Wednesday Wisdom

You might be a distributed systems genius or the world’s best leet coder, but without tech support, your life would be miserable. Remember that next time you go to IT. Read at https://josvisser.substack.com/p/appreciate-your-it-support.

 Interviewing is a skill and, much like penalty shootouts during major soccer tournaments, can be trained. Raw talent helps, but in a pinch, preparation beats talent and experience nine times out ten. Read, watch, and subscribe at: https://josvisser.substack.com/p/candidates-please-prepare

It's a magical quality that will save you, even when you (like me) are the dumbest person in the building... Read (and maybe watch) at https://josvisser.substack.com/p/getting-stuff-done .

I typically spend a large part of the weekend and most of the public holidays resisting the urge to sit down and do some work. That is obviously a terrible state of affairs and it is not a lot of fun either, so what’s up and why not give in? https://josvisser.substack.com/p/taming-the-monkey-brain

Being certain means that you don’t have to think about anything anymore, which results in more speed. You might be going in the wrong direction, but at least you are going fast, which is a great boon for all the people who confuse motion with progress. It also makes you look decisive... Listen here or read and subscribe at https://josvisser.substack.com/p/the-unfortunate-desire-for-certainty

English is a great language and given that we all have to work together we need to speak a common language. I don’t care whether that’s English or something else, but since, for better or for worse, it is English (much to the chagrin of the French. by the way), let’s be aware that many people speak, read, and write English phenomenally well, but not perfectly, and let’s have that awareness influen...

You should give yourself time to really reach the summit of any mountain you are going to climb, but you need to attack that mountain with a plan, and not just start ambling up the incline... Read this article at https://josvisser.substack.com/p/ramping-up-is-hard-to-do. Includes bonus links!

Great chefs know more than just the recipes. They understand _cooking_. Read the full article (with video!) at : https://josvisser.substack.com/p/the-black-box-engineer

Your value to the company is not that you can design the shiny city on the hill, that’s the easy bit. Your value is that you know how to get there while keeping the swamp that you are in right now functioning. https://josvisser.substack.com/p/the-swamp-and-the-city

Strategies for how to get things done when you are stuck. Read the original article (with links to additional content) here: https://josvisser.substack.com/p/overcoming-a-slump

One of the best decisions you can make as a senior person is to make yourself dispensable... Read or watch at: https://josvisser.substack.com/p/the-gift-of-leaving, with many links to other articles and bonus content :-)

In my life so far I have made lots of mistakes but there are a few things I did well. Taking two very long breaks to figure out what I wanted to do at times when it was not at all obvious to me were among these. I can highly recommend it to anyone. It might be the greatest gift you have ever given yourself.

It is not hard to shine in a dim room... https://josvisser.substack.com/p/pressure-makes-diamonds

As companies grow, the work changes and this leads to the hiring bar dropping, level inflation and more competition between employees as they change fewer good projects with opportunities for promotion. https://josvisser.substack.com/p/nobody-escapes-corporate-gravity-391

Companies change because they hire more people and different people. https://josvisser.substack.com/p/nobody-escapes-corporate-gravity-1dc

People in large companies often complain about the changes that come with size and these complaints are often justified. However, awful as these changes might be, they are inevitable. As companies grow, they have to change; they cannot not change. https://josvisser.substack.com/p/nobody-escapes-corporate-gravity

We, the people from Toilet Duck, recommend you prepare for interviews... Also: Even a luxurious hamster wheel is still a hamster wheel. Note : Because I am traveling, the production quality of the video and podcast is not as amazing as always, especially the sound quality. https://josvisser.substack.com/p/senior-engineers-please-prep-for

Chaos is not a bug, chaos is a feature of all ecosystems where individual choice is unconstrained. If you want simplicity and efficiency, you give up a lot of individual choice and you are opting for a slower pace of evolution. Chaos is the price of freedom. https://josvisser.substack.com/p/chaos-is-the-price-of-freedom

Problems that took years to build up cannot be solved in months, but you have to start somewhere. Original article is here: https://josvisser.substack.com/p/talk-is-cheap

Original article (text and video): https://josvisser.substack.com/p/its-a-knowledge-problem-or-is-it

Original article: https://josvisser.substack.com/p/the-job-market-is-a-market

Original article: https://josvisser.substack.com/p/no-more-shell-scripts

Original article: https://josvisser.substack.com/p/career-choices-what-to-focus-on

Original article: https://josvisser.substack.com/p/the-value-of-grunge-work

Original article: https://josvisser.substack.com/p/sometimes-it-is-okay-to-just-coast