March 2024 Bakery

Half baked

Some written thoughts, but not enough for their own post

When I worked in K12 public education, I wanted to open a school. At the time I perceived this to be the most prestigious achievement in the field. After about ten years, I realized that to open a school of my own, I’d have to develop a set of skills that did not come naturally to me. I also realized that I had no interest in developing those particular skills hence my pivot into software. For much of my career in software I’ve imagined one day founding a successful company. Being a founder is in many ways the most prestigious achievement in our field. After a few years of observing founders though, I am starting to realize that to found a company of my own, I will have to develop some skills that do not come naturally to me. We can adapt ourselves to the positions we desire and we can also mold our current positions to best leverage our strengths. I am focused on the latter right now.

Elizabeth Stone used the phrase “High Talent Density” in a recent interview to describe the engineering culture at Netflix. This term resonates with my experience at Stripe. Especially since I’ve been leading my current project. I’m coming to really appreciate how competent my teammates are. The one caveat I’d add before completely cosigning Stone’s argument is that I find it to be kind of an exercise in navel gazing. I’ve worked with plenty of high talent individuals in other companies and industries. I’m fully willing to grant that the density of these types of people is abnormally high at Stripe (and I’ll take Stone at her word that the same is true at Netflix). But, high talent individuals, without good tooling, without systems, without a goal, or wearing one too many hats aren’t much better than their counterparts under similar circumstances.

Quarter baked

A sentence or two and a piece of content.

A quick discussion of font weights in design by Saron Yitbarek.

https://notadesigner.io/p/style-text-introducing-new-tldr-section-cheatsheet

Ezra Klein and Caitlyn Collins discuss the ways work and parenting cultures come into conflict in the US, and less so in Sweden.

Does anyone disagree?

Dear POTUS: please don’t worry about food delivery.. help Americans with healthcare costs!

A few simple things can improve the lives of hundreds of millions of Americans and improve the situation around trillions in spend annually

Rising SunRon Shah

Raw

Naked links.