The Myth of the Hero
A lot of people assume that when you want great talent, you need a hero; someone who will rush in, destroy every barrier and magically carry their team to victory. Unfortunately, heroes like this are mostly mythical beings.
By far the most effective team members are those who are consistent.
Your best employees show up for work and meetings on time, ask others how they can improve, take predictable paths that have been proven by past experience. In short, you know you can count on them to do what they say they will.
This isn't to say that companies don't need innovation, but I do think that "mavericks" are often overvalued. Predictable team players are the kind of people you can build a business on.
Consistent, team players might not get the recognition the "superheroes" in your organization do, but you know that every day you can count on them to meet expectations and encourage others to do the same. They won’t take undue credit and they’ll keep an even temperament. They’ll admit it when they screw up, and they’ll learn to be a little more cautious next time they take on a similar project.
Even in high-risk ventures like startup businesses, you want predictable performers. You need these people to balance you out; you need them to consistently pull through when the riskier elements of your business fail.
Business
Starting a Business Around GPT-3 is a Bad Idea
I don't know if I agree fully, but Allen makes a good argument about GPT-3 being a new commodity. Where I think Allen is wrong is that lots of new commodities enabled companies to build successful businesses (just look at the internet!)
API Development: The Complete Guide for Building APIs Without Code
Low-code tech has come a long way since I wrote this piece in 2017, so last week, I spent some time updating it. If you're a non-technical founder trying to understand APIs and the API economy, this is the guide for you.
Why CAPTCHA Pictures Are So Unbearably Depressing
"CAPTCHA images are never joyful vistas of human activity, full of Whitmanesque vigor. No, they’re blurry, anonymous landscapes that possess a positively Soviet anomie."
Technology
Going Beyond ESLint: Overview Static Analysis in JavaScript
"Static analysis is a deep topic, and even in dynamic programming languages like JavaScript, there are ways to ensure high code quality beyond linting. In this piece, we’ll take a look at what static analysis is, how it helps improve code quality as well as some static analysis tools available to JavaScript developers."
The Future of Hosting with Edge Computing
"The question of where we should put our computing power has continued to swing back and forth over the past 40 years...In the past ten years, many companies with large web applications have moved to decentralized hosting. Using load balancers, read replicas, and content delivery networks (CDNs), companies are now able to put their servers closer to end-users. Edge computing is taking over again."
Leadership
Developers Are the Most Valuable Resource When Creating Software but Their Time Is Undervalued and Misused
"Instead of protecting developers time and allowing them to focus on development. Developers are interpreted regularly, given tasks others could do and invited to endless meetings they don’t need to attend."
The Reminder I Need Every Day as a Founder
"I will literally do nothing after I finish my work, I will just relax and I will not feel guilty about it."