Exactly that.  Myself and two experienced colleagues, Karen Catlin and Stephanie Soler, will be talking about our experiences coaching in tech companies in the Bay Area, and answering questions in person Wed April 11th.  Come along!

“I actually schedule time to think. It sounds ridiculous, I know, but I protect this time as if my livelihood depended on it because it does”.

Quite.  Schedule your thinking time. Don’t allow it to be overrun.  Leave your normal workspace when you take it.  Turn your phone off.   (This message will repeat).  Want more encouragement?  I have an ebook and set of videos on the topic.  Pass them around.

This is cool: a strongly thought-through strategy for a hiring process.

“Just like it doesn’t work to build a product as a collection of features, you don’t want to build a team that’s just a collection of individuals, no matter how exceptional they each are”

A great example of how to get hired, and what to look for in a great hire (IMHO).  Blow off the standard test, propose something much more impressive. (I actually thought it was odd that somebody like this would consider working at a place that uses Hackerrank - but I could be out of date - it happens…).

The audience at Hacker News gets into the question.  Worth browsing the many, many comments.

Yep. Surprised this still happens.  But, apparently…

“Emotions are facts — the way we feel about our work affect how well we do our work. So we must accept our team’s emotions, just as we do our financials or design projects”.

Yes.   A good list - some obvious stuff, some more subtle.

Loved the phrase “proxies of expertise”.  We’ve all listened to the wrong person for the wrong reasons.  This post is a good reminder to get conscious about who you are listening to, and why.  And if they aren’t the expert, ask the expert.

“Essentially, when our brains are left to their own devices, attention is drawn to shortcuts, such as turning focus to the loudest or tallest person in the room”

Marcus lets it rip regarding managers who squelch ideas, don’t listen, treat engineers as “just coders”.  How are you, or your reports, really managing engineers?  A gut check.

AI to check code for errors before it goes back to the engineer.  Sounds right.

A fairly dramatic example of a previously valuable expertise being eaten by software.

There are many, many mindfulness books.  I just came across this one, and like it because a) comes from the right lineage (Jon Kabat Zinn) and b) it’s practical and c) its thorough.  If you want to get into Mindfulness, or are using something like Headspace and want to go deeper, check it out.

Good experience on how to keep a lot of products aligned and running well.  Loved this: “The way I define the product leader’s job is to delight customers, in margin-enhancing, hard-to-copy ways”

About VC pitching, but relevant to any situation really.  Fewer slides!

Get everything on the table at the start.  Good advice.  And if you haven’t, stop and do it now.

Interesting perspective on OKRs. Make them reflect the actual work.  Huh.

Some good stuff here on hiring, firing, technical debt, technology decisions and more.  Good, practical experience.

Oh, this is just excellent.  A nice, clear breakdown of how the creative process works, and how we might learn to manage it, despite unpredictability, uncertainty and sudden changes.  Great article.

Beanbags, free food and table football get somewhat unfairly maligned (I mean, I love those things).  So what does drive employee engagement?  Take a read.

Yes.  Most “difficult conversations” are not about what they are ostensibly about.  They are about relationships, history, feelings, beliefs and more.  Good article.