Children as young as seven years old may hesitate to ask questions in school because they worry classmates will think they are “stupid”. Adults are often embarrassed about asking for aid. It's an act that can make people feel vulnerable. The moment you ask for directions, after all, you reveal

Anyone who built software for a while knows that estimating how long something is going to take is hard. It's hard to come up with an unbiased estimate of how long something will take, when fundamentally the work in itself is about solving something. (…) If my model is right (a

One of the last steps in a doctoral program is the defense. This is where you, the doctoral candidate, after years of research, are presenting the results of your work in front of a panel of experts in your field who will judge if the merits of your results are

(…) Assume best intent simply means that you opt to give people the benefit of the doubt, rather than assuming that they are out to get you. If someone sends a seemingly rude email, we can assume that they want to embarrass us in front of the people copied or we

(…) When I ask people what the most difficult thing is about being a founder, CEO, VC or otherwise high-achieving individual, some answers are this: hiring, fund-raising, sales, building the team, etc. What I’ve learned time and again this year especially, is that this is not the case. The hardest

When an employee fails — or even just performs poorly — managers typically do not blame themselves. The employee doesn’t understand the work, a manager might contend. Or the employee isn’t driven to succeed, can’t set priorities, or won’t take direction. Whatever the reason, the problem is assumed

Admiral Hyman Rickover (1900-1986), the “Father of the Nuclear Navy,” was one of the most successful — and controversial — public managers of the 20th Century. His accomplishments are the stuff of legend. For example, in three short years, Rickover’s team designed and built the first nuclear submarine — the Nautilus — an

In his book "The Wisdom of Crowds," James Surowiecki wrote, "under the right circumstances, groups are remarkably intelligent, and are often smarter than the smartest people in them." He noted that a collective intelligence usually produces better outcomes than a small group of experts, even if members of the crowd

When you’re scaling quickly, moving at warp speed, and sitting on several hiring panels, interviewing can seem like a task you just need to get through. But it’s worth pausing to remember that the decision to hire someone is an expensive and far-reaching one. And since you’re

Last night I was out with a dear friend who has been an engineering manager for a year now, and by two drinks in I was rattling off a long list things I always say to newer engineering managers. Then I remembered: I should write a post! It’s one

(...) Stalin was a bad dude but Roosevelt arrived with an open mind; the American-British relationship was strained by lend-lease, the tremendous cost of the war to both parties, and each leader’s belief that the other wasn’t pulling his weight. Churchill, an old hand at spotting geopolitical threats, had

Ten years ago, on May 22, 1997, a little-known software programmer from Pennsylvania named Eric Raymond presented a paper at a technology conference in Würzburg, Germany. Titled “The Cathedral and the Bazaar,” the paper caused an immediate stir, and its renown has only grown in the years since. It is

There is a free and abundant resource most leaders aren’t giving employees enough of: respect. The author explains the two types of workplace respect (owed and earned), how to communicate them, and what happens when you don’t foster both. https://hbr.org/ideacast/2018/07/the-2-types-of-respect-leaders-must-show

If you asked me why I gravitated to startups rather than work in a large company I would have answered at various times: “I want to be my own boss.” “I love risk.” “I want flexible work hours.” “I want to work on tough problems that matter.” “I have a

If you are a star—very bright, talented, motivated, and personable and you have a passion, even if it’s in a competitive field, sure, go for it. This article is for everyone else. Based on the 2,700 clients I’ve worked with over the past two decades, the