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December 5 · Issue #121 · View online
Level Up delivers a curated newsletter for leaders in tech. A project by https://patkua.com. Ideal for busy people such as Tech Leads, Engineering Managers, VPs of Engineering, CTOs and more.
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When your top leaders understand tech This week’s transition of Twitter’s CEO from Jack Dorsey (Twitter Founder) to Parag Agrawal (former CTO) reminded me of a couple of things this week. Firstly how some companies likely think very long-term about succession plans, like Amazon’s CEO transition from Jeff Bezos to Andy Jassy. It also reminded me how digital companies have a strong advantage if their CEO deeply understands tech and isn’t simply a consumer of it. Microsoft’s and Apple’s CEOs are two other examples that come to mind. But understanding tech isn’t enough. If you’re a CTO, there are other sides to the business such as developing markets, products and also commercial concerns. But if your CEO understands tech, there’s going to be less arguing around topics like investing in technical excellence, building strong engineering cultures and, investing in R&D. This reminds me of a lot of the digital transformations many “traditional” companies went through or are going through where the CIO is the only executive who has some background yet IT is still seen as a cost-centre. Change and transformation are hard. I know this, having helped many companies as a consultant, but it’s also worth it. As Deming puts it, “ It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory.” If you’re in a digital-first company, you might be luckier with your executive team and their level of tech understanding though it’s still no guarantee. Enjoy this week’s newsletter and be sure to pass it on to a friend or colleague.
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Tech CEOs will enable building stronger digital products but still require other skills
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Get your copy of the Global CTO Survey 2021 Report 500 CTOs answered 70+ questions on technology, security, management, and more. Download the full report to find out what they said—and use these insights to inform your decisions for 2022.
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Belonging to Amazon’s Principal Engineering Community
Reading time: 10mins This article will be interesting for anyone following a technical leadership/IC path. Carlos Arguelles (@carloarg02) gives an extremely succinct and insightful breakdown about his own personal journey of becoming a Principal Engineer and their community at Amazon. He also offers some contrast to how this differs from other tech giants like Google and Facebook.
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Scaling the Practice of Architecture, Conversationally (Part 1)
Reading time: 14mins I’ve included this article in the Leadership section because it’ll appeal to any Software Architects or technical leaders encouraging less ad-hoc architecture decisions. Andrew Harmel-Law (@al94781) shares his own personal journey, new practices and tools on what “good” might look like in today’s world of fast-paced software development in the first part of a series to monitor.
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The Leader's Guide to Fighting Fatigue in This Era
Reading time: 10mins As we head towards the end of the year, I’m sure you’re looking forward to a break. This timely article from Art Petty (@artpetty) shares seven strategies to fight fatigue. Be sure to use these strategies throughout the year and not just at the end 😅!
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🌟🌟🌟 Reach thousands of engineering leaders around the world. Maybe you want to share a leadership role you’re looking to fill? Interested in becoming a sponsor? Get in touch for details for a sponsorship slot in 2022. 🌟🌟🌟
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AWS unveils Graviton3 Arm chips and more. But the real story is the slide from IaaS to packaged solutions
Reading time: 13mins This week was AWS’s Re:Invent with its usual overwhelming set of announcements. This article by Tim Anderson (@timanderson) was the best one I read this week, providing the most succinct summary and some guesses to where they are heading.
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An Overview of Machine Learning Operations
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Multicloud architecture patterns
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Have some training budget for 2021? Check out the courses at https://techlead.academy/
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Lessons Learned from Self-Selection Reteaming at Redgate
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5 Signs It’s Time to Quit Your Job
Reading time: 8mins
Cate Houston (@catehstn) gives 5 useful warning signs for both ICs and Managers about resignation. I especially like the pragmatic “do this” if you’re seeing each sign. There’s even a bonus 6th sign but you’ll have to read the article to find out what they all are.
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Save your engineers' sleep: best practices for on-call processes
Reading time: 12mins SRE Engineer James Frost (@_JamesFrost) details the best practices Ably landed on for managing on-call processes. This is a good guide to visit before the holiday season kicks in at the end of the year.
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Every time I hear: "This 2h meeting of 20 senior people is really expensive" I wonder who is asking about: "This quarter with dozens of engineers stuck waiting for each other with high WIP levels, constant task switching and needles rework that must cost a fortune"
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This is a mind-blowing 🤯 thread 🧵 with details about the scale Shopify enduring during the recent Black Friday/Cyber Monday weekend! Click the tweet below to read more
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2021 was our biggest Black Friday Cyber Monday ever! Together with our friends at @ we achieved near-perfect uptime while averaging ~30TB/min of egress traffic across our infrastructure. That’s a massive ~43PB/day!
Here are some of the most interesting stats 🧵👇
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Patrick Kua, Postfach 58 04 40, 10314, Berlin, Germany
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