some weird tricks for working faster
chiefofstuff.substack.com/p/some-weird-tricks-for-working-fasterHi. 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.
Column: Why a medieval peasant got more vacation time than you | Reuters
reuters.com/article/us-column-great-debate/column-why-a-medieval-peasant-got-more-vacation-time-than-you-idUKBRE97S0KU20130829Life 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...
Get It Done
boz.com/articles/get-it-doneToo often people do the best they can with what they have when they should instead get it done
AI as intern
austinkleon.com/2023/03/22/ai-as-intern/Kevin Kelly making the case for AI.
How to plan? | Kellan Elliott-McCrea
kellanem.com/notes/how-to-planLet’s also set aside the question of trade-offs for the moment, except to say, trade-offs are the very heart of engineering and engineering leadership. Software as a medium is so malleable that functionally anything can be made to work. Any language, architecture, approach, style, process, etc can be made to work given sufficient effort. Meaning we find ourselves not asked to choose between right and wrong answers, but between trade-offs.
There are three types of meetings.
camdaigle.com/posts/three-types-of-meetings/Not more, not less – just better.# I'll go ahead and tell you this up front: my system isn't necessarily a path to having fewer meetings. After all, everyone's threshold for 'too many meetings' is different based on what helps them feel effective at their role, and every company's need for meetings is dependent upon the work they're trying to accomplish. I'm hoping this system helps you have better meetings – that the people running the meeting feel like it's worth their time to run...
Work Is Work | codahale.com
codahale.com//work-is-work/In which returns diminish.
The term ‘quiet quitting’ is worse than nonsense | Financial Times
ft.com/content/a09a2ade-4d14-47c2-9cca-599b3c25a33fIf your staff turn up every day, do exactly what you ask of them, but don’t go above and beyond, they are still working
Quality Is Systemic - Jacob Kaplan-Moss
jacobian.org/2022/sep/9/quality-is-systemic/If your team is producing defective code, consider that it may not be because they all suck at their jobs. It’s probably because the environment isn’t allowing them to produce quality software.
Build Your Career on Dirty Work | Stay SaaSy
staysaasy.com/career/2022/09/11/Dirty-Work.htmlThe Dirty Work Theory: The lamentable work that many people avoid are great places to look for high impact, low hanging fruit.
Why public chats are better than direct messages - Teamplify blog
teamplify.com/blog/why-public-chats-are-better-than-direct-messages/As a result, when you send a direct message, you distract your colleague, but when you post a message in a group chat, you don't distract them (unless you mention someone explicitly via @). From our experience, the vast majority of work questions are not so urgent that they require an immediate response. Most topics can be discussed asynchronously – you post a question when you have time, and your teammates will respond when they have time. It greatly helps to minimize distractions,...
Official myths | A Working Library
aworkinglibrary.com/writing/official-mythsLet’s engage with office culture as it really is, not how we imagine it used to be.
Your Career Is Just One-Eighth of Your Life - The Atlantic
theatlantic.com/newsletters/archive/2022/09/career-ambition-advice-data/671374/Five pieces of career advice, shaped by economics, psychology, and a little bit of existential math
The productivity tax you pay for context switching
async.twist.com/context-switching/How distraction became our default way of working and what you can do to reclaim your focus