how to work

Novices seek praise. Recognizing strengths builds confidence to keep going. Experts crave criticism. Seeing shortcomings reveals avenues to keep growing. Preferring corrections to compliments is a sign of skill. The better you get, the more determined you become to get better.

Not sure if anything changed my approach to work and engineering in the past five years more than this passage from @Lethain, written in the context of staff engineering but much more broadly applicable. Show more

Anna Wintour’s biography turned into maxims:

1. Hire talented people as found, not as needed.

2. Taste is as rare as a unicorn.

3.Your employees should describe you as “easy to understand.”

4.Pretend to be completely in control and people will assume that you are.

5.Have a sharp eye for the weaknesses of others.

6.Combine ruthless efficiency with hyp... See more

you actually don't need everyone to understand you or what you do and you're probably working on something too safe if they all easily do. your knowing you don’t need them to understand is also exactly what makes them want to

More recently I’ve kept repeating to myself, don’t abandon your vision . Decisiveness is knowing myself well enough to take the plunge, then the rest is all faith.

The trick is to metabolize pain as energy. Learn, when hit by loss, to ask the right question: "What next?" instead of "Why me?