Weekly Notes
September 29, 2024 - October 5, 2024
For those of you who are subscribers but not signed up with Substack, here is a compilation of some notes that I’ve been sharing lately online. Notes are my way of making media suggestions, sharing experiences, and trying out the goofy ideas bouncing around in my head. If you are on Substack already, you may have seen a lot of these in your feed. You can safely disregard this email.
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Interesting video about the pros and cons of different voting strategies. It applies as much to worker democracies as it does to governments. There is definitely a science to distributed consensus -- a science that's developing quickly among manager-less corporations around the world. Exciting times!
Smart Swarm was a fascinating read about the different ways that nature organizes itself:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7749124-the-smart-swarm
Common Justifications Management Uses to Defend a Sub-Optimal Status Quo:
We're following best practices.
That's just how the tool works—changing it would be too difficult.
We can't go wrong if we stick with Microsoft/Google/[another large company].
Trust has to be earned, not given. We'll loosen control when people prove they’re responsible.
That’s not how things work in the real world.
Our business is different; maybe [other company] can do that, but we can’t.
My hands are tied—these decisions come from higher up.
For economies of scale, we need to standardize.
It doesn't pass the "bus test."
If you can't measure it, you can't manage it.
How will I know if people are actually working?
We have to do it for compliance reasons.
We’ve always done it this way.
We’ll get to that when things settle down.
Am I missing any?
I always love to read about what Basecamp is doing. This article is about how they manage without managers.
https://world.hey.com/dhh/we-once-more-have-no-full-time-managers-at-37signals-f8611085
I used to hate pair programming. Now that I work remotely 100% of the time, I absolutely love it. I can't really get other people to do it much, but I take any opportunity I get.
I used to go into the office every day. There were so many distractions. People were talking to me all the time. I just wanted to escape to a quiet corner and hide, to get some work done. Pairing just felt like more noise and more pressure.
Working from home though, it's always quiet. It's lonely quiet. Pair programming feels like water in the desert. Lighting fast communication through speaking, instead of the slow peck of a chat client. Getting answers immediately, sharing screens. Compared to screenshots and email and slack, it feels like I'm plugged directly into someone else's brain. Like we have ESP.
Yet I'm sure that if I were to return to an open office layout, I would quickly start to crave the quiet again.
Do I just want what I don't have? Or is a hybrid schedule the ideal? Some of the time alone and then some time together.
Enjoy your week!