2 min read
My Opinions
An ever expanding list of my opinions on work and life
January 4, 2024
You are a more impactful when you wholeheartedly pick a side and express your beliefs.
On Matters of the Mind
- Superstitions are a form of self-limiting beliefs that can siphon away your control over own life.
- If you receive feedback, show gratitude, especially if you have an emotional response to it. You likely needed the opportunity to grow, and the person who gave it to you contemplated not saying anything at all.
On Meetings
- All virtual meetings with 5 - 15 participants should start with individualized “Hi, name!” greetings as each attendee joins.
- Meeting invites with more than 2 people should have a description that states the reason for the meeting and a link to where notes will be captured. This is to decrease anxiety and give participants a place to look back on what was discussed.
- Standups are for information exchange, not discussion or solutioning.
- It is always helpful to share a written summary of meetings, including next steps once they end.
On Planning Work
- When an author writes a Product Specification, they should focus on defining the problem not a solution. This decreases the chances of an unknown high quality solution from never being discovered due to anchoring bias.
- Request for Comment (RFC)s are to be the collaboration vehicle for broadly impactful change strategizing.
On Communication
- Visual storytelling that accompanies the spoken word are the most impactful.
- Anything worth animating is worth animating subtly.
- No matter how great an idea is objectively, it is worthless without great marketing.
On Software
- API-first thinking and an emphasis on interface design and evolution unlocks significant potential.
- User Interfaces should be “dumb” and only for presentation, interaction, and input. Mission critical algorithms should be centralized in a service elsewhere.
On Teamwork
- Members should feel safe to express early, unformed thoughts about things that are striking them as important for reasons they may not be able to fully articulate yet.
- Members should have high-quality connections with all other members—allowing them to feel positive regard, mutuality, and vitality from one another.