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Dear developers: Your next programming language is marketing. Good luck.
Jean-Michel Lemieux
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Full time apprentice human.
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Been taking my son to Senator games since he was little. Now we’re both software devs, and we just did a hackathon together, building software to help our fav NHL team.
The work is under NDA but proud dad is under no such restrictions 😆
Doesn’t get better than this.
The work is under NDA but proud dad is under no such restrictions 😆
Doesn’t get better than this.
I've got two developers on my team. One is shipping at a speed he never thought possible. The other wants to know who the fuck approved this code... and unfortunately we share a keyboard.
A CEO recently called me the "both" guy. He said that when ever he asks me about two options, most often than not, I'll say do "both".
There's a lot of cargo culting around extreme focus, and not doing too many things at once. "Put more wood behind fewer arrows"... but they didn't say "one arrow".
Imagine a tradeoff between going to the gym and having a great family life. Do both. If you want to ship crazy quickly and be creative but also build infrastructure. Why not both? If you want to talk with your team with absolute clarity or more nuance. Do both.
This is the Paradox mindset... accepting and engaging with competing demands. Demands that seem contradictory, are connected, and keep recurring. Remove one option today does not permanently remove the tension. So learn to live with them vs illiminating one. In a company, you have to setup the structures and culture to have two very different types or styles of work. But you have to learn to do that earlier than you think. I know CEOs are known for running after shinny projects or ideas all the time and the teams often complain "we need to focus". That's also true. But it doesn't mean do one thing. Or be one kind of leader. Or just because you like ice cream, you can't have a six pack ;)
I'm not advocating for doing "everything", and you do have to practice subtraction... but if two ideas or skills seem important, do both.
There's a lot of cargo culting around extreme focus, and not doing too many things at once. "Put more wood behind fewer arrows"... but they didn't say "one arrow".
Imagine a tradeoff between going to the gym and having a great family life. Do both. If you want to ship crazy quickly and be creative but also build infrastructure. Why not both? If you want to talk with your team with absolute clarity or more nuance. Do both.
This is the Paradox mindset... accepting and engaging with competing demands. Demands that seem contradictory, are connected, and keep recurring. Remove one option today does not permanently remove the tension. So learn to live with them vs illiminating one. In a company, you have to setup the structures and culture to have two very different types or styles of work. But you have to learn to do that earlier than you think. I know CEOs are known for running after shinny projects or ideas all the time and the teams often complain "we need to focus". That's also true. But it doesn't mean do one thing. Or be one kind of leader. Or just because you like ice cream, you can't have a six pack ;)
I'm not advocating for doing "everything", and you do have to practice subtraction... but if two ideas or skills seem important, do both.
I’ve spent the last month chiseling our UX. It' great to have the time and it's what my agents suck at so it feels like we're working with our respective strengths. They offer good ideas, but can't invent the path we're going. Coding feels 100x sped up, but design is just 2x and most of that is idea generation not finished products. I’m a UXer now? Didn't see that coming.