2 ms·

Why are all of these things written about the touchy-feely but none about execution? Engineering or sales or marketing or other execution. Also, there's a heft

Why are all of these things written about the touchy-feely but none about execution? Engineering or sales or marketing or other execution. Also, there's a hefty amount of BS. Like "updating beliefs" and "don't do BS," which seem difficult to do and impossible to prove. It's almost as if people are trying to publish self-help material because it's profitable . . . Ok. I will join your cult . . . for money . . . what must I believe . . . now?

bwilkins 5y ago
I think the article assumes "all other things being equal" - so given an engineering (or sales, or marketing) capability equal to that of another business, these factors are what the author believes differentiate the business enough to be able to perform better, and especially in execution. And I don't think this stuff is BS; "updating beliefs" is important, as many business decisions are made based on a belief - especially if your product has not gone to market yet. "Updating beliefs" is also reflective of an openness to change, and being able to cope with being wrong at times - people find it hard to find out (or be told) that they are wrong - their ego is hurt, they fight back. "Don't do BS," specifically the documentation side of things, strikes a particular chord with me, as it's something that I've had to do recently, it goes against everything I know about writing software, so I am 100% happy to see it being spouted here! All of the points made in the document are about execution, but they're about executing as a business, and not a "how to make your engineers perform better" guide. That said, these practices will _probably_ have your engineers performing better anyway, but you'd need to dig into how each change affects the psychology of those doing following these practices in order to understand how/why.

2 ms·

Why are all of these things written about the touchy-feely but none about execution? Engineering or sales or marketing or other execution. Also, there's a heft

by drewcoo 5y ago

bwilkins 5y ago
I think the article assumes "all other things being equal" - so given an engineering (or sales, or marketing) capability equal to that of another business, these factors are what the author believes differentiate the business enough to be able to perform better, and especially in execution. And I don't think this stuff is BS; "updating beliefs" is important, as many business decisions are made based on a belief - especially if your product has not gone to market yet. "Updating beliefs" is also reflective of an openness to change, and being able to cope with being wrong at times - people find it hard to find out (or be told) that they are wrong - their ego is hurt, they fight back. "Don't do BS," specifically the documentation side of things, strikes a particular chord with me, as it's something that I've had to do recently, it goes against everything I know about writing software, so I am 100% happy to see it being spouted here! All of the points made in the document are about execution, but they're about executing as a business, and not a "how to make your engineers perform better" guide. That said, these practices will _probably_ have your engineers performing better anyway, but you'd need to dig into how each change affects the psychology of those doing following these practices in order to understand how/why.