Year holiday in hopes of an idyllic winter …

Comfort is everything at MeUndies. Well, comfort, killer designs, charity, and efficient workflows. The first three are obvious if you explore the MeUndies website, where you can learn about the company’s sustainably sourced, naturally soft …

It’s now clear that the epidemic was never going to be contained. What’s next?

Humans love measuring things. Mostly because they love comparing themselves to their neighbors, which involves measuring things.

*“Uitwaaien” is a popular activity around Amsterdam—one believed to have important psychological benefits.*Photograph by John Loo / Flickr

Editor’s Note: When the members of the class of 2010 entered business school, the economy was strong and their post-graduation ambitions could be limitless. Just a few weeks later, the economy went into a tailspin. They’ve spent the past …

You’ve heard me talk about crash-only programming, right? It’s a programming paradigm for critical infrastructure systems, where there is — by design — no graceful way to shut down. A program can only crash and try to recover from a crashed …

November of 2008. I had more hair, a flip phone, and absolutely no idea what was coming.

Every year, OpenAI’s employees vote on when they believe artificial general intelligence, or AGI, will finally arrive. It’s mostly seen as a fun way to bond, and their estimates differ widely. But in a field that still debates whether …

Dan Hill Dec 30, 2017 · 3 min read

You become what you focus on.

Johan Steenkamp Feb 10, 2018 · 4 min read

Nassim Nicholas Taleb Aug 14, 2016 · 8 min read

I realized a long time ago that I was not the type of person who could create, build & polish ideas all by myself. I need collaboration with others to hone and build ideas. More than not, I’m not the one who starts the idea. I pick up …

I was recently asked an interesting question:

Last year, journalist Anne Helen Petersen wrote a widely shared piece in Buzzfeed naming millennials the “Burnout Generation”. According to Petersen, we’re overworked, underpaid, and often paralyzed by the systemic dysfunction of our …

Normalization of deviance

*This article is based on a presentation I gave as part of

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Nothing will change your future trajectory like your habits. We all have goals, big or small, things we want to achieve within a certain time frame. Some people want to make a million dollars by the time they turn 30. Some people want to …

It’s a hot August morning in Madison, Wisconsin, and Greg Glassman is sipping iced tea in an air-conditioned, glass-walled room perched above a preternaturally green field. Below, two dozen ripped athletes are hanging by their feet from …

Tom Peters

Big Ball of Mud was published twenty years ago and rings just as true today: the most prominent architecture in successful, growth-stage companies is non-architecture. Crisp patterns are slowly overgrown by the chaotic tendrils of quick …

During the first weeks in a new role, one of the things I’ve most recently focused on is to assess the direction of the engineering department as a whole. Will Larson has written at length about the first ninety days in a senior engineering …

Hello, Amanda writing from a rainy San Francisco this week. After attending an art show recently, my husband and I found ourselves standing outside the venue chatting with groups of other attendees. Although strangers, the discussions …