Four short links: 9 January 2017
"Universal Truths," Getting Stuck, Kafka Dot Com, and Auto Ordering
- 50 Universal Truths for Success (Business Insider) — I’ve been collecting my own “lessons learned” and some look like these. In the early stages of a company, career, or project, you’ll have to say “yes” to a lot of things. In the later stages, you’ll have to say “no.” True for stages of life as well.
- How do Individual Contributors Get Stuck? (Camille Fournier) — top advice. My competence took a massive step forward when I finally realized what caused me to get stuck (and what getting stuck felt like). Noticing how people get stuck is a super power, and one that many great tech leads (and yes, managers) rely on to get big things done. When you know how people get stuck, you can plan your projects to rely on people for their strengths and provide them help or even completely side-step their weaknesses. You know who is good to ask for which kinds of help, and who hates that particular challenge just as much as you do.
- Kafka the Entrepreneur (Guardian) — wanted to write indie European travel guides, came up with a five-page business plan, but was so paranoid he demanded NDAs from publishers before meeting … so nobody funded him.
- TV Anchor says “Alexa Buy Me A Dollhouse” on Air (The Register) — voice-command purchasing is enabled by default on Alexa devices. Hilarity ensures.
