gurupanguji
Weekly LoLs are articles that were great and I jotted notes about them. I am sharing them as a summary here so you can also follow them and read them.
- What I learned about decisions from a pancake: The truth about decisions is to just make them. They might be right. Then great. They might be wrong. If so, live them, learn from them, grow. But, the answer almost always is - make them. Like flipping a pancake. What a delightful read.
- In Praise of “Normal” Engineers: I think it’s actually the other way around. A truly great engineering organization is one where perfectly normal, workaday software engineers, with decent software engineering skills and an ordinary amount of expertise, can consistently move fast, ship code, respond to users, understand the systems they’ve built, and move the business forward a little bit more, day by day, week by week.
- Dia: Thoughts on the latest from The Browser Company. Dia is the successor to Arc which was a skin on chrome tried something new. Plugging AI into browsers feels like what we should expect. I like their mechanic of
@but it is not a moat. I wish them the best, but for now it's not becoming my default browser like arc did. - On Winging It Work, Planning And Growing Your own Luck: I don’t give up. But I don’t give up myself, either. So I won’t be number one. But I’ll still be me. You have to be okay with that trade. And you have to be okay with looking in the mirror and still seeing a recognisable version of yourself. And if you smile, then the smile has to be real, whether it’s rueful or not — not brave, desperate or terrified.
- The Prodigal Techbro: Prodigal tech bro stories skip straight from the past, when they were part of something that—surprise!—turned out to be bad, to the present, where they are now…
- Why learning how to learn is the skill behind all skills: Learning how to learn comes down to three essential practices that compound over time. Rather than chasing learning hacks, focus on these three fundamental practices that work regardless of what you’re learning or how your brain is wired.
- Expert Generalists: Being an Expert Generalist should be treated as a first-class skill, one that can be assessed and taught. This is one of my super powers. I have a lot of knowledge about a lot of things and I truly believe that the next few years are mine to shine.
- Emotionally Intelligent People Use This Brilliant 5-Word Phrase to Say No With Confidence (and Stop Talking): Appreciation, the no, followed by well wishes is the secret to not over explain while being clear about your priorities
- Throw Away the Scales: This is insightful. The concept of Ikigai also thrives in this. Burnout happens when work becomes meaningless to you and you are still slogging.
- Beyond Hierarchies The Real Org Chart - Blog: True organizational power lies not in titles or org charts, but in relationships. Learn how self-managed companies use trust and shared purpose to thrive. This is key to understanding how to operate in a culture and how to operate best in an environment as well. It's also critical to know when things change
- Do you follow your own advice?: It's easier to speak wisdom than to live it. But that doesn't mean the wisdom isn't wisdom. In some ways practice what you preach is overrated?
- Face it you're a crazy person: Unpacking a job helps understand what is actually entailed in a job versus just what our brain fills in at the highest level. This is one of those learnings that I will try ti impart to my son (not that he will listen immediately).
- Web Numbers: Domains? Where we’re going, we don’t need domains! Until the end of this year, the only way to have a secure web site is to have it accessible via a domain name. That, however, is changing. And the design of the Small Web will be changing along with it. IP addresses are about to make a comeback on the web in a big (ok, small) way, thanks to upcoming support for security certificates for IP addresses by Let’s Encrypt.
- 32 notes on AI & writing: Writing isn't just the creative writing that most of us read online. It's so vast and so varied that unless you've really thought about it, classifying it as one thing is not a great idea. And there's certainly a market where LLMs will take over generation of the content.