Developer Tea

Communication is hard. Like most things, we try to oversimplify it by turning "understanding" into a black and white, binary state. Communication and understanding is, however, a spectrum. Singular messages are low resolution, and it's our job when communicating with each other to increase the resolution of our communication. We talk about a simple framework for doing just that in today's episode.

In today's episode we discuss two types of decision evaluations, and a brief explanation of noise in decisionmaking.You're making judgment calls every day - are they good? How do you know?

We all have some kind of motivation. But in error, we assume we know the motivations of others, and we also assume that our future selves will act in alignment with well-intentioned motivations. Both of these assumptions can lead us to poor decisions about our career. For managers, that assumption can lead you to making decisions for others that are suboptimal to their goals.In this episode we talk about the importance of alignment and clarity for those motivations.

How do you keep the big picture in mind while also executing on the details? In today's episode we talk about the three-part pyramid that represents the big picture. We also overuse alliterations a bit in the episode, hopefully it helps you remember it!

What should I do if I don't have a manager? There's a lot of answers to this question, but the first route I want to suggest is to find someone who can provide the guidance and empowerment you need in your career. This is someone who has skin in the game and the agency and skill set to actually help you.

In today's episode, we talk with Swizec Teller, senior engineer at Tia. Swizec created SeniorMindset.com, discuss the differentiators and mindset shift when becoming a senior engineering mindset. If you missed the first episode, make sure you go back and listen to that first!seniormindset.comswizec.com@Swizec on TwitterHow to Win Friends and Influence PeopleThe Goal

In today's episode, we talk with Swizec Teller, senior engineer at Tia. Swizec created SeniorMindset.com, discuss the differentiators and mindset shift when becoming a senior engineering mindset.seniormindset.comswizec.com@Swizec on Twitter

What does a good 1-on-1 look like? We'll answer this in many different ways. For today's episode, I want to share a micro-framework for you to try out in your next 1-on-1 that could elicit some of your career's most critical conversations.

What should I look for in a healthy relationship with my manager? In this episode we talk about a variety of signals that you can expect if you have the right kind of relationship with your manager.

In this episode we are kicking off a series called "Better Report, Better Manager" - in this series, we'll discuss how you can improve your relationship with your manager from a practical standpoint.Your relationship with your managers is likely one of the most critical relationships you'll have in your career. In this episode, we'll start by getting you aligned with your manager by asking 3 calibration questions.

Your status meetings are an old holdover from less useful business practices. Do away with status meetings, and instead get to the core of your discussion faster.

In today's episode we discuss two principles that will help you make better software design decisions. Talk about these principles and how they apply with your manager, teammates, mentors, or other engineers in your community!

Defining what your tools, teams, processes, and even you yourself are good at is hard, and often we stray past the boundaries of focus that would keep us performing to an optimal degree.In this episode, I encourage you to perform an exercise of inversion, to look at tasks your tools are simply not suited for.

Our ability to make sense out of things is powerful. When we hear "90% of the way there", our brain fills in the gaps and often stretches that to mean "basically 100%." However, this is a cognitive error. In this episode, we talk about the importance of combining statistical thinking with sensemaking.

Opportunity comes in moments of convergence. Loss is measured in divergence. Pay attention to what is converging now - this is how you take advantage of opportunities and reduce your cost from divergence.

Everything we do in our teams is based on trust. Trust, however, is a limited resource. We should spend it wisely.

You're a new engineer - what should you start doing in your first 30 days? In this episode, we talk about 3 behaviors you might be resisting, but that you should actually embrace in order to improve your team. Managers especially need to listen up on this one.

In the mid 20th century, Marshall Mcluhan brought philosophy into the spotlight with his claim that the "medium is the message." We discuss the meaningfulness of this, and apply it to our work as engineers and on distributed teams, in today's episode.Mcluhan's lecture

The world around us isn't static, but our brain processes as if it is.In this episode we talk about subtle shifts to help break that mold for the most important interactions we have in the world.

In today's episode, we discuss the fact that intuition isn't all that bad to use when estimating... we just shouldn't use it to estimate a number. Taking advantage of things humans are already good at (rather than limiting people to processes that work around those skills) is a powerful shift in thinking.