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May 9 · Issue #91 · 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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Dealing with other people’s emergencies A lot of first time technical leaders struggle with their time. It’s one of the reasons the first courses I published on the Tech Lead Academy was focused on time management. For some of the people I coach and mentor, I often ask to be walked through how they manage their time and find they’re often dealing with other people’s emergencies. I often refer them to Bob Carter’s famous quote, “ Poor planning on your part does not necessitate an emergency on mine.” If the emergency is coming from your team (i.e. you’re ultimately accountable), then you’ll definitely need to deal with an emergency. Once you handle it though, with double-loop learning, you should be working with your team to prevent future emergencies. If the emergency is coming from a peer, or a different department, this is a bit trickier. You’ll still want to apply double-loop learning to prevent future situations, but it doesn’t mean you should automatically solve someone else’s emergency. You’ll have to consider the balance between your relationship with that person, how much it’ll distract you from your own priorities (which will typically be more important to you), the consequences of failure and how often they come to you. The right answer is often, “I can’t take care of your emergency, but here’s how I can help you.” You can still offer aid, but be clear they are still ultimately accountable. It’s important to work well with others, but just as important to establish boundaries. Consider this week, “What boundaries do you set with your team and peers and how do you communicate this?”
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All leaders need to set boundaries
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Want to hear what Swapfiets’ CTO thinks about the future of the tech industry?
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Dealing with FOMO as an engineering leader
Reading time: 7mins I recently published this article on LeadDev about how leaders should handle FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out). It’s easy to feel the pressure with evolving tech, and growing number of sub-industries and specialisations. Technical leaders feel the pressure more (being less hands-on), so read on to focus on strategies you can use.
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An extended subtweet on power
Reading time: 3mins Leaders must be aware of the power difference in every single communication. Cat Swetel (@CatSwetel) shares a nice simple model for recognising the types of power differences (power-over, power-with and power-in) because not all leaders are managers. I love the conclusion and recommendation about what to focus on and you’re going to have to read the article to find out ☺️.
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Replaceable
Reading time: 5mins This is a lovely take on the idea of “Everyone is replaceable,” from a personal story heard by Leah Farmer (@leahlialeigha). I really enjoyed seeing the shift in perspective around this topic that circles around leadership and management communities.
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APAC-ideal date/time now available and going fast (click the banner)
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How Berkshire Hathaway broke Nasdaq's 32-bit code with its monster share price
Reading time: 2mins For most businesses, there is less reason these days to consider trade-offs when planning data structures for every single field, but this real-world situation provides another example it’s still worth considering for critical systems and standards.
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Understanding the Evolution of AI, Machine Learning, and Deep Learning
Reading time: 60mins I never spent a lot of time studying the field of AI, although I remember a class on Artificial Neural Networks at university. This long read provides a nice summary of the general field, and the various branches of AI.
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Post Office scandal reveals a hidden world of outsourced IT the government trusts but does not understand
Reading time: 5mins Although I could have included this article in the following section on Org/Process, I’ve included this in the tech system because it provides a good reminder that software systems (regardless of who’s guiding product or requirement choices) have real-world consequences and all technical folk contributing must consider the impact. This covers a lot of the failures in UK IT outsourcing (39 people falsely convicted of fraud) and I’m sure the UK is not the only country to suffer from this.
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Dos and Don’ts of Pair Programming - Study Suggests Togetherness and Expediency for Good Sessions
Reading time: 3mins I’m a big fan of pair programming but recognise it’s not an industry-wide adopted practice. This article highlights some research by Franz Zieris (@franzzieris) and Prof. Dr. Lutz Prechelt (@prechelt) on the two characteristics that make pair programming most effective. It’s not about if the practice is useful, rather, how you can make the practice *most* useful.
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Amazon dev degree requirements get nixed to boost diversity
Reading time: 6mins I’m really glad to hear that a FAANG company is removing the requirement for a college/university degree. Some of the most brilliant technical folk I know never went to university, let alone did a comp sci/IT degree. Read this article reported by Shakeel Hashim (@shakeelhashim) to find out about this change.
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Buy now pay later company Zip starts offering paid miscarriage leave to employees
Reading time: 4mins Only two countries in the world (read the article to find out which two) currently have legislation for the right to paid leave following a miscarriage. Australian payment company, Zip.co, extends this benefit to their global workforce setting a new precedent for employee benefits.
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A wonderful quote indeed! 🤓
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A good listener is a witness, not a judge of your experience. —Michael P. Nichols, The Lost Art of Listening
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Patrick Kua, Postfach 58 04 40, 10314, Berlin, Germany
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