Complex systems, cascades (from neurons up to people and then crowds), failures, too much efficiency, not enough slack, and toilet paper.

Dan North on how to break the rules when applying the Theory of Constraints.

A look at negotiation and how to avoid the pitfalls associated with debate.

A nice rundown of implementing Sagas in a distributed system.

Pat Kua:

Makers receive constant praise for solving problems, and take pleasure in being the expert. Leaders in Maker mode go out of their way to show they have the right answer. They need to have the first and last say. They over invest in their own solutions and don’t create space for others to contribute.

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Multipliers amplify or multiply the intelligence of the people around them. They lead organisations or teams that are able to understand and solve hard problems rapidly, achieve their goals, and adapt and increase their capacity over time.

Tom MacWright:

There is a sweet spot of React: in moderately interactive interfaces. Complex forms that require immediate feedback, UIs that need to move around and react instantly.

I’m still a sucker for server-generated markup.

Michael Deng and Jonathan Chang:

Deploys require a careful balance of speed and reliability. At Slack, we value quick iteration, fast feedback loops, and responsiveness to customer feedback.

An interesting dive into how Slack handles deploys to a large fleet of users.

Cal Newport:

In the war to reclaim your attention, some battles have clearer fronts than others. It has become clear to me that these differences matter.

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An attention charter is a document that lists the general reasons that you’ll allow for someone or something to lay claim to your time and attention. For each reason, it then describes under what conditions and for what quantities you’ll permit this commitment.

I use LucidChart for collaborative drawing at work but I’m going to give Excalidraw a crack over the next few weeks.

A solid collection of remote working advice. There is some overlap with the strategies I employ.

Elisabeth Hendrickson:

What I’ve learned is that if we want things to go fast, a sense of momentum is much more effective than a sense of urgency.

Will Larson:

Stories focus on the why, sharing the experience and context around the decision and results.

Stories also eliminate most of the least productive follow-up conversations after giving advice, where the advice-requester then argues against the advice. Stories relieve the advice-giver from the obligation to defend their advice. There’s nothing to agree or disagree with, just a recounting of past events.

Devon Price:

It’s really helpful to respond to a person’s ineffective behavior with curiosity rather than judgement.

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If a person’s behavior doesn’t make sense to you, it is because you are missing a part of their context.

tef:

Every line of code written comes at a price: maintenance. To avoid paying for a lot of code, we build reusable software. The problem with code re-use is that it gets in the way of changing your mind later on.

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Building reusable code is something that’s easier to do in hindsight with a couple of examples of use in the code base, than foresight of ones you might want later.

A look back at Carmack using academic research to improve rendering performance in the original Doom.