AI is a bubble, just like dot-com
I do believe that AI is a bubble. I guess the question is: is it a crypto/NFT kind of bubble, or a dot-com kind of bubble?
LLMs reward expertise
Too many people who are pushing for LLMs and agents in a business environment seem to fail to understand that you can't replace expertise with them.
I feel many organisations will find this out too late.
The team is the product
A good take on something I've thought for a long time, and which is more important now than ever. The idea that a team of people is an unfortunate requirement to get stuff done is wild and short-sighted.
Piloting Agentic Engineering - What Software Engineers Can Learn From The Aviation Industry
I sense this is a good analogy, if you're going to find yourself in a position where using these tools is expected, or even required.
‘The cost of compute is far beyond the costs of the employees’: Nvidia exec says right now AI is more expensive than paying human workers | Fortune
Keep this up and squishy humans might end up being more cost effective.
The AI Great Leap Forward
Seeing AI rolled out in some places, with all the emphasis on adoption and use and zero talk of measuring results, and how this really concerns me and what might come of it... this reall hit home.
Linus Torvalds (@torvalds@social.kernel.org)
Linus being "woke".
Care: The missing ingredient
Someone saying that giving a shit is what matters when it comes to writing good code. I agree.
Books for people who are or aspire to manage/lead team(s) of software engineers
If not a list for folk who want to go into software leadership positions, at least a list of books to better understand (and manage) folk who have gone into such leadership positions.
I beg you to follow Crocker's Rules, even if you will be rude to me
I don't think I agree, because I don't think it's this simple, but I can respect the idea.
360 feedback: why it fails (and what actually works)
Lots of good quotes in here relating to how negative the 360 review process is; and I find myself nodding along to a lot of it.
Nobody Gets Promoted for Simplicity
Hard to ignore or argue with this one (not that I would want to argue with this one).
Better presentations through storytelling and STAR moments
Some useful advice to consider when preparing (and giving) a presentation.
AI Makes the Easy Part Easier and the Hard Part Harder for Developers
A pretty reasonable view of what AI in software development could be, should be, but at the moment isn't being.
The problem with 360-degree performance reviews
I'm very suspicious of any form of peer review in a workplace context, and this article does a good job of outlining why I distrust it, and any leadership that decides to make use of it.
Fuck You I Quit (@fuckyouiquit) on Threads
Quote:
Stop making me justify my paycheck
I don't want a yearly performance review. I don't want to spend two hours filling out a form about my "top accomplishments" like I forgot what I worked on all year. You saw the work. You paid me. That was the agreement.
I also don't want to invent five ways I should magically do more next year for the same money. If I mess up, tell me when it happens. If I'm doing fine, stop asking me to write essays about it.
Let me just enjoy the holidays and leave me be!
What Actually Makes You Senior
Being in a senior role I find I often run into resistance, especially from product manegers, when it comes to trying to really get to the bottom of some requirement. Sometimes I find myself second-guessing if I should bother.
This article was a good reminder that I should bother.
Transparent Leadership Beats Servant Leadership | Hacker News
One of those rare threads on HN where the comment threads are the better read than the article (and I don't think the article is a bad read). I've long been collecting articles related to leadership in tech, and this has some interesting opinions to consider.
Why I Ignore The Spotlight as a Staff Engineer
Thoughts on, in effect, getting on with the job and not chasing the spotlight.
Conflicts at Work
I'm not sure I quite agree with all the content here, but I do like the overall breakdown. Having worked with some very disagreeable people, and having worked with people in a leadership position who could not handle any form of disagreemnt (I should blog my startup experience one day...), this does hit a few points I recognise.
If you are useful, it doesn’t mean you are valued
"As you progress in your career, understanding the difference between being useful and being valued is very important. At first glance, they might look similar because the signals you get are more or less the same: a promotion, a higher than expected bonus, a special stock award. This is why it’s important to dig deeper and try to detect subtler signals."
Code review antipatterns
While most of the article is written as a joke, I've seen some of these "dark side" approaches for code reviews done by actual people who don't seem to want to use code review to lift everyone.
Saving this so I can relive the trauma.
the art of giving a shit
Interesting and readable account of one person's experience of approaching leadership as a service to those you are leading.
The comedy and tragedy of detailed feedback
Good opinion piece about code reviews in different environments, contrasting FOSS and corporate styles and impact. I think there’s some good, if obvious, advice in here.
It's Time to Stop Giving Unsolicited Advice
While not the best-written article (it seems to want to appear to be knowedgable, but also seems to do the common misuse of "passive agressive") it does cover some helpful examples of why unsolicitied advice is a shitty thing to provide.
Unsolicited advice is always criticism
Toot that's an image of a capture from Twitter, or something. The content is good though. What's even better is the unironic near-meltdown of some of the replies and the way they totally miss the point, pretty much thereby demonstrating it.
(PDF) Humanism in Business – Towards a Paradigm Shift?
Management theory and practice are facing unprecedented challenges. The lack of sustainability, the increasing inequity and the continuous decline in societal trust pose a threat to ‘business as usual’ (Jackson and Nelson, 2004). Capitalism is at a crossroad and scholars, practitioners and policy makers are called to rethink business strategy in light of major external changes (Hart 2005, Arena 2004). In the following we review an alternative view of human beings that is based on a renewed Darwinian theory developed by Lawrence and Nohria (2002). We label this alternative view ‘humanistic’ and draw distinctions to current ‘economistic’ conceptions. We then develop the consequences that this humanistic view has for business organizations, examining business strategy, governance structures, leadership forms, and organizational culture. Afterwards we outline the influences of humanism on management in the past and the present, and suggest options for humanism to shape the future of management. In this manner we will contribute to the discussion of alternative management paradigms that help solve the current crises.