In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:

1. Listener Sara asks,

   How can I deal with favoritism towards informal leaders in a group? The group is losing group intelligence because the informal leader’s reasoning and direction is favored. Example: when member A propose an argument is dismissed, but when the informal leader proposes the same argument it is cherished.

2. How do I react to the question “why didn’t you do it this way” for features already in production? I am frustrated by being asked that. I got scolded for an idea that turned out to be bad after I implemented it (in production), although I asked the Lead for his opinion ahead of time. As soon as trouble came up a.k.a performance issue in production, he pointed the finger at me. Lost all kinds of respect for him.

In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:

1. I keep hearing about Web3, DAOs and Smart Contracts. Part of me wants to get excited about these and other shiny things but I just don’t seem to care all that much any more.

   How long into your careers did y’all stop getting excited about shiny stuff and how do you keep learning when it is not all that exciting to you any more?

   Maybe it is time to be a manager? 😛

2. Every work day seems to start the same way. I check slack, then procrastinate for about 2 hours before feeling so guilty about getting nothing done that i actually start doing some work. Once i get started i don’t have any issues concentrating.

   I want to work, i like my job but i also can’t crack this habit. I am assuming this is not normal…any ideas that could help me out?

   PS: I think (might not be true) i use to be better at getting started before the WFH was the norm

Show Notes

Article by Dave on how to make your standups awesome: https://blog.standuply.com/are-your-standups-awesome-91fb124033be

In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:

1. In the past couple of years I transitioned from a freelancer, to a full-time software engineer, to a product owner, to a manager of a small product development team. Due to the relatively rapid changes, I feel I have not had enough time to go particularly deep in my knowledge and experience with any of these roles.

   I’m currently focusing on developing the soft skills needed to be a better manager. I have this nagging feeling though that I should still be developing my technical skills. But in the grand scheme of things, is it still useful for a manager to continue to develop technically in order to provide useful input/guidance on technical decisions? Or would it be better to leave the technical decision-making to the team and instead focus purely on building up the team, supporting members in reaching their career goals, and improving processes? Thanks in advance for your thoughts!

2. Hi! Love the show and recommend it to everyone, even if they’re just asked for directions…

   I’m the Front End Lead at a fast growing startup. I really want to start delegating more, so I decided I’m going to appoint a front end tech lead on each of our teams. I already have my tech leads picked out, but…..

   My problem is with one of the teams. The person most fitting for the job is a very talented, yet very junior developer. This team also includes a very senior developer, which I believe is not fit for the job at all. But the senior developer is looking for a promotion.

   I’ve consulted with my managers and they think passing over the senior dev is basically forcing them out of the company (or at the least, making them a very disgruntled employee).

   Right now i’m holding back my decision just because of this. Please help me!

   Thanks :-)

Show Notes

• https://www.lesswrong.com/tag/paperclip-maximizer
• https://www.decisionproblem.com/paperclips/
• https://charity.wtf/2019/01/04/engineering-management-the-pendulum-or-the-ladder/
• https://charity.wtf/2017/05/11/the-engineer-manager-pendulum/