Developer Tea

How can you create better scientific wild a** guesses when the work is not well defined? We discuss a few strategies in this episode. We also talk a bit about what an estimate is in the first place, and how it differs from a commitment / deadline.

Are you operating in the world, or are you working on a problem? This shift in agency can make all the difference in your career.

Can you use ChatGPT to become a better engineer? I'm not just talking about learning a language or fixing a bug with ChatGPT providing advice... I'm talking about career simulations. In this episode we discuss how the airline industry has fixed the problem of experience, and how we can learn from their insights to create low-stakes learning environments that boost our career and confidence through the roof.

In today's episode we discuss the concept of adopting self-coaching personas, and discuss the third persona, "Shoulder Socrates."

In today's episode we discuss the concept of adopting self-coaching personas, and discuss the second persona, the over-optimizer.

In today's episode we discuss the concept of adopting self-coaching personas, and discuss a critical first persona to start with.

High-leverage work often comes in the simplest form of helping another person with their efforts.

Learn to prioritize, and everything else falls into place. This is clarity through perspective and purpose.

Your career growth will be directly correlated to your ability to solve critical unsolved problems in the gaps of your organization's problems. Focus on finding the problems that have a high chance of success for you specifically - the low hanging fruit.

In this episode we discuss the delineation between culture and values. What you allow is just as important as what you value.

The blunt reality: Merit cycles are not how you build your earning power or career. They are a function of company culture and HR, and generally speaking are disconnected from your biggest opportunities for growth.So, where should you focus? That's what we talk about in today's episode.

In today's episode we discuss focus, again. This time, through the lens of a few mental models that help us decide what is actually the right thing to focus on. You'll learn the real enemy of focus (note: it's not just distraction).

I'm joined today by Brian Pulliam. I've personally engaged Brian as a career coach. In this discussion we'll talk a bit about coaching, and about how you can set yourself up to become a much better candidate in your job search as an engineering leader.Values Exercise Live:Jonathan and Brian perform a live exercise, transforming company core values into interview questions.Discussing the importance of aligning your experiences with the values that a company holds."I'm going to do this live right now with you, actually. I think it'll be a cool exercise..."Advanced Interview Techniques:How to handle unexpected questions by paraphrasing.Preparing for common interview questions derived from company values."You should convert every single one of those core values into a question that starts with tell me about a time when you demonstrated X."Finding a Way to Succeed:The importance of creative problem solving in leadership.Examples of finding efficient solutions to technical problems without writing code."With zero l

I'm joined today by Brian Pulliam. I've personally engaged Brian as a career coach. In this discussion we'll talk a bit about coaching, and about how you can set yourself up to become a much better candidate in your job search as an engineering leader.Introduction to Career Coaching:What is a career coach and how they differ from a manager or mentor.Brian Pulliam shares his journey from tech to becoming an athletics coach."I was in tech for about 26 years...being an athletics coach with my wife...I sought out my own career coach."The Value of Career Coaching:How a career coach can provide objective, unfiltered feedback.The benefits of having an advocate without conflicts of interest."As a career coach, you know, I'm self-employed...no conflict of interest, maybe with your own boss."Strategies for Career Growth:The importance of optimizing your career path like you would optimize code.Using career coaching to navigate sticky situations and grow professionally."We optimize for memory, right? We optimize for CPU

In this episode we talk about the concept of "resetting your base" - moving in a direction you don't necessarily want to go in order to achieve better outcomes in the long run.

In today's episode we discuss how you might build your confidence without being disingenuous. This isn't a lesson in psychology or tricks - it's about building true confidence in what you do (and importantly, don't) know.

In today's episode, we'll discuss an absolutely simple structure for prioritization and information flow in your daily work. The flow relies on a basic text editor - that's it!

You have seen "bias to action" on job requirements, but what does this really mean? Is it something that can be learned? Make sure you know the difference between this skill and a more automatic cognitive bias.

In this episode, we use the Start / Stop / Continue framework in a new way. As leaders, we should always know what outcome indicators a given discussion is based on. In this episode, we discuss the three core outcome indicators for managers to pay close attention to.

In today's episode, we talk about inversion and inverted thinking. This is a mental model inspired by considering the "negative space" instead of the space occupied by the thing you are seeking. For example, if you are trying to avoid failure, you might intuitively seek a "successful strategy" instead of looking at the reasons it may fail directly. Inversion will help you avoid these traps.