Young Reacts #133
A couple of months ago, a mentor advised me to start talking to multiple companies if I want to go back to management. She said that if I have other opportunities lined up, I wouldn’t be disappointed when I inevitably get rejected by some. So I did. Having a few conversations, I’ve learned that having three or four 30-minute conversations a week drains me quickly. Honestly, they have gotten in the way of my work too much.
On the bright side, I was able to pick up what matters to me at this time:
I want to focus on management. I don’t mind coding sometimes, but I don’t want to be a tech lead of a 3-person team.
There must be at least one of these three things that excite me about the role: maybe it’s because I’ve used the product, because I believe in the team's mission, or because I think I will grow tremendously.
(a weak preference) I’d rather get RSUs than options.
Armed with this clarity, I started having conversations more selectively, opting out of conversations quicker.
Software Engineering ⚙️
No code reviews by default
After working with pull requests for so long, I stopped questioning the utility of pull requests. But this article got me thinking. Primarily, I find pull requests informative. I approve almost automatically as I trust my colleagues to deliver working code. I instead focus on understanding by asking questions and leaving comments on the pull requests.
I now see that there is sometimes tension among my team because we aren’t fully aligned on why we do pull requests. So this should be a good topic for my next 1-1s.
Import assertions
This proposal lets Javascript assert against a module import. Its first use-case is to validate the type of imported modules (JS or JSON, for example). It’s not super useful for me, but I am interested in how the ecosystem will use it in the future.
ES2021 is already cut, so this stage-3 proposal will probably be part of ES2022.
The State of WebAssembly 2021
My two takeaways from this survey:
AssemblyScript is the second most popular WebAssembly language. (I am curious if the JS developers, in particular, favor the language)
WebAssembly is expanding outside the “web.”
Reducing Product Risk and Removing the MVP Mindset
Yes, we should deliver iteratively. But we should be clear about why: are we trying to learn more about the problem or deliver value quickly?
People ❤️
Make Boring Plans
Planning is integral to successful execution, especially if there are unknown variables: cross-functional coordination or new technologies.
Business 💸
LET’S BUILD A CHIP – WITH MATH
Many companies started producing chips internally, most notably Apple with its M1. The article goes into the cost of doing so. The key takeaway is that the decision to produce chips internally comes with a huge sunk cost with future cultural and strategic implications.
Facebook will start putting ads in Oculus Quest apps
It reminds me of Wall-E’s dystopia where ads are omnipresent.