Toots from 2024-02-05#
That the first/best Tracy Chapman and Luke Combs Grammy performance search result is on X rather …#
That the first/best Tracy Chapman and Luke Combs Grammy performance search result is on X rather than the Grammys own YouTube channel explains a lot about traditional media.
Mastodon Source 🐘#
Great conversation led by @ryaneccles , [@adrianco](https://m…#
Great conversation led by @ryaneccles , @adrianco and @RuthMalan in today’s https://papersin.systems/. We talked about http://papersin.systems/sessions/2024-02-supply-chain-metrics.html which provides in-tension evaluation criteria for defining metrics. Topics included sustainability, carbon markets, data standardization, JIRA, OKRs, tailwhip effects, and a consensus that collecting metrics is not a goal in itself.
Keep tabs on the next session at https://papersin.systems/ and hope to see you there!
Mastodon Source 🐘#
“So much of current AI-generated stuff is derivative sludge that I’m enjoying the pockets of we…#
“So much of current AI-generated stuff is derivative sludge that I’m enjoying the pockets of weirdness where I find them.”
https://www.aiweirdness.com/chocolates-labeled/
Mastodon Source 🐘#
“Teams already know why progress is slow or why costs are high. Typically it’s much better to…#
“Teams already know why progress is slow or why costs are high. Typically it’s much better to measure aspects of toil, cost, or the things that are preventing a team from achieving subjective productivity than it is to measure productivity of some blackbox metric of units of value delivered divided by cost.”
https://isthisit.nz/posts/2024/engineering-productivity-metrics-genai/
Mastodon Source 🐘#
“In short, you probably have all the metrics you need to start automating your deployments toda…#
“In short, you probably have all the metrics you need to start automating your deployments today. You just need to look at them a little differently.”
https://slack.engineering/the-scary-thing-about-automating-deploys/
Mastodon Source 🐘#
“It was never a matter of just the groups or individuals doing a poor job would get hit. It was…#
“It was never a matter of just the groups or individuals doing a poor job would get hit. It was the teams and individuals who weren’t visible beyond their immediate peers.”
https://kevingoldsmith.substack.com/p/protecting-your-team-from-layoffs
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“These are not reassuring numbers. When almost three-quarters of the interviews in which the inte…#
“These are not reassuring numbers. When almost three-quarters of the interviews in which the interviewees were told explicitly (by the experimenters) to not rely on their own skills, but exclusively on ChatGPT are considered “confident”, you really have to wonder: How good is your interview process? How many false positives are you allowing through? How many false negatives?”
http://blogs.newardassociates.com/blog/2024/cheating-with-gpt.html
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“Companies should adopt an intentional and regular gathering strategy for all employees to connec…#
“Companies should adopt an intentional and regular gathering strategy for all employees to connect routinely.”
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I agree with this sentiment and the hard work is turning physical proximity into beneficial outcomes…for both the people and their work together.
Putting zero-sum, closed-minded, toxic, prejudiced and generally unpleasant people together will not magically produce better results. Although it’s guaranteed to encourage people with different values to start looking for new organizations.
Mastodon Source 🐘#
Westrum’s organizational model observations (https://itrevolution.com/articles/westrums-organizational-model-in-tech-orgs/) embrace location transparency. It’s just as easy to shoot the messenger over Slack as it is over a conference table.
RTO mandates only affect the exposure profile, not the risk of exposure.
Mastodon Source 🐘#
Physical proximity does provide more secondary signals for juniors about what’s normal and acceptable. It also can reduce the communication costs and social anxiety around asking learning questions.
But it can just as easily signal that their questions are “Googleable” and “something they should know”. Plus, evolution has equipped us with diverse facial recognition and body language reading skills.
Mastodon Source 🐘#
TL;DR: It was/still is a pandemic, not a normal “distributed team” environment. Values and behaviors can be expressed in many different ways. An office is a place, not a gateway to an alternative universe.
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“Our research reveals, however, that as an executive team’s priority list grows, the company’…#
“Our research reveals, however, that as an executive team’s priority list grows, the company’s revenue growth in fact declines relative to its peers.”
https://hbr.org/2011/04/stop-chasing-too-many-prioriti