Hello friends!
Thanks so much for subscribing to my little newsletter. I’m trying to build up a little side-business for myself. It’s a web app for helping tech leaders stay on top of their code reviews across an entire company called Hecate (named for the Greek godess.) Hopefully this newsletter can be win-win. I entertain and inform with random stuff I find on the internet, and you patiently endure me plugging my project until you become a happy customer.
It’s very early days for the newsletter and the product. I’d love to hear any feedback from any one of you at any time. You can just reply to this email and it shall find its way to me. If you like the newsletter please recommend it to your friends with this form.
General Interest
Taking Human Performance Seriously » Adaptive Capacity Labs
Allspaw has been a big influence on my thinking as a manager, and this post specifically is guiding my thoughts around Hecate development to date.
Who Makes Up The Working Class, in 3 Graphs - CityLab
Some data showing how the composition of the working class has changed over time in the USA.
GDPR
If you’re an tech manager in a reasonably sized company, I’m sure the new EU privacy laws are a big part of your day-to-day right now. Hopefully these links will help.
On purpose and by necessity: compliance under the GDPR | the morning paper
A good run down of the GDPR with a general framework for complying on a technical level.
The Nightmare Letter: A Subject Access Request under GDPR | LinkedIn
I hope you don’t get one of these.
Coding
More State Machine ❤️: From Reflection to Statecharts
Raganwald writes another high quality post on State Machines (one of the most valuable CS concepts you’ll still use day to day.)
MobX 4: Better, simpler, faster, smaller – Michel Weststrate – Medium
I’m really looking forward to the new decorate API in MobX 4. I think it’s going to lead to really clean code within a minimal create-react-app built environment (ie the Hecate codebase.)
Gaming
The Game of Everything, Part 1: Making Civilization The Digital Antiquarian
The history of the first game in one of my all time favourite series of games. All hail crab!
The Trust Spectrum – Raph’s Website
Great, in-depth analysis of how trust works in multiplayer games. Useful lessons for any community management kind of roles too, especially around a platform with cooperative or competive elements in it.
Management
A Counterintuitive Way to Increase Diversity in Tech
My favourite tech diversity post in a long, long while. Read it.
The Printable CEO | Dave Seah
An oldie but a goodie. Using this timesheet and scoring approach was a lifesaver early in my management career. Will help you learn where your days go and then shape them to be more effective.
A couple of well-paired posts on performance reviews.
A Performance Question – Rands in Repose
Performance of Performance Reviews
Startups
Advice I’m trying to follow literally right now.
How to De-Risk a Startup · Coding VC
How Seth Godin Would Launch a New Business With $1,000 And 90 Days to Spare
Many thanks,
John
P.S. How are we feeling about Wednesdays for the schedule?