Don't let people #buildinginpublic fool you, there's always more under the surface
The hardest parts about running a business are the parts you can't talk about in public.
I am pretty open with my struggles, but many of them just can't be shared without hurting other people involved.
For example, I'm not going to share details about contract disputes with clients. I'm not going to talk about employees who make mistakes that hurt the business. Doing so would be unfair to the other parties involved and unprofessional.
But, there's a sort of romanticism built up around the #buildinpublic movement.
Aspiring entrepreneurs see Tweeters throwing numbers around and think it must be easy to run a business, but it's important to understand how much is likely hiding just beneath the surface.
My friend Dan Moore also reminded me of this quote, which I'll leave you with:
"Don't compare your inside to someone else's outside."
He went on to point out that: "Even if you are learning in public, there are some things you are holding back. What you see is always a curated view."
Business
AngelList Stack
"Launch a fundraising ready venture startup in minutes. AngelList Stack will manage the formation documents and Delaware state filings."
What is a Head of Growth?
"Startup founders from all tech-related verticals should be paying attention and, if it makes sense, consider hiring a head of growth of their own. These superstar employees may be in short supply, but the results they bring to the table are increasingly valuable in our startup-driven world."
Technology
Don’t Let Architecture Astronauts Scare You
"They’re astronauts because they are above the oxygen level, I don’t know how they’re breathing. They tend to work for really big companies that can afford to have lots of unproductive people with really advanced degrees that don’t contribute to the bottom line."
Designing Low Upkeep Software
"The biggest piece is minimizing your dependencies, and limiting them to ones that value backwards compatibility. Most of my projects are on the web, which means I have an unavoidable dependency on browsers, but this is fine because browsers strongly prioritize keeping existing websites working."
Software Development Then and Now: Steep Decline into Mediocrity
"Wisdom has been lost. The modern software industry is in thrall to practices that are clearly impediments to good work and to productivity and there seems to be almost no recognition of this."
Leadership
Increasing Focus With No Meeting Days
I'm a big believer in the value of deep work, even for managers and executives. But, it gets harder to find time for it as your team grows. Here's my strategy for building no meeting days (or weeks) into my schedule.
Bad engineering managers think leadership is about power
"Traditional management is all about establishing repeatable processes that humans will execute reliably. Software is about automating those processes so the humans don’t have to be a computer. Leaders who attempt to make processes for their software development team quickly notice that the work of the team evolves so quickly that the process is irrelevant in a quarter."
20 Questions to Ask an Entrepreneur Before Joining Their Startup
I’ve had three jobs with startups where my ultimate interview was directly with the founders. Obviously, that doesn’t make me the most experienced startup employee ever, but there are a few things I wish I knew on those first few interviews that I know to ask now.