To prepare for my next role, I’ve been re-reading High Output Management by Andy Grove, a former Intel CEO. Although the book was first published about forty years ago, this book is surprisingly still applicable to the modern workplace. It provides both fundamental ideas and tactical tips for leaders: from measuring leaders’ impacts to running effective meetings. Having read other more recent management books (such as Measure What Matters and Death By Meeting), I see that Andy Grove thought about these current, mainstream ideas decades ago. Even though he doesn’t go as deep on these topics as other more topical books, the book is an excellent introduction to how leaders (both technical and people) should work.
It is a short read, so I recommend reading the book if you haven’t done so.
Software Engineering ⚙️
The Analytics Engineer
It’s been almost seven years since I worked in the data analytics space. Back then, the “data engineer” role was the hot new thing. Now, that role is superseded by various data tools, and a new “analytics engineer” role is getting more popular.
Migrating Notion’s marketing site to Next.js
Not all engineering projects have clearly defined goals like this migration (but all successful projects have them). It’s also great to see that the team went back and checked if the migration met the goals.
Why are hyperlinks blue?
This article is a thorough investigation of the origin of blue hyperlinks. My next question is, why are clicked hyperlinks purple?
People ❤️
How Many People Can Someone Lead?
An engineer needs a certain amount of support: technical guidance, product management, and people management. If one engineering manager needs to provide all three, his team needs to be smaller. It reminded me of my startup days with twelve reports, when I did “shallow” people management.
From SWOT to TOWS: Answering a Reader’s Strategy Question
SWOT (strengths-weaknesses-opportunities-threats) naturally makes the team look internally first (strengths and weaknesses) in analyzing its strategy. But without context, anything can be strengths and weaknesses. For example, Netflix’s freedom and responsibility culture can be an asset in the entertainment industry but not healthcare. To set the context, TOWS puts threats and opportunities first.
levels.fyi Internship Compensation Data
If you are curious how much companies paid summer interns, click through.
Cool stuff 😎
From Motor Control to Team Play in Simulated Humanoid Football
A fantastic video on how DeepMind taught virtual agents to play 2v2 football. I found it interesting that separately teaching the agents the low-level (running), mid-level (dribbling), and high-level (team coordination) skills worked for them as it does for humans.
youngk.im 