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Brendan on the web
Tag Archives: management
How To Become An Engineer With People Skills
My mother told me when I was young that people get hired for their technical skills, and fired for their people skills (specifically a lack thereof). And I’ve seen this play out in the real world repeatedly. Assessing whether someone … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged management, mindfulness, people skills, soft skills, software development
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Relationship-building counts as work
“Relationship-building counts as work.” That’s a great quote from in the latest article from First Round Capital Review: 23 Tools to Make Feedback Meaningful. As Phin Barnes writes: A lot of people skimp on the time they spend in one-on-ones … Continue reading
Entrepreneurship: The Coin-Flipping Biathlon
Entrepreneurs are participating in a coin-flipping biathlon – they just don’t know it. I was listening to an old Marc Andreessen presentation at Y Combinator’s Startup School in 2008, and I love that he talked about Nassim Taleb’s Fooled by … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged entrepreneurship, management, marc andreessen, nassim taleb, product management, startups
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To solve real business problems, know how their kids are doing.
“But we’ve got great free lunch here every day!” Occasionally that’s the response I get when I ask a new colleague to go out for an offsite lunch. And it’s true, there’s a fabulous, healthy, cooked lunch served daily here … Continue reading
Be Vulnerable
Shame on me. I haven’t watched Jack Dorsey present before (live or on video), and I had made certain assumptions about him because of his business success (co-founder of Twitter, founder and CEO of Square) and because he was (in)famous … Continue reading
Hire people you would be willing to work for
The Y Combinator Startup School 2013 videos are online! I started with Paul Graham’s interview with Zuckerberg. There’s not a ton of new info in that video IMHO, but there are a couple of gems, such as: “One of the … Continue reading
Tours of Duty: The New Employer-Employee Compact
Is there an alternative balanced between between permanent employment and contract employment? Reid Hoffman (CEO of LinkedIn) proposes the tour of duty in this month’s Harvard Business Review: “firm but time-limited mutual commitment with focused goals and clear expectations.” When possible, … Continue reading
The one cost engineers and product managers don’t consider
I love this article from Chris Gale, VP of Engineering at Yammer – The one cost engineers and product managers don’t consider – which is about reducing complexity… On the product side, your best tool for eliminating complexity cost is data. Studies … Continue reading
Are coders worth it?
An interesting long form piece in Aeon Magazine by James Somers – titled “Are coders worth it?” – aims to examine whether web developers are worth the six figure salaries that they currently command in their first year of employment. I am … Continue reading
How Google Sets Goals
There’s a surprising lack of public information on OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) – the goal setting and tracking philosophy used by Intel, Google and others. This past month Google Ventures Startup Lab released a great presentation video by Rick Klau … Continue reading
Brendan Sterne 