https://pinboard.in/u:jm/public/ recent bookmarks from jm 2026-06-17T12:19:26+00:00 https://newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/why-is-meta-destroying-its-engineering jm “It’s literally the gulag,” one of the employees claims. “You have zero purpose in life all of a sudden, you barely interact with anyone, you just have these tasks every week.” ]]> meta fuckedcompany instagram facebook ai management how-we-work zuck engineering fail https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:9bd39beed497/ 2023-06-19T16:32:57+00:00 https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/131XZCEb8LoXqy79WWrhCX4sBnGhCM1nAIz4feFZJsEo/edit#gid=0 jm career circleci engineering growth management competencies work https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:7a6797f3039e/ 2020-02-17T13:00:29+00:00 https://cutle.fish/blog/12-signs-youre-working-in-a-feature-factory jmI’ve used the term *Feature Factory *at a couple conference talks over the past two years. I started using the term when a software developer friend complained that he was “just sitting in the factory, cranking out features, and sending them down the line.” heh, this rings a bell....]]> features product-management agile teams work management product companies prioritization planning https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:c4f2ce936374/ 2019-12-19T12:06:35+00:00 https://augustl.com/blog/2019/best_bug_predictor_is_organizational_complexity/ jmOrganizational Complexity. Measures number of developers working on the module, number of ex-developers that used to work on the module but no longer does, how big a fraction of the organization as a whole that works or has worked on the module, the distance in the organization between the developer and the decision maker, etc. ]]> culture management programming organisations bureaucracy bugs quality https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:a2b0fa7101a6/ 2019-10-25T11:41:00+00:00 https://apenwarr.ca/log/20171213 jm agile management software programming scheduling triage bugs backlogs jira https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:24ba57f7dcef/ 2019-09-23T11:50:52+00:00 https://newrepublic.com/article/154944/boeing-737-max-investigation-indonesia-lion-air-ethiopian-airlines-managerial-revolution jm[Boeing] engineers devised a software fix called MCAS, which pushed the nose down in response to an obscure set of circumstances in conjunction with the “speed trim system,” which Boeing had devised in the 1980s to smooth takeoffs. Once the 737 MAX materialized as a real-life plane about four years later, however, test pilots discovered new realms in which the plane was more stall-prone than its predecessors. So Boeing modified MCAS to turn down the nose of the plane whenever an angle-of-attack (AOA) sensor detected a stall, regardless of the speed. That involved giving the system more power and removing a safeguard, but not, in any formal or genuine way, running its modifications by the FAA, which might have had reservations with two critical traits of the revamped system: Firstly, that there are two AOA sensors on a 737, but only one, fatefully, was programmed to trigger MCAS. The former Boeing engineer Ludtke and an anonymous whistle-blower interviewed by 60 Minutes Australia both have a simple explanation for this: Any program coded to take data from both sensors would have had to account for the possibility the sensors might disagree with each other and devise a contingency for reconciling the mixed signals. Whatever that contingency, it would have involved some kind of cockpit alert, which would in turn have required additional training—probably not level-D training, but no one wanted to risk that. So the system was programmed to turn the nose down at the feedback of a single (and somewhat flimsy) sensor. And, for still unknown and truly mysterious reasons, it was programmed to nosedive again five seconds later, and again five seconds after that, over and over ad literal nauseam.
 And then, just for good measure, a Boeing technical pilot emailed the FAA and casually asked that the reference to the software be deleted from the pilot manual.
 So no more than a handful of people in the world knew MCAS even existed before it became infamous. Here, a generation after Boeing’s initial lurch into financialization, was the entirely predictable outcome of the byzantine process by which investment capital becomes completely abstracted from basic protocols of production and oversight: a flight-correction system that was essentially jerry-built to crash a plane. “If you’re looking for an example of late stage capitalism or whatever you want to call it,” said longtime aerospace consultant Richard Aboulafia, “it’s a pretty good one.”
 ]]> boeing business capitalism engineering management fail disasters automation cost-control stock-market fly-by-wire https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:147b64ad3d93/ 2019-03-06T21:46:42+00:00 https://chelseatroy.com/2018/03/29/why-do-remote-meetings-suck-so-much/ jmWhen audio/visual delays exacerbate the caucus problem for people who always get the floor in meetings, it looks to them like a new problem. It’s not new; it’s just normally experienced by people in meetings with lower caucus scores. Leadership doesn’t notice because people in leadership positions tend to have higher caucus scores, and being in a position of leadership also tends to boost your caucus score (basically because people interrupt you less). But that’s a weakness of the way we identify decision-makers: good ideas come from everywhere, and especially from people who do a lot of thinking and observing before they say anything. Making meetings more accessible to remote employees doesn’t just make meetings more accessible to remote employees; it makes meetings more accessible to everyone.  ]]> team meetings remote communication management caucus-score remote-work https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:950e2f460bdf/ 2017-08-01T10:32:24+00:00 https://qz.com/1039957/the-ultimate-case-against-using-shame-as-a-management-tactic/ jm“’Just culture’ as a term emerged from air traffic control in the late 1990s, as concern was mounting that air traffic controllers were unfairly cited or prosecuted for incidents that happened to them while they were on the job,” Sidney Dekker, a professor, writer, and director of the Safety Science Innovation Lab at Griffith University in Australia, explains to Quartz in an email. Eurocontrol, the intergovernmental organization that focuses on the safety of airspace across Europe, has “adopted a harmonized ‘just culture’ that it encourages all member countries and others to apply to their air traffic control organizations.” [...] One tragic example of what can happen when companies don’t create a culture where employees feel empowered to raise questions or admit mistakes came to light in 2014, when an investigation into a faulty ignition switch that caused more than 100 deaths at GM Motors revealed a toxic culture of denying errors and deflecting blame within the firm. The problem was later attributed to one engineer who had not disclosed an obvious issue with the flawed switch, but many employees spoke of extreme pressure to put costs and delivery times before all other considerations, and to hide large and small concerns. (via JG)]]> just-culture atc air-traffic-control management post-mortems outages reliability air-canada disasters accidents learning psychological-safety work https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:924ff2dfec5f/ 2017-07-03T15:29:35+00:00 https://medium.com/swills-tech-leadership-essentials jm management stephanie-dean stephanie-williams managing teams work hiring https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:44b70916b82a/ 2016-11-18T16:15:38+00:00 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_triviality jm triviality bikeshed bikeshedding management arguments decisions history https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:e0669ccb65d1/ 2016-10-24T10:21:16+00:00 http://larahogan.me/blog/manager-levels/ jmI’ve had the privilege of experiencing a few different management levels (responsibilities? jobs?) at Etsy since I’ve joined. At each stage, I felt like the job of being a manager totally changed. What I did day-to-day changed, what was hard about it changed, how I measured my own success changed, and though I feel like the experiences built on one another, it continues to be an enormous shift in brainpower each time the gig changes a bit. Given how intangible (and often hidden) management work can be, I’ve outlined some highlights of what my work has been like as a manager over the last four years. (Obvious, major caveat: this is just my experience, and there’s lots in here that is unique to this particular work environment, hierarchy, requirements, and challenges!) ]]> business engineering management career lara-hogan managing https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:1ce83855bd8c/ 2016-10-12T13:23:54+00:00 http://www.airfixers.com/ jm dublin airbnb management rental services https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:e6a3abae80e6/ 2016-10-07T12:48:42+00:00 https://mfbt.ca/how-fucked-up-is-your-management-8a1086eeb4a9#.gt7wsrxbs jmScore 1 “My management culture is fucked up” point for each of the following: We have an unlimited vacation policy; We don’t do regular 1:1s, but we have open office hours/are super available if anyone wants to chat; We don’t have a process for interviewing, we just hire awesome people when we meet them; We super care about diversity, but we don’t want to lower the bar so we just hire the best person for the job even if it means diversity suffers; We don’t have defined levels and career paths for our employees, we’re a really flat org; We don’t have formal managers for every staff member, everyone just gets their work done; We don’t have, like, HR HR, but our recruiter/office manager/only female employee is super good if you want someone to talk to; We don’t do performance improvement plans for employees that are struggling. We just have a super honest conversation about how they aren’t a good fit and fire them; We would have some hard explaining to do if our salary list accidentally became public. ]]> startups management culture work vacation hiring office-hours managers diversity careers hr https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:846dc226ee4b/ 2016-09-13T11:12:25+00:00 https://www.ft.com/content/88fdc58e-754f-11e6-b60a-de4532d5ea35 jm algorithms labour work labor taylorism management silicon-valley tech deliveroo uber piece-work https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:e0e5ffae9927/ 2016-04-28T16:43:48+00:00 https://www.oreilly.com/ideas/ask-the-cto-how-do-i-hire-managers jm camille-fournier tips advice hiring managers management hr https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:d05bd4cadd77/ 2015-11-26T12:09:33+00:00 https://rework.withgoogle.com/blog/five-keys-to-a-successful-google-team/ jmWe learned that there are five key dynamics that set successful teams apart from other teams at Google: Psychological safety: Can we take risks on this team without feeling insecure or embarrassed? Dependability: Can we count on each other to do high quality work on time? Structure & clarity: Are goals, roles, and execution plans on our team clear? Meaning of work: Are we working on something that is personally important for each of us? Impact of work: Do we fundamentally believe that the work we’re doing matters? ]]> teams google culture work management productivity hr https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:3ac2508c267d/ 2015-11-05T11:07:23+00:00 http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-10-21/how-could-volkswagen-s-top-engineers-not-have-known- jm"Perhaps the engineers told themselves that the cheat was a stopgap, and they’d address it later. If so, they didn’t." ]]> tech-debt vw volkswagen management prioritisation planning https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:6cfb94f3e80e/ 2015-10-22T16:03:38+00:00 http://dresscode.renttherunway.com/blog/ladder jm engineering hiring management career renttherunway camille-fournier amazon startups career-growth levelling ladder https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:a46c3199e3f7/ 2015-10-02T16:57:57+00:00 http://whilefalse.blogspot.ie/2015/10/notes-on-startup-engineering-management.html jmBelow is a list of some lessons I’ve learned as an startup engineering manager that are worth being told to a new manager. Some are subtle, and some are surprising, and this being human beings, some are inevitably controversial. This list is for the new head of engineering to guide their thinking about the job they are taking on. It’s not comprehensive, but it’s a good beginning. The best characteristic of this list is that it focuses on social problems with little discussion of technical problems a manager may run into. The social stuff is usually the hardest part of any software developer’s job, and of course this goes triply for engineering managers. ]]> engineering management camille-fournier teams dev https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:d7d423568664/ 2015-09-29T15:28:39+00:00 http://www.gigamonkeys.com/flowers/ jmSomewhere along the way someone decided that it would be easier to convert the Birdcage to use Pants which had since learned how to build Scala and to deal with a maven-style layout. However at some point prior Pants been open sourced in throw it over the wall fashion and picked up by a few engineers at other companies, such as Square and Foursquare and moved forward. In the meantime, again because there weren’t enough people who’s job it was to take care of these things, Science was still on the original internally developed version and had in fact evolved independently of the open source version. However by the time we wanted to move Birdcage onto Pants, the open source version had moved ahead so that’s the one the Birdcage folks chose. (cries)]]> tech-debt management twitter productivity engineering monorepo build-systems war-stories dev https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:2f1762f93715/ 2015-03-22T21:20:29+00:00 http://techcrunch.com/2015/03/21/the-terrible-technical-interview/ jm interviewing jobs management hr hiring techcrunch https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:a7a46e305e40/ 2015-01-05T11:05:39+00:00 http://silverwraith.com/blog/2014/12/the-case-for-distributed-teams/ jmI've been involved in the New York start up scene since I joined Etsy in 2010. Since that time, I've seen more and more companies there embrace having distributed teams. Two companies I know which have risen to the top while doing this have been Etsy and DigitalOcean. Both have exceptional engineering teams working on high profile products used by many, many people around the world. There are certainly others outside New York, including Automattic, GitHub, Chef Inc, Puppet... the list goes on. So how did this happen? And why do people continue to insist that distributed teams lower performance, and are a bad idea? Partly because we've done a poor job of showing our industry how to be successful at it, and partly because it's hard. Having successful distributed teams requires special skills from management, which arent't easily learned until you have to manage a distributed team. Catch 22. ]]> business culture management communication work distributed-teams avleen-vig engineering https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:63a4aa8ccc65/ 2014-12-09T22:35:24+00:00 http://mcfunley.com/thoughts-on-the-technical-track jm engineering management technical-track principal-engineer career work https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:c4f00b6d2e0d/ 2014-12-09T17:40:07+00:00 https://stripe.com/blog/scaling-email-transparency jm communication culture email management stripe cc transparency civil-inattention https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:6ec7214e73f1/ 2014-10-09T15:56:46+00:00 http://zachholman.com/talk/move-fast-break-nothing/ jm github programming communication process coding teams management dev-culture breakage https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:30418378b79d/ 2014-10-02T10:33:21+00:00 http://www.cultofmac.com/298485/ex-apple-managers-reveal-cupertinos-killer-workload/ jma “firehose of emails that are just going out at 2:45 in the morning” and “if you forwarded something to one of your people at 1 o’clock in the morning and they didn’t reply promptly, you got a little annoyed at them.” Fuck. That.]]> apple workplaces work time-life-balance downtime insane sick 1am management corporate-culture https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:de8ea38433de/ 2014-08-05T10:09:32+00:00 http://jliszka.github.io/2013/11/07/effective-peer-reviews.html jm hr management reviews performance peer-driven-review 360-reviews staff peers work teams amazon https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:dfa5cd16e279/ 2013-11-20T14:52:13+00:00 http://www.slideshare.net/danmil30/how-to-run-a-5-whys-with-humans-not-robots jm process management howto post-mortems five-whys 5-whys investigation https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:2232371fd563/ 2012-12-23T08:23:03+00:00 http://lwn.net/SubscriberLink/529522/854aed3fb6398b79/ jm gnu software free free-software governance copyright management richard-stallman https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:debc53b405eb/ 2012-02-02T10:02:02+00:00 http://www.quora.com/Engineering-Management/Why-are-software-development-task-estimations-regularly-off-by-a-factor-of-2-3 jm agile development management programming teams estimation tasks software https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:c04b6424baf4/ 2011-03-30T20:48:49+00:00 http://slacy.com/blog/2011/03/what-larry-page-really-needs-to-do-to-return-google-to-its-startup-roots/ jm google management culture aws corporate-culture gossip https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:1614ea427117/ 2010-03-26T12:17:37+00:00 http://www.pivotaltracker.com/learnmore jm scrum collaboration dev management project-management tools agile https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:3ecfaea9fd7f/ 2010-02-05T10:41:42+00:00 http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/04/opinion/04brass.html?pagewanted=all jm cleartype microsoft software bureaucracy politics culture management corporate nytimes https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:90930a59d76c/ 2009-07-31T09:18:50+00:00 http://www.indiangeek.net/programmer-competency-matrix/ jm software coding programming management hiring engineering matrix skills https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:3adb6439f7b5/