QFM039: Engineering Leadership Reading List October 2024
Everything that I found interesting last month about engineering leadership.
Tags: qfm, engineering, leadership, reading, list, october, 2024
Source: Photo by Jehyun Sung on Unsplash
In this month’s Engineering Leadership Reading List, we explore the interplay of growth, innovation, and the shifting dynamics of tech culture. We begin with Founder Mode, Hackers, and Being Bored by Tech, a critique of Silicon Valley’s idolisation of founders and its impact on genuine technological progress, resonating with Paul Graham and the Cult of the Founder, which examines how founder-centric narratives may inadvertently stifle innovation. Together, these articles question the prioritisation of rapid scaling and hype over substantive leadership and technology advancement.
We move on to team dynamics in Splitting Engineering Teams into Defense and Offense, where structuring small teams for focused, uninterrupted work balances immediate customer needs with long-term project goals. This approach parallels insights from The Efficiency Paradox: When Lean Operations Lead to Lean Innovation, which suggests that while operational efficiency can be advantageous, an excessive focus on lean processes can unintentionally curtail innovation.
A practical approach to leadership is highlighted in The Ultimate Guide to Onboarding Software Engineers (2024), which provides actionable insights on building supportive onboarding frameworks. This complements broader considerations on engineering culture seen in 9 Things I Learned as a Software Engineer, which advocates for a craftsman approach to engineering and a focus on continual learning beyond specific technical skills.
Broader societal and market shifts are addressed in Scale Ruins Everything, which critiques the unchecked growth of venture-backed tech giants and its societal impact, while The Elite’s War on Remote Work Has Nothing to Do with Productivity examines underlying motives behind the return-to-office push. These articles collectively question the traditional metrics of success and suggest that tech leaders and engineers alike must consider the broader implications of their work.
As always, the Quantum Fax Machine Propellor Hat Key will guide your browsing. Enjoy!
Founder Mode, Hackers, and Being Bored by Tech: Ian Betteridge critiques the prevailing ‘founder mode’ prevalent in Silicon Valley, characterized by figures like Paul Graham and Sam Altman, where rapid tech company growth and founder adulation are prioritized over substantial leadership and management skills. He argues that the obsession with glorified founders has pushed aside genuine innovators, the ‘hackers’, in favor of entrepreneurs who lack management prowess but flourish due to hype cycles. Betteridge also touches on the broader tech disillusionment, observing that many tech enthusiasts find the industry stagnant and character-driven rather than innovation-focused. He suggests that this disillusionment isn’t indicative of tech itself being dull, but rather a reaction to the dominance of overconfident figures who overshadow real technological progress.
#TechCritique #SiliconValley #Startups #Innovation #Leadership
Co-founder Mode: The article offers a comprehensive guide to finding a cofounder, drawing on the author’s experience of spending nine months and nearly one hundred “cofounder dates” for the search. It emphasises the value of defining a very specific Ideal Cofounder Profile (ICP) to streamline the process, using tactics from personal networking to structured ‘dating funnels’, and suggests tools like cofounder matching platforms and self-assessment questionnaires to aid in the search. The guide provides practical advice, including recognising red flags and handling timing effectively during the search for a compatible cofounder.
#CofounderSearch #StartupAdvice #Entrepreneurship #BusinessPartners #Founders
The three-page paper that shook philosophy: Gettiers in software engineering: In 1963, philosopher Edmund Gettier published a paper challenging the established definition of knowledge as justified true belief (JTB). His examples, known as Gettier cases, show scenarios where one can have a justified true belief but still not truly ‘know’ something. This philosophical idea has intriguing parallels in software engineering, as programmers frequently encounter situations where their code appears to produce certain effects, but the real cause lies elsewhere, making them think they ‘know’ the cause of an issue when they actually don’t. Understanding Gettier cases helps develop critical thinking in solving complex software problems.
#Philosophy #SoftwareEngineering #Epistemology #Gettier #CriticalThinking
Splitting Engineering Teams into Defense and Offense: The article discusses the challenges and solutions in structuring small engineering teams to tackle both immediate customer needs and long-term projects. At Greptile, a lean team of four engineers is divided into two groups: one focuses on ‘long-running’ tasks for extended periods without interruptions, while the other handles ‘event-driven’ tasks such as support and bug fixes. This structure helps balance product maintenance and expansion by isolating distractions, allowing engineers to work more efficiently. The strategy highlights the need for innovative approaches to team management in fast-growing startups.
#EngineeringTeams #TechStartups #Productivity #TeamStrategy #SoftwareDevelopment
How to Measure Developer GenAI Adoption and Impact: This article discusses the methods for assessing the adoption and impact of Generative AI (GenAI) in software development environments. It emphasizes the importance of measuring these metrics to understand how technology improvements translate into developer efficiency and productivity. The piece offers insights into various tools and frameworks that can aid in quantifying and enhancing these aspects for developer teams.
#GenerativeAI #DevProductivity #AIImpact #SoftwareDevelopment #TechInnovation
9 Things I Learned as a Software Engineer: In “9 Things I Learned as a Software Engineer,” Manuel Ebert shares invaluable lessons from his transition from neuroscience to software engineering. He emphasizes the importance of mindset over mere knowledge of programming languages, advocating for a craftsman approach to work and continual learning through pet projects. Ebert also highlights the significance of understanding one’s role as a stakeholder in an organization, the philosophy of ‘shipping it,’ and taming one’s mental focus to enhance productivity.
#SoftwareDevelopment #CareerTips #Mindset #Productivity #Learning
The Ultimate Guide to Onboarding Software Engineers (2024): This guide emphasizes a structured and empathetic approach to onboarding new software engineers, with a focus on creating a supportive environment to avoid common pitfalls such as feeling lost or overwhelmed. The article highlights the importance of having structured plans like a 30-60-90 day framework and the need for clear expectations and communication to ensure new hires feel integrated and confident. By addressing both known and unknown challenges, and offering emotional support and clarity around roles, the onboarding process can significantly enhance a new hire’s experience and productivity.
#Onboarding #SoftwareEngineering #EmployeeExperience #Leadership #NewHires
The Elite’s War on Remote Work Has Nothing to Do with Productivity: The article explores the motivations behind the push for employees to return to office settings, arguing that productivity is not the true driving factor. Instead, it points out that the interests of maintaining the value of commercial real estate investments, such as office buildings, are at play. References are made to how traditional office employees find ways to be unproductive too, underscoring that remote work is unfairly targeted as unproductive.
#RemoteWork #Productivity #CorporatePolitics #RealEstate #OfficeLife
Paul Graham and the Cult of the Founder: In his article, Dave Karpf critically examines the influence of Paul Graham and YCombinator on Silicon Valley. He argues that Graham’s “Cult of the Founder” has led to an environment where founders are excessively glorified, to the detriment of broader technological innovation. The article contrasts icons like Aaron Swartz with leaders such as Sam Altman, questioning the merit of celebrating founders over engineers and innovators.
#Startups #SiliconValley #Entrepreneurship #Innovation #TechCulture
Scale Ruins Everything: The article explores how venture capital investments have surged drastically, leading to the creation of massive unicorns that dominate markets. However, this often results in negative societal impacts as companies initially perceived as benign grow so large that they become a detriment to community stability and overall market health. It highlights the unintended consequences of startups like Uber and Airbnb whose growth led to significant societal changes, including increased housing costs and disrupted industries, with a critique on the current model of scaling as a necessary measure for success.
#VentureCapital #Startups #SocietyImpact #TechGrowth #MarketDisruption
Part 1 of 4: The Everyday Business Metrics that Crush Innovation: This article discusses how certain business metrics, essential for measuring short-term success, often stifle long-term innovation. It highlights the ‘profitability trap’ where a focus on immediate financial returns suppresses transformative ideas. Using examples like Kodak and Blockbuster, it illustrates how an overemphasis on short-term profits can miss opportunities for disruptive innovation. The piece argues for a balanced approach that integrates innovation into financial performance metrics, encouraging companies to redefine profitability to include both current returns and future growth through innovation.
#Innovation #ProfitabilityTrap #BusinessMetrics #LongTermGrowth #DisruptiveInnovation
The Efficiency Paradox: When Lean Operations Lead to Lean Innovation: The article, a part of the ‘Innovate, Disrupt, or Die’ series, addresses how conventional business metrics can stifle innovation. It particularly examines ‘The Efficiency Paradox,’ where a strong focus on lean operations can suppress creativity and risk-taking, thus limiting radical innovations. The piece discusses the need for companies to balance operational efficiency with maintaining an environment that fosters innovation to avoid being disrupted by more adaptable, forward-thinking competitors.
#Innovation #Efficiency #LeanManufacturing #BusinessGrowth #LongTermStrategy
Startups on the brink: Why a boom in innovation is around the corner: The article explores how startups are poised at a pivotal moment of innovation, driven by the convergence of accumulated wisdom in entrepreneurship, global expertise, and cutting-edge technologies. Despite the challenges faced by modern entrepreneurs, these factors enable founders to turn survival pressures into growth accelerants. The piece highlights the role of books like Scaling Through Chaos by Index Ventures in providing deep insights into team dynamics and startup scaling, suggesting that founders now have unparalleled resources to navigate and leverage the chaotic nature of high-growth environments.
#Startups #Innovation #Entrepreneurship #TechTippingPoint #ScalingSuccess
Have McKinsey and its consulting rivals got too big?: McKinsey and other major consulting firms face declining growth as client demand wanes amidst economic uncertainties, political tensions, and emerging technology challenges, including AI-driven solutions that risk bypassing traditional consulting services. Despite efforts to adapt, these firms’ reliance on geopolitical and economic stability may ultimately make them vulnerable to structural shifts in client expectations and industry practices.
#consulting #McKinsey #businessstrategy #AI #economics
Regards,
[ED: If you’d like to sign up for this content as an email, click here to join the mailing list.]
Originally published on quantumfaxmachine.com and cross-posted on Medium.
