When you accept a new job, you don't know who you are going to work with, what you are going to be doing, and how much (or little) you're going to like it. Call everyone you want. Ask their opinions. Trust the fact that a good friend referred you for the gig. Revel in the idea that the company h| Rands in Repose
My expectation early in my career was that promotions just showed up. You worked hard, and you figured out how to get along with your teammates. Every year or so, my boss would have a one-off conversation with me and alert me that I had a new role along with increased compensation. This hands-off cycle… more| Rands in Repose
If you want to teach a Californian kid about cold, have him fly out to New York in January. Have him pack poorly and then have him walk out of JFK airport at 3pm with aforementioned poor packing, and watch what happens. Wait until the sliding door opens. Wait for it. And watch. I did not underst| Rands in Repose
Archives| Rands in Repose
An idea just comes to me. I've been writing for a long time, so the ideas come partially formed. Not written but formed into the beginnings of a familiar shape. It is critical in the next hour that I write this idea down somewhere accessible because it's just an idea, and failure to capture it means| Rands in Repose
I didn’t much like Wally from the first time I met him. We worked in the same circles, but not on the same projects. I was aware of his work, but not involved or dependent on it. My initial reaction to Wally, “Complains. Nitpicks. Doesn’t act.” I made this judgment in a moment. Months passed,… more| Rands in Repose
In our 92nd episode, we talk about the ongoing battle with productivity tool swirl. Again. Enjoy it now, or download for later. Here's a handy feed or subscribe via Overcast or iTunes. https://traffic.libsyn.com/rands/theimportantthing0092.mp3| Rands in Repose
Your robot experience started simple. You typed a question into a chatbot… just to see. Can it answer that question? I'd be impressed if it did. Your query was simple. A simple knowledge question that with a little effort using legacy tools like Google, you would have discovered yourself, but the r| Rands in Repose
There’s a lot of content hiding in the Rands archives from the past three decades. Over the years, some of that content keeps showing up. I keep forwarding the same links to the same articles; I get asked the same questions at Q&A. I’ve decided to synthesize the advice into a single artifact. My writing… More| Rands in Repose
One of the more interesting robot-assisted tools I’ve built in the last few months is tracking the various metrics for Rands-related properties. Think social like Mastodon, BlueSky, and Threads. Think blog analytics like new users, session duration, and popular articles. I’ve been plopping this data into a spreadsheet every month for the last two years.… More| Rands in Repose
In our 91st episode, we talked about Founder Mode long after everyone else had moved on. Enjoy it now, or download for later. Here's a handy feed or subscribe via Overcast or iTunes. https://traffic.libsyn.com/rands/theimportantthing0091.mp3| Rands in Repose
The robots and I were tinkering with the script, and I somehow asked ChatGPT to make three sentences sound like me, but… just a bit. There's enough writing out there that the robots have a rough idea of my style, but this prompt somehow triggered deep research. The robot did a full analysis of all m| Rands in Repose
The majority of people-related disasters I’ve created originate with my choice to not say the hard thing. On my short list of critical leadership skills, the ability to “say the hard thing” is right after “delegate until it hurts.” I didn’t give feedback when behavior was off because the person was| Rands in Repose
Stephen was a hired gun at my first start-up. His contract started a year before I arrived, but he was long gone before I walked in the door. The story goes that when Stephen started, he found a small, solid team of five engineers, a QA lead, and a project manager. They were slowly and steadily goin| Rands in Repose
The quiet is my favorite attribute of a holiday break. My various Slacks are quiet, the house is quiet, and while it takes three days of quiet, eventually my head is quiet. Quiet creates reflection. I replay the critical parts of recent life and rather than living them, I observe them… at a distanc| Rands in Repose
Resignations happen in a moment, and it’s not when you declare, “I’m resigning.” The moment happened a long time ago when you received a random email from a good friend who asked, “I know you’re really happy with your current gig because you’ve been raving about it for a year, but would you like to| Rands in Repose
For a role as crucial as Leadership, there is a shocking lack of required training on the topic. Combined with a tremendous collection of impenetrable literature, leadership is an essential skill learned on the job. The Rands Leadership Slack (“RLS”) exists to help longtime, new, and aspiring leader| Rands in Repose
