Short-form insights you can read in under 5 minutes.
My first job in tech was as a LAN admin and mac Helpdesk for 100 Civil and Electrical Engineers. If working your way up is still a thing, I can’t express how lucky I feel for the empathy and troubleshooting skills it taught me.
A challenge of business priorities, is defining them narrowly. Then honoring that boundary to say, “No, not yet” to a cloud of related important and urgent activities you know you “should” do. Revisiting that scope if it is off the mark by shifting the focus - not broadening it.
I put effort into learning what I can do better. Then I put it words for others to see. I don’t pretend to be discovering anything new or that articulating it is profound progress towards actually doing it. But it sets an intention and stirs some accountability.
Learning reminder today is if you adopt a process, follow the process. Study, begin at basics and DO the steps. Intrinsic learning through repetition (Shu in shuhari) takes more time, discipline, humility, and reflection than our egos and our culture understands.
The journey of my life is reversing the order in which I prioritize behaving nice over being kind over creating good.
We arrived at our core values through a company wide consent process and diligent work of two of our Striders, Madelyn Freed and Brian Lam. And now, Rebecca Braitling is helping us live them as we move forward.
It’s an oldie but a goodie from the 50’s. Here’s my version of the triple constraints - or the iron project management triangle.
Two years ago we joined a PEO to get better, more affordable healthcare. We did it because people wanted it and we could. Then COVID hit. You can call it strategy. But luck ftw.
Cognitive bias explains our response to global crises. We tend to opt for benefit now over larger future gains. We prefer harm occur by inaction rather than as consequence of taking action. We are systematically more optimistic than observed outcomes. https://buff.ly/2Zmlxrl
A thing I’m working on getting better at. But to do it will take real commitment. https://buff.ly/3lEA26M
What our clients expect of us even when they feel schedule pressure: high levels of collaboration with disciplined, well-architected, maintainable, low defect code, that they can own and extend for years without facing a “dying core”.
Welcome Francisco to Stride! It’s thrilling to have the opportunity to work with you to build our craft and our company. Let’s make Stride a place where people are helping build a brighter future for our planet and generations to come.