TWH#S3: What I Read This Week
The Sunday Edition #3
Welcome to another TWH Sunday Edition. ☕️
It’s probably been a long week for you. It was for me. But I can’t complain. In the famous final words of Dave Bowman in 2001: A Space Odyssey as he enters the monolith: “My God, it’s full of stars!” ✨
Interesting times we’re living in. Kick back and enjoy these 5 good reads. And if you like what you see, please consider hitting the ❤️ button and sharing it.
(Total reading time: 39 min)
✍️ How to find your blind spots
(Zeptonaut.com • 4 min read)
Learning how to learn is probably the ultimate-meta skill. One way to go about is by breaking the activity you’re learning about down into what the author calls “minigames”—shorter feedback cyles with clear objectives—the discovery of which can best be supported by a coach. It reminded me of first-principles thinking, and got me thinking about which are the most important “minigames” of engineering leadership. A topic for a future Hagakure, perhaps?
✍️ The Real Truth About How to Work Smarter, not Harder
(Taylor Pearson • 11 min read)
As a big fan of Taylor Pearson’s thinking and writing, I always enjoy coming across one of his essays and this one was no exception. In a time where most folks are being pushed by circumstances to work harder, it’s more critical than ever to work smarter. Pearson goes into depth on both the mindset and the practice of doing so. I especially loved how he frames courage as the key ingredient, and the idea of prioritizing tasks by energy levels.
✍️ Fixing “Too much WIP”
(Jason Yip • 2 min read)
One thing about “lean” principles is that once you see it, you can’t unsee it. So, there is no a single day that goes by that I’m not blown away by how much companies and teams shoot themselves in the foot through the sin of too much work-in-progress (WIP). I’m fascinated by this. Here, Jason Yip draws a clear picture of why too much WIP is a problem, why it happens, and what can be done about it.
✍️ Measure Cycle Time, Not Velocity
(Johanna Rothman • 4 min read)
While on the topic of Lean, I’ve always been a huge fan of Johanna Rothman’s thinking and writing—and this piece from a few years ago is a good example why. This stuff isn’t talked about enough. It continues to blow my mind how cross-functional tech work continues to be so misunderstood and treated like manufacturing. Meanwhile, almost every single top leader is unhappy with their product & engineering team’s performance. This article right here is a good place to start thinking—and then acting—differently.
✍️ 4 Leadership Skills to Help You Thrive in a VUCA World
(Richard Hughes-Johnson • 18 min read)
Leading in complexity is radically different than leading in a complicated, yet linear context. This is still very poorly understood, and the results show. This wonderful essay by executive coach Richard Hughes-Johnson focuses on the need for leaders to develop "vertical skills" in order to effectively lead in a VUCA world: sensemaking, perspective-shifting, self-relating and opposable thinking. Great introduction to these topics.
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That’s it for this week’s Sunday Edition. Thanks for reading The Weekly Hagakure! Subscribe below for free to receive new posts and support my work. And until the next edition, I wish you a great week ahead. 🙌