I came back from a 3-day team offsite in Atlanta. It was my first time meeting my team and also my first time planning an offsite. I was busy and stressed out finding activities and booking restaurants, but I enjoyed shaking hands, sharing bread, and laughing with my team. I also appreciated my team members leaning into uncomfortable situations such as the improv workshop and in-person 1:1s. Once I recover from the trip, I will share how I planned this offsite.
Software Engineering ⚙️
Strategy: Change The Problem
My team is running into severe performance problems for the larger customers. It is tricky because we support database operations that can change the entire state of their accounts while guaranteeing consistency and keeping the complete history of their accounts. At times, it feels like a no-win scenario. Instead of continuing to upgrade our machines, should we relax some constraints?
Slack releases platform open beta powered by Deno
Another win for Deno. Deno’s big selling point has been its permission model (closed by default, unlike Node.js), and Slack calls that out as a reason it partnered with Deno.
People ❤️
Is your boss telling you the truth?
This article makes certain assumptions (1~3) to get to the conclusion (4):
- While a manager is responsible for the team-level result, their reports are for individual results.
- What’s best for the team and what’s best for individual reports are not the same.
- More information incentivizes the individual reports to pursue what’s best for them.
- Therefore, a capable manager will choose to tell the partial truth.
If I accept the assumptions, the conclusion sounds logical. But I suspect that 2. and 3. may not always be true (early-stage startups, for example).
NONVIOLENT COMMUNICATION ~ TOP 7 KEY SENTENCES
My habits drive how I show up during discussions. I find it difficult to actively engage in a prolonged conversation while avoiding my go-to’s, such as “I can help with X.” So I am habituating some cues such as “I want you to lead X.” This 4-min video has other short sentences worth habituating. I liked these: “Can I interrupt for a moment…?” “How would it be for you…?” and “I would prefer to do X because I have a need for Y.”
Business 💰
What China, Marvel, and Avatar Tell Us About the Future of Blockbuster Franchises
I remember the Korean film industry fighting for domestic screen quotas in the late 90s and early 2000s. Twenty years later, the industry has grown to the point that Parasite and Squid Game are winning the top awards. More industry centers worldwide will replicate the same successes and beyond, shrinking the American share.
Interesting Finds 💡
“If you don’t make it beautiful, it’s for sure doomed”: putting the Vault in GitHub’s Arctic Code Vault
GitHub put a snapshot of every public code, Wikipedia, and Stack Overflow into a literal steel vault under an artic mountain. Reading this made me wonder what part of my work will survive 10, 100, or 1000 years. Also, do I care about that?
The Blackpink Fans Looking to Outfox YouTube
Blackpink fans run experiments to understand YouTube algorithms and maximize the view counts of their stars’ music videos.
youngk.im 