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Posts tagged with Work

A Job that Values Your Function

A Job that Values Your Function

As a kid, I got into programming largely on my dad's encouragement. Despite not having any background in tech himself, he correctly surmised that computers will become an important facet of society; the impending wave of demand for…

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Unpacking Conway's Law

Unpacking Conway's Law

I've been thinking a lot recently about organizational structure and design[1]. Eventually, I'm reminded and inevitably return to Conway's Law: Any organization that designs a system (defined broadly) will produce a design whose…

Piles of Past Work Notes

Piles of Past Work Notes

Lists of accomplishments at work are a useful exercise, both for performance reviews in the moment, but also for posterity[1] years after the fact. Through a variety of employers, roles, and even note-taking apps, I’ve compiled a…

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Interviewing for Signals

Interviewing for Signals

I've been helping out with interviews for my employers since my first gig out of college, some 15 years ago. In that timeframe, the process to get a job as a software engineer hasn't changed too…

The Meaning from Work Can Make Early Retirement Tricky

The Meaning from Work Can Make Early Retirement Tricky

In my own research to better understand personal finances and create financial models to solve for my own needs, I came across the Financial Independence, Retire Early (FIRE) movement within Reddit. As far as I can tell, the main idea…

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Separating Title, Responsibility, and Capability

Separating Title, Responsibility, and Capability

A crucial part of being a people manager is making hiring decisions, and an overlooked part of that responsibility is to make a judgment on not only whether someone passes the hiring bar, but which bar they clear. That is,…