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Author Archives: !undefined

About !undefined

Syndicated content from the !undefined Tumblr blog where Rob Friesel posts items related to software engineering, user interface/experience design, and Agile software development. Lots of JavaScript here.

on engineering culture and “manifestos”

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How I Structured Engineering Teams at LinkedIn and AdMob for Success:

Now I tend to despise the word “manifesto” but the bit about having an “engineering cultural manifesto” was particularly interesting. Where I work we had an all-hands Engineering off-site about exactly this topic a couple months back that really got me thinking about how to translate your successful habits into values, and how to translate those values into a foundation for everything else – on-boarding, technology selection, what conferences you go to, etc. It works well at the macro level, with big division-wide missions statements, but it’s probably even more effective at the micro level – i.e., how scrum team charters can help them develop and maintain a laser focus.

building software is half strategy and half improvisation

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“I’m writing this piece because building software is half strategy and half improvisation, and I really do think there are ways to train in both.”

–

Sara Simon, Learning Fluency

Given that my own background has a lot of overlap with her story, this struck a chord with me. The diverse interests, the broad learning, the liberal arts background. You can focus on computer science (or software engineering, or really anything) early and go as deep as possible, as fast as possible. But you’ll miss things.

But something else struck me here in Sara’s essay – something that should have been obvious to me because I have small children: that our important learning comes not in these big flashes (at least not most of the time), but in the repetition of small things. My kids do this. A tiny thing gets repeated over and over again until its mastered, and then it’s just… there. (And again: this should have been obvious to me from my recent study of Scrum and Agile, and its alignment to shu-ha-ri.)

the web: aviation and eschatology

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“We have a space station in 2014, but it’s too embarrassing to talk about. Sometimes we send Canadians up there.”

–

Maciej Cegłowski, Web Design: The First 100 Years

Talking about where the web came from, where people like to think it’s going, and where it’s most likely actually going.

I realize this all sounds a little grandiose.You came here to hear about media selectors, not aviation and eschatology. But you all need to pick a side.

“Culture Fit” as an Instrument of Exclusion

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Why Hiring for “Culture Fit” Hurts Your Culture:

Mathias Meyer’s discussion of “culture fit” works with too broad of a definition (e.g., ping-pong may be an instrument or reflection of your culture, but it isn’t culture itself) but manages to make a couple of important points. First (and most important) is the idea that relying on the “culture fit” question is usually an indication of an exclusive culture – and that you’re using it to keep out people who would disrupt the status quo. Which leads to the second critical point, that an over-reliance on that question suggests a toxic environment that is too busy being insular and self-congratulatory, at the expense of questioning its assumptions.

Meyer uses a lot of examples that involve drinking and bars, but I’d say that you should closer to the office first. How does the team engage with the work itself? With each other? When something fails, does it turn into a witch hunt? Or a learning opportunity? Are you using “culture fit” to find more people that are just like you? Or are you building an inclusive team with diverse opinions and talents?

Eric Clemmons re: Angular vs. React

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Angular is Easy. React is Hard.:

Eric Clemmons’ perspective on the perception (myth?) that React is easier to reason about and therefore easier overall than AngularJS. Among his main criticisms of React: that it’s only solving the view problem, that you need to “bring your own architecture”, that there subtle bugs may be introduced by JSX, and that confusion around props vs. state can lead to tightly-coupled components.

Ultimately Clemmons’ opinion is that AngularJS is better for prototyping while React is a better fit for “universal” applications. He admits though that all his points may be irrelevant in the near future as newer versions of these frameworks come online. His conclusions seem even-handed and worthy of consideration (though I think he under-states how useful AngularJS can be when properly applied).