One of Square’s organizing principles is that the organization needs to fit the work, not the other way around. This means we will always reorg around this time when we do our roadmaps for the following year. Just as it happened almost a year ago, another reorg occurred last week. My team wasn’t impacted, but I now have two new sibling teams with which we need to collaborate closely. It is a bit disorienting, but I will make the most of it for both the business and me.

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Software Engineering ⚙️

Ten Years of TypeScript

It’s been ten years since Typescript was first publicly released. Its approach to simply being a type checker has worked out and made it the default typed language to write JavaScript.

Introducing Ezno

In contrast with TypeScript’s minimalist approach, this new project takes the maximalist one. It will not only check your types but also optimize runtime code based on the type information.

Use Back-Of-The-Envelope-Calculations To Choose The Best Design

This technique would significantly improve my design reviews. I often do rough calculations to estimate the workload, such as how long a specific data operation will take. But I haven’t done those calculations for particular operations in a proposed design, which should be useful at our current scale.

People ❤️

Models: The Lippitt-Knoster Model for Managing Complex Change

This model lists the necessities to drive a change: vision, consensus/alignment, skills, incentives, resources, and an action plan. This checklist helped me check if my team is set up for success in 2023. My team had a vision, alignment, skills, and incentives but needed more resources (which we got from the reorg mentioned above) and still lacks a clear action plan.

The Coach and the Fixer

The sentence that stuck with me was that the author “was afraid of hurting my relationship with the team.” I still struggle with this. I believe candid feedback will strengthen the relationship in the long term, but I still am hesitant to hurt my team’s short-term feelings.

The Hierarchy Is Bullshit (And Bad For Business)

Managers should actively strive to distribute authority because the status quo is that their teams will choose to stay silent. It’s easy (and sometimes convenient) to forget that.

Business 💰

Mark Zuckerberg says Meta will freeze hiring and cut costs

More signs of trouble at Meta. Meta will not backfill some roles when there is attrition.

With Audiobooks Launching in the U.S. Today, Spotify Is the Home for All the Audio You Love

Spotify launches audiobooks but only for purchases. However, unlike music or podcasts, you can’t stream any audiobooks you want.