understand + work backwards from the root goal • don’t rely too much on permission or encouragement • make success inevitable • find your angle • think real hard • reflect on your thinking| benkuhn.net
have accurate expectations of yourself • prioritize ruthlessly • unemploy your future self • a five-step “help, I’m overwhelmed” checklist • carve out focused time| benkuhn.net
focus • maintain a detailed plan for victory • run a fast OODA loop • overcommunicate • break off subprojects • have fun • bonus content: my project management starter kit| benkuhn.net
how it works • example topics • compounding improvements • what I’ve gotten out of it • tips| benkuhn.net
…by spending 50% more time on the important parts instead of Slack/email/busywork/things I do when I’m unfocused. I actually didn’t even notice until I checked a monthly time tracking report—at which point I realized I had gotten an extra 40 hours of engineering work in September compared to August.| benkuhn.net
overall direction • people management • project management • technical leadership • example divisions of labor| benkuhn.net
non-trust is reasonable • trust lets collaboration scale • symptoms of trust deficit • how to proactively build trust| benkuhn.net
This is an adaptation of an internal doc I wrote for Wave. I used to think that behavioral interviews were basically useless, because it was too easy for candidates to bullshit them and too hard for me to tell what was a good answer. I’d end up grading every candidate as an “okay, I guess” because I was never sure what bar I should hold them to. I still think most behavioral interviews are like that, but after grinding out way too many of them, I now think it’s possible to escape that...| benkuhn.net
When I started dating my partner, I quickly noticed that grad school was making her very sad. This was shortly after I’d started leading an engineering team at Wave, and so the “obvious” hypothesis to me was that the management (okay, “management”) one gets in graduate school is totally ineffective. Most graduate students, including Eve, start school right after college, i.e., without much clue about how to effectively do self-directed work.| benkuhn.net
love for Wave • why leave • where to • why there • what’s next| benkuhn.net
Your actual output depends on a lot more than just how quickly you finish a given programming task. Everything besides the literal coding depends deeply on the way you interact with the organization around you.| benkuhn.net
(The way you can *really* tell something is horribly wrong is that grad students find PhD Comics darkly funny, not just dark.)| benkuhn.net
because you’ll have more awesome friendships • be consistent • suggested post ideas • setup advice • getting initial readers| benkuhn.net
When I’ve listened the most effectively to people, it’s because I was intensely curious—I was trying to build a detailed, precise understanding of what was going on in their head.| benkuhn.net
most important things are outlier-driven • draw lots of samples • filter for maybe-amazing, not probably-good • learn where your bar should be • expect to fail a lot| benkuhn.net
the trough of zero dopamine • managing the wrong amount • procrastinating on hard questions • indefinitely deferring maintenance • angsting instead of asking| benkuhn.net
thinking about scary things • examples from Wave • examples from elsewhere • finding a buddy • getting the timing right • a list of abyss questions| benkuhn.net
deferring to markets • deferring to experts • deferring to low-information heuristics • why they fail • blindness to outliers • what to do instead| benkuhn.net
Why it’s worth it to deeply understand the fiddly, boring-seeming details of the computer systems you use every day.| benkuhn.net
Life is short • There is no speed limit • How to Be Successful • You and your research • Becoming a Magician • 95th percentile isn’t that good| benkuhn.net