Who you are and what you have done
One tip that was recommended to me by my mentor about a decade ago: Make yourself a punch-line. A punch-line that describes what you’re uniquely good at and what sets you apart from the rest. Lead your portfolio with this.
Coming up with a punch-line for yourself is no trivial work though. It requires you to think harder to go beyond the “user-centric designer” and “working at the intersection of tech and craft” drudgery. You need to be very speci...
Uncover the true culture of a tech company by asking the right questions during your interview. Learn how to assess company values, employee support, and growth opportunities to ensure the perfect fit.
“Society tends to paint a picture that the final act of every big dreamer’s journey is in scaling up to unimaginable heights, but I think it’s the opposite – it’s actually in scaling back down after trying to reach the proverbial top. Make time to pursue things that can’t scale. I’d bet it does you as much good as ‘real’ therapy ever could”
Reprint: R1105C What is the best way to motivate employees to do creative work? Help them take a step forward every day. In an analysis of knowledge workers’ diaries, the authors found that nothing contributed more to a positive inner work life (the mix of emotions, motivations, and perceptions that is critical to performance) than making progress in meaningful work. If a person is motivated and happy at the end of the workday, it’s a good bet that he or she achieved something, however small. If the person drags out of the office disengaged and joyless, a setback is likely to blame. This progress principle suggests that managers have more influence than they may realize over employees’ well-being, motivation, and creative output. The key is to learn which actions support progress—such as setting clear goals, providing sufficient time and resources, and offering recognition—and which have the opposite effect. Even small wins can boost inner work life tremendously. On the flip side, small losses or setbacks can have an extremely negative effect. And the work doesn’t need to involve curing cancer in order to be meaningful. It simply must matter to the person doing it. The actions that set in motion the positive feedback loop between progress and inner work life may sound like Management 101, but it takes discipline to establish new habits. The authors provide a checklist that managers can use on a daily basis to monitor their progress-enhancing behaviors.
To my great surprise, young people now somewhat frequently contact me in order to solicit career advice.They are usually in college or highschool, and want to know what the best next steps are for a career in security or software development.This is, honestly, a really complicated question, mostl...
A reader writes: The backstory: I went back to university in my late 20s to do my PhD, and shared an office with a few other students for many years. One
Hi. FYI, I’ll be cross-posting to my blog karlyang.net, where you can find other writing that won’t appear on Substack. The basic theory here is that, most of the time, dependencies slow you down. There are ways to ac/decelerate the process that are problem-agnostic. Usually, you are communicating back and forth with other people until you have reached some form of mutually acceptable agreement, and there are ways to do that faster.
Life for the medieval peasant was certainly no picnic. His life was shadowed by fear of famine, disease and bursts of warfare. His diet and personal hygiene left much to be desired. But despite his reputation as a miserable wretch, you might envy him one thing: his vacations...