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Nothing more annoying than a manager with a personal know-it-all framework requiring people to follow it or else they get "feedback".

dofm 6d ago
He's often wrong, don't you know. Just not about your performance review.
bcherny 5d ago
Author here. This isn’t the one true framework, but it is the one I use. The goal of this post was to communicate to the team the way I think. There are many ways to think and there isn’t one that is more correct than others. The word “feedback” might be overloaded here also — if you haven’t worked in a culture where feedback is an honest, no-blame part of the culture, then I can see how the idea of giving feedback can feel like a disingenuous corp-speak way to make a person fall in line or have their career impacted. There’s also an inherent power dynamic in giving feedback. However, if the work culture celebrates feedback as an honest way to have more direct conversations, and makes coworkers feel psychologically safe talking to one another directly in this way, it is something that makes culture better for everyone and gives better results in the end. I have given feedback to many people, and I have received it in turn many times. Also, I am an IC, not a manager.
- xfz 5d ago
  Thanks for sharing and engaging with the comments. > Also, I am an IC, not a manager. I think this understates the power dynamics involved. At your level, being an IC doesn’t mean you aren’t in a leadership position, and feedback from you can still carry substantial weight. Psychological safety is a worthy aim, but it cannot be assumed, nor will everyone experience it equally. I’d be wary of relying on it too heavily here.
- argee 5d ago
  > There are many ways to think and there isn’t one that is more correct than others. Charlie Munger once said "The right way to think is how Zeckhauser plays bridge. It's just that simple." He managed to boil it down to a single way to think. You disagree?
- troupo 5d ago
  > The goal of this post was to communicate to the team the way I think For that you use internal communication channels. Though we've known for a while that no one at Anthropic is capable of doing any proper communication.
- glimshe 5d ago
  I appreciate you took the time to answer my post. Since you like honesty, let me say that I think your framework isn't terribly useful and, for most people, somewhat condescending coming from people in a leadership capacity. There's nothing wrong with your advice, but it's kind of generic and childish, like "in order to think, you have to think" with a hint of "move fast" corporate drivel. I've worked in this culture. I was an IC, tech lead, lower and upper management in medium to large AAA tech companies, household names, that had the same sort of feedback focus. I think the all-in feedback culture is overall a net negative because it invites this kind of micro-criticism, rules-driven feedback sharing. Given that, all I can say is that while you're appear to be well intentioned, I would at most share your framework once or twice and stop pushing it, assuming you're doing that (it sounded like it). I can see most people being annoyed but this kind of framework and that's why my reply was so upvoted.
- nevertoolate 5d ago
  Quick feedback: this framework feels like a not so well thought out extension of polya’s how to solve it to “do things fast” in a credible looking way. Harder feedback: the writeup feels like a quickly hacked together memo, which claims it is “self healingly” good. Because it has this throwaway quality I’m not sure what is the goal? Shall I engage with it seriously, when the lead dev didn’t seem to put in the effort? But if I don’t engage with it seriously it means that I have to follow this patchy fremwork?

dofm 6d ago

He's often wrong, don't you know. Just not about your performance review.

bcherny 5d ago

Author here. This isn’t the one true framework, but it is the one I use. The goal of this post was to communicate to the team the way I think. There are many ways to think and there isn’t one that is more correct than others. The word “feedback” might be overloaded here also — if you haven’t worked in a culture where feedback is an honest, no-blame part of the culture, then I can see how the idea of giving feedback can feel like a disingenuous corp-speak way to make a person fall in line or have their career impacted. There’s also an inherent power dynamic in giving feedback. However, if the work culture celebrates feedback as an honest way to have more direct conversations, and makes coworkers feel psychologically safe talking to one another directly in this way, it is something that makes culture better for everyone and gives better results in the end. I have given feedback to many people, and I have received it in turn many times. Also, I am an IC, not a manager.

xfz 5d ago
Thanks for sharing and engaging with the comments. > Also, I am an IC, not a manager. I think this understates the power dynamics involved. At your level, being an IC doesn’t mean you aren’t in a leadership position, and feedback from you can still carry substantial weight. Psychological safety is a worthy aim, but it cannot be assumed, nor will everyone experience it equally. I’d be wary of relying on it too heavily here.
argee 5d ago
> There are many ways to think and there isn’t one that is more correct than others. Charlie Munger once said "The right way to think is how Zeckhauser plays bridge. It's just that simple." He managed to boil it down to a single way to think. You disagree?
troupo 5d ago
> The goal of this post was to communicate to the team the way I think For that you use internal communication channels. Though we've known for a while that no one at Anthropic is capable of doing any proper communication.
glimshe 5d ago
I appreciate you took the time to answer my post. Since you like honesty, let me say that I think your framework isn't terribly useful and, for most people, somewhat condescending coming from people in a leadership capacity. There's nothing wrong with your advice, but it's kind of generic and childish, like "in order to think, you have to think" with a hint of "move fast" corporate drivel. I've worked in this culture. I was an IC, tech lead, lower and upper management in medium to large AAA tech companies, household names, that had the same sort of feedback focus. I think the all-in feedback culture is overall a net negative because it invites this kind of micro-criticism, rules-driven feedback sharing. Given that, all I can say is that while you're appear to be well intentioned, I would at most share your framework once or twice and stop pushing it, assuming you're doing that (it sounded like it). I can see most people being annoyed but this kind of framework and that's why my reply was so upvoted.
nevertoolate 5d ago
Quick feedback: this framework feels like a not so well thought out extension of polya’s how to solve it to “do things fast” in a credible looking way. Harder feedback: the writeup feels like a quickly hacked together memo, which claims it is “self healingly” good. Because it has this throwaway quality I’m not sure what is the goal? Shall I engage with it seriously, when the lead dev didn’t seem to put in the effort? But if I don’t engage with it seriously it means that I have to follow this patchy fremwork?