Authentic networking in a covid-world. The journey beats the destination. Define your culture by asking questions
Zain Rizvi
I'm a Software Engineer who's spent over a decade building the infrastructure used by millions of devs around the world. In the past I helped build Stripe, GCP & Azure. Nowadays I build PyTorch
Never Focus on the User
User focused design is wasteful. Every business knows this, but they're afraid to admit it. It's is a PR friendly way to say they focus on their buyers
Newsletter #9 - How my coworker got senior leaders to consider his proposals
A couple weeks ago I suggested repeating your message [https://www.zainrizvi.io/newsletter/newsletter-7-everything-is-an-opportunity-to-learn?&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=getting_senior_leaders_to_consider_your_proposals&utm_term=2020-09-09#try-to-over-communicate-i-dare-you] twenty one
Newsletter #8 - When someone said I was wrong 😬
Do you have people who disagree with you? My old coworkers from Google are happy to do it. They're great to bounce ideas off of, and last October we started a podcast where we'd discuss our
Newsletter #7 - Everything is an opportunity to learn
In the past few days, some of my articles have really hit a chord [https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/igfn8p/whats_it_like_as_a_senior_engineer_my_experiences/] on reddit [https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/
Taking my own Advice
You’ve heard how the best way to learn is by teaching, right? Wrong. Try grading instead. The single biggest practice that improved my writing was reviewing other people's essays. David Perell [https://www.perell.com/] made me
Newsletter #6 - Struggling with Impostor Syndrome
Two years into my first job at Microsoft, I was expecting to be fired. I felt like I wasn't good enough, like I was only pretending to be smart. I spent years desperately trying to hide my incompetence
Newsletter #5 - Keeping side projects alive
Ever notice that it’s much easier to give advice to others than to give advice to yourself? I have a group of friends from my writing class [https://click.mlsend.com/link/c/YT0xNDg2OTIzMTczNzEzNjc5NzQ0JmM9dTF1NCZlPTMzMiZiPTM4NzIwNDkzOCZkPWMyajhkNHA=.AYlWxPPu39fP9_LeUQn9APFvUqSqSeegwVJIWtNylRI] , and every week
How I learned to turn Impostor Syndrome into an Advantage - The Impostor's Advantage
My heart was racing. My palms sweating. I was going to be fired. Performance reviews had just ended, and it was time to meet my manager and be told my results. Except I knew what it would say. How else do you rate a programmer who doesn’t code?
I couldn’t abandon another side project
I didn't want this to become another abandoned project. By trying to do less stuff, I got more done
Newsletter #4 - Community Edition
Last weekend I had a huge zoom call with my extended family. Parents with nine siblings each equals many, many cousins. I met cousins who I hadn't talked to in years, saw nephews and nieces I've
Effective Altruism is Suboptimal
What a homeless cametaught me about caring for others