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 different views. It's called The Nonintuitive Bits
My favorite part: I always learn something new
Here's one of my favorite episodes. We discuss:
- The psychology behind gamifying apps
- How to be a senior and even staff engineer (we're still figuring out the latter)
- How to have great ideas (is it even necessary?)
If you've been on this newsletter from the beginning while, you might recognize those topics. I shared them in issue #2 of this newsletter, and then afterwards I got to hear those guys disagreeing with what I said 🙂
Listen to it here:
The Nonintuitive Bits Episode 29: Senior Engineering and Consumer Psychology
And here are your weekly nuggets
#1 Who should you work for?
It's been a learning process deciding who I should build products for at work. But if you build for the wrong people, then you risk wasting your hard work.
"Successful people do their work and produce their results in a way that is meaningful and visible to people that count. They understand which audiences matter most and they communicate with the right people at the right times, in a compelling way"
-- Excerpt from Rise, by Patty Azzarello
#2 Change minds before they say "no"
Before that moment, they're still open to possibilities.
But once someone says "no", they stop considering alternatives
#3 Your Predictions are Wrong
Mine are too.
We always have just partial knowledge. Our model of the world cannot take everything into consideration.
Meaning, we're guaranteed to make wrong predictions.
Keep predicting, but proceed with humility.
Don’t expect to all.
That's okay
Your Turn 👊
Have you ever had to decide which audience you should satisfy?
This could be making your boss happy vs users happy, or any other conflict.
Reply back, I'd love to hear it! I respond to every email.
Till next week
--Zain