It’s not even been 3 months into this year. Really?!

#1day

Coffee + Engineer.

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Good people management has been very top of mind for me lately. 🤔 Honeycomb is big enough now that we are starting to develop our own "manager training" materials (except not just for managers, and more like an...immersive experiment?)

Dear high achievers: not everything has to feel hard to feel rewarding.

Hey Melbourne twitter! Any great suggestions for scavenger hunts with friends in the city??

I need something stronger than sleep but less than a coma.

When you need help, it’s better to ping one person than a group. Data: messages to multiple recipients get fewer and less helpful replies. Diffusion of responsibility kicks in: "I'm not needed—someone else will do it!" Generosity rises with a sense of unique contribution.

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When you have an open mind, a challenge to your ideas isn’t an attack on you. It’s an opportunity to learn something new. You don’t have to agree with someone's points to benefit from understanding their perspective. Spirited debate clarifies assumptions and sharpens reasoning.

Happy Independence Day 🇮🇳

Unpopular opinion: There hasn't been a harder time to be a software engineer. The critical pieces in everyone's stack are put together by duct tape. In contrast, it's impossible to build minimal alternatives in-house because the world we live in is ultra complex.

For anyone thinking whether engineering management is for them.. Even if it’s not, it will definitely help you empathise and understand your EM!

This is the true joy in life, being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one. Being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances, complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. - Bernard Shaw

My coworker winston the third wrote a terrific piece on burnout before the break: honeycomb.io/blog/product-m… There's a reason why burnout and work/life balance are such evergreen topics, and it's not actually because the world is so terribly harsh and everyone is criminally overworked.

But more importantly: most of what burns people out is *not* working too many hours. It's things like, * seeing your hard work go unused * working on the wrong thing * long-running, simmering conflict * not being able to fix things that are making your job harder

It’s extremely difficult to do great work in fear. Fight or flight blocks logical and creative reasoning. This is why org health is paramount, and critical to the bottom line. These things are not separate, they’re parts of the functioning whole.

One of my favorite games to play is “is my headache from dehydration, caffeine withdrawal, lack of proper nutrition, my ponytail, stress, lack of sleep, not wearing my glasses or brain tumor?”