Almost every complex problem can be broken down and solved. Thinking from the other side - learning general solutions and how to compose those will give you the ability to build against the broken down complex problem. 📮 Ask a Question If you enjoyed this episode and would like me to discuss a question that you have on the show, drop it over at: developertea.com. 📮 Join the Discord If you want to be a part of a supportive community of engineers (non-engineers welcome!) working to improve their...
Aug 19, 2022•6 min•Ep. 1099
Today, we'll dismantle a few common excuses often provided for not setting goals. We also briefly discuss the SMART goal-setting framework. 📮 Ask a Question If you enjoyed this episode and would like me to discuss a question that you have on the show, drop it over at: developertea.com. 📮 Join the Discord If you want to be a part of a supportive community of engineers (non-engineers welcome!) working to improve their lives and careers, join us on the Developer Tea Discord community by visiting ...
Aug 15, 2022•18 min•Ep. 1098
Your time is full of intent, but if you reflect back - how often do you do what you intend? Our actions are usually trying to reach some outcome, but are haphazard and habit-driven. What if we made that outcome explicit, and made our calendars reflect specific processes instead of vague outcomes? 🙏 Today's Episode is Brought To you by: Square Square has APIs for almost every aspect of running a business from employee management, to order creation and tracking, to inventory synchronization. Squa...
Aug 12, 2022•11 min•Ep. 1097
Change is inevitable, but it's not always what we think it will be. Our framework for change should be ready for change we don't expect as much or more than for change we do expect. 📮 Ask a Question If you enjoyed this episode and would like me to discuss a question that you have on the show, drop it over at: developertea.com. , or on Discord ! 📮 Join the Discord If you want to be a part of a supportive community of engineers (non-engineers welcome!) working to improve their lives and careers,...
Aug 10, 2022•10 min•Ep. 1096
The flow of change is inevitable. Are you building with it, or ignoring it in vane? 📮 Ask a Question If you enjoyed this episode and would like me to discuss a question that you have on the show, drop it over at: developertea.com. 📮 Join the Discord If you want to be a part of a supportive community of engineers (non-engineers welcome!) working to improve their lives and careers, join us on the Developer Tea Discord community by visiting https://developertea.com/discord today! 🧡 Leave a Revie...
Aug 06, 2022•6 min•Ep. 1095
What if status meant something different? Your status meeting overload is probably a symptom of a more important problem: you're not sure what you're measuring against. 🙏 Today's Episode is Brought To you by: Square Square has APIs for almost every aspect of running a business from employee management, to order creation and tracking, to inventory synchronization. Square’s APIs also integrate with software business owners already use like tax and bookings. so business owners can have an integrat...
Aug 03, 2022•12 min•Ep. 1094
Lower cognitive load by picking your tools, and then using them. Avoid the constant evaluation of tooling; it's an intuitive response to the amazing leverage you experienced when you first picked up the tools you have, but now your highest leverage activity is focus. 📮 Ask a Question If you enjoyed this episode and would like me to discuss a question that you have on the show, drop it over at: developertea.com. 📮 Join the Discord If you want to be a part of a supportive community of engineers ...
Jul 27, 2022•10 min•Ep. 1093
Lower cognitive load by looking at your primary activities and modes, and creating cues that help you shortcut to those modes. This importantly gives you a better signal and a spike in cognitive load when something comes up that doesn't match your primary activities and modes. 📮 Ask a Question If you enjoyed this episode and would like me to discuss a question that you have on the show, drop it over at: developertea.com. 📮 Join the Discord If you want to be a part of a supportive community of ...
Jul 25, 2022•12 min•Ep. 1092
Cognitive load will destroy your productivity. In this mini-series, we talk about ways to reduce your cognitive load. In this episode we talk about limiting work, and everything else, in progress. 📮 Ask a Question If you enjoyed this episode and would like me to discuss a question that you have on the show, drop it over at: developertea.com. 📮 Join the Discord If you want to be a part of a supportive community of engineers (non-engineers welcome!) working to improve their lives and careers, jo...
Jul 22, 2022•12 min•Ep. 1091
Cognitive load will destroy your productivity. In this mini-series, we talk about ways to reduce your cognitive load. In this episode we talk about the unexpected effects of surprise on cognitive load, and what you can do about this in your work. 📮 Ask a Question If you enjoyed this episode and would like me to discuss a question that you have on the show, drop it over at: developertea.com. 📮 Join the Discord If you want to be a part of a supportive community of engineers (non-engineers welcom...
Jul 20, 2022•10 min•Ep. 1090
The systems that play a role in producing your thoughts are a huge leverage opportunity in your work and life. If you pause and examine those systems through a lens of systems-thinking, you are likely to identify opportunities for improvement, even if only as a byproduct of that investigation. 🙏 Today's Episode is Brought To you by: Square Square has APIs for almost every aspect of running a business from employee management, to order creation and tracking, to inventory synchronization. Square’...
Jul 13, 2022•12 min•Ep. 1089
If you only look at your experience, you fall prey to anecdotal evidence and a whole host of other biases. But, we should be learning through iteration and empiricism. So how can we? Seek the outside view, without abandoning your experience. 🙏 Today's Episode is Brought To you by the Developer Tea Discord Community Learn and grow with a dedicated group of developers who are always moving forward. Completely free, no catches. 📮 Ask a Question If you enjoyed this episode and would like me to dis...
Jul 11, 2022•8 min•Ep. 1088
Your organizational efficiency is directly related to how you manage information, and information is lost when your organization is chronically lacking transparency. 🙏 Today's Episode is Brought To you by the Developer Tea Discord Community Learn and grow with a dedicated group of developers who are always moving forward. Completely free, no catches. 📮 Ask a Question If you enjoyed this episode and would like me to discuss a question that you have on the show, drop it over at: developertea.com...
Jul 08, 2022•10 min•Ep. 1087
Once you have the right meetings with the right people, it's time to look at the content of the meeting itself. In this episode we discuss possible red flags that may show up in your meetings, and what kinds of problems these flags may signal. 🙏 Today's Episode is Brought To you by: Square Square has APIs for almost every aspect of running a business from employee management, to order creation and tracking, to inventory synchronization. Square’s APIs also integrate with software business owners...
Jul 07, 2022•15 min•Ep. 1086
Defining your audience is critical to a good meeting. If you haven't defined your audience... who is the meeting even for? 📮 Ask a Question If you enjoyed this episode and would like me to discuss a question that you have on the show, drop it over at: developertea.com. 📮 Join the Discord If you want to be a part of a supportive community of engineers (non-engineers welcome!) working to improve their lives and careers, join us on the Developer Tea Discord community by visiting https://developer...
Jun 30, 2022•9 min•Ep. 1085
Better meetings are not a myth, but it starts with deconstructing how you got to where you are today. A hectic calendar and meetings showing up like popcorn. What can you do to improve this? Managers and individual contributors can start by focusing on what the goal of the meeting is. If the goal of the meeting is to solve a problem, that's a yellow flag. 🙏 Today's Episode is Brought To you by: LaunchDarkly This episode is brought to you by LaunchDarkly. LaunchDarkly enables development and ope...
Jun 27, 2022•12 min•Ep. 1084
Competency is not the only way you can grow your career. If that was the case, then every engineering manager would be technically more proficient than their reports, and I can guarantee (from many experiences) this is not only not the case - it's not even the norm. 🙏 Today's Episode is Brought To you by: LaunchDarkly This episode is brought to you by LaunchDarkly. LaunchDarkly enables development and operations teams to deploy code at any time, even if a feature isn't ready to be released to u...
Jun 23, 2022•11 min•Ep. 1083
Sometimes a small question can change the course of your career. It doesn't have to be complicated, and it doesn't have to be detailed. A well placed question might unearth information you didn't realize was in you. 🙏 Today's Episode is Brought To you by: LaunchDarkly This episode is brought to you by LaunchDarkly. LaunchDarkly enables development and operations teams to deploy code at any time, even if a feature isn't ready to be released to users. Innovate faster, deploy fearlessly, and make ...
Jun 21, 2022•11 min•Ep. 1082
In today's episode, I give you one question that is considered taboo (for some unknown reason) often in the workplace: What Do You Want? Amazingly, this diverse question is at the root of some of the most important conversations you'll have in your career. You are, after all, a human working with other humans - each with their own unique desires. 📮 Ask a Question If you enjoyed this episode and would like me to discuss a question that you have on the show, drop it over at: developertea.com. 📮 ...
Jun 15, 2022•9 min•Ep. 1081
Play isn't just for kids. In today's episode we'll reframe what play means, and why it's a principle for great work and lifelong learning. 🙏 Today's Episode is Brought To you by: Square Square has APIs for almost every aspect of running a business from employee management, to order creation and tracking, to inventory synchronization. Square’s APIs also integrate with software business owners already use like tax and bookings. so business owners can have an integrated software stack that empower...
Jun 13, 2022•10 min•Ep. 1080
When you find something that is counterintuitive, it's possible that it will create immense value to whatever problem you are trying to solve. Seek to interrogate your beliefs to build better explanations for what is true, and find those who disagree with you at an intuitive level. 🙏 Today's Episode is Brought To you by: LaunchDarkly This episode is brought to you by LaunchDarkly. LaunchDarkly enables development and operations teams to deploy code at any time, even if a feature isn't ready to ...
Jun 08, 2022•16 min•Ep. 1079
Productivity is about working towards your goals, and optimization is about sharpening those efforts more directly. We talk about two forks in the road when you choose the types of optimization you'll deploy in your career and personal life. 🙏 Today's Episode is Brought To you by: LaunchDarkly This episode is brought to you by LaunchDarkly. LaunchDarkly enables development and operations teams to deploy code at any time, even if a feature isn't ready to be released to users. Innovate faster, de...
Jun 06, 2022•18 min•Ep. 1078
Determining your values doesn't have to be an extremely serious or permanent exercise. Start at the simplest place you can, and iterate. Your values are as evolving and changing as you are - keep them held lightly. 🙏 Today's Episode is Brought To you by: Square Square has APIs for almost every aspect of running a business from employee management, to order creation and tracking, to inventory synchronization. Square’s APIs also integrate with software business owners already use like tax and boo...
Jun 01, 2022•14 min•Ep. 1077
If you feel like everything is spinning around you and it's difficult to remain productive, you aren't alone. In this episode we talk about core tools and activities, and why it's so important to spend the majority of your time working in your core. 🙏 Today's Episode is Brought To you by: LaunchDarkly This episode is brought to you by LaunchDarkly. LaunchDarkly enables development and operations teams to deploy code at any time, even if a feature isn't ready to be released to users. Innovate fa...
May 31, 2022•13 min•Ep. 1076
Productivity measurements often show nothing of value at all. Today we'll discuss how complexity (or "story") points may actually show exactly the opposite of productivity. 🙏 Today's Episode is Brought To you by: Instabug Building and maintaining mobile applications is not simple. Through comprehensive bug and crash reports, performance monitoring and real time user feedback, Instabug gives you the visibility you need to build top quality apps. Go to Instabug.com and get the visibility you need...
May 25, 2022•13 min•Ep. 1075
Productivity is meaningless without a goal, and no activity is banned from being considered productive. 🙏 Today's Episode is Brought To you by: Instabug Building and maintaining mobile applications is not simple. Through comprehensive bug and crash reports, performance monitoring and real time user feedback, Instabug gives you the visibility you need to build top quality apps. Go to Instabug.com and get the visibility you need to start delivering superior app performance and better user experie...
May 23, 2022•16 min•Ep. 1074
On the whole, exceptions are not exceptional. Each one may be unpredictable or rare, but they happen very regularly. How are you prepared to handle those exceptions? Make space today for the principle of headroom. 📮 Ask a Question If you enjoyed this episode and would like me to discuss a question that you have on the show, drop it over at: developertea.com. 📮 Join the Discord If you want to be a part of a supportive community of engineers (non-engineers welcome!) working to improve their live...
May 20, 2022•6 min•Ep. 1073
The quality of your options is determined by the quality of your inputs. If your decisions have no good options, consider what the source of those options is. 🙏 Today's Episode is Brought To you by: Instabug Building and maintaining mobile applications is not simple. Through comprehensive bug and crash reports, performance monitoring and real time user feedback, Instabug gives you the visibility you need to build top quality apps. Go to Instabug.com and get the visibility you need to start deli...
May 18, 2022•11 min•Ep. 1072
The background noise in today's episode wasn't just a mistake, it was a choice. A tradeoff. Tradeoffs represent a decision of control and energy. You will make them every day, but towards what goal? When you make a tradeoff and decide where to put your energy, you are necessarily deciding not to put it elsewhere. So, do so with purpose and intention. 🙏 Today's Episode is Brought To you by: LaunchDarkly This episode is brought to you by LaunchDarkly. LaunchDarkly enables development and operatio...
May 11, 2022•11 min•Ep. 1071
What was the last time you prepared for a meeting? I'm not talking about the times when you were forced to prepare. I mean, when was the last time you put thought and effort into a meeting that most people just show up to? In this episode, we talk about simple ways to go the extra mile. Also, this involves no extra work on your part. 📮 Ask a Question If you enjoyed this episode and would like me to discuss a question that you have on the show, drop it over at: developertea.com. 📮 Join the Disc...
May 09, 2022•11 min•Ep. 1070
