Santa is coming to town 💎 Issue #78
Plus: find swagger, produce high outputs and write.
Happy Friday👋
What’s up? 🎄
Here we are.
Next two Fridays there will be no This Week’s Worth, because let’s face it, you’ll care even less about newsletters in the coming weeks.
Enjoy this time with your loved ones. Merry Christmas!
And now, the best things I found on the Internet this week.
New to me 💡
Finding Your Swagger | 11 min read
🎢 Eye-opening, personal, story of how you can lose, without noticing, what made you excellent. I was particularly impressed by the example of saying what, by all accounts, is the right answer at the wrong place can have the worst consequences. Know how to tell the truth. It also offers a few tips on how to find your way back, so it’s cool.
🚪 “Slowly, more and more product decisions were being made behind closed doors. At first they seemed innocent. Over time they became more substantial, diverging from what I was hearing from customers. But instead of challenging them, I stayed silent. Until one blew up in our faces.”
High Output Management for (Non-managing) Tech Leads | 10 min read
🎛 This article pairs really well with both “how-to” articles from the last issue, and dare I say, my mini exposition on 1:1s with your teammates. It’s like it was on purpose.
👂 “The lead doesn’t have direct managerial authority, and in many ways, that is your superpower. Your authority comes in a tactical form, and that oftentimes makes input easier to swallow (than, say, if it came from your boss). You may find that your teammates find it easier to open up to you when they find that you are a safe person to confide in (more on that in a future post). This also makes you valuable to your managing counterpart, as they can work with you to come up with coaching strategies for new hires or underperforming teammates.”
How I Motivate Myself to Write | 12 min read
🖋 This article offers a blueprint with 12 areas you can work on to increase your motivation to write. From having a place for it, a schedule, the topic, a supply of ideas, a guarantee of quality that you’re satisfied with, you name it. It’s a dangerous article to read. You might find yourself with a new blog, or a newsletter, on your hands.
🧠 “When I (re)started my blog, I was wondering who would be reading my articles. In the end, I decided I don't care: I'll just write them for myself, as a reflection of the ideas and observations I have come across. Approaching writing with this approach, it has been surprisingly therapeutic and a tool that helps me reflect. Writing my ideas down, in a form that makes sense requires a surprisingly large amount of thinking.”
Please help me grow this newsletter! I’d love if you shared it with your more curious friends.
A most adorable tweet 😥
This week in a gif 🎅
High note ⚡
This issue cover picture comes from here.
Last issue most clicked link was The Driver is Red.
I hope you enjoyed these last minutes as much as me putting this together.
You can also show some love by clicking that tiny ❤️ at the top of the email. It would help spread the word. Or leave a review here ⭐. Or you can provide candy bars 🍫.
If you are one of those friends and someone shared this with you, you are in luck, buy them a beer next time you are together, and meanwhile, you can subscribe to This Week’s Worth here:
Until next week,
Filipe