Readings: Week of October 20th
Anyone who knows me knows I read a ton of articles, blogs, books, and papers. I decided to provide a few thoughts and link to a few of them I found interesting over the last week. I hope to consistently do so moving forward. These won’t always be just around technology. You’ll find material around business, economics, science, and philosophy. So without further ado, here’s the first post of links that I found interesting this week.
The Long-Term Stock Exchange Is Worth a Shot
https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-10-16/the-long-term-stock-exchange-is-worth-a-shot
… here’s a story about the Long-Term Stock Exchange, which is a new planned stock exchange backed by Silicon Valley venture capitalist types that will have “tenure voting,” in which shareholders who hold their shares for a long time will get more votes. The theory is that the shareholders who hold their shares for a long time will be more focused on the long term than shareholders who hold their shares for a short time. …
- This is an article on the new “long-term stock exchange” that some Silicon Valley VCs are hoping will help solve what they believe is an issue with investor incentives.
- I agree with the “feeling” that market doesn’t value longer term investments. But, like the article states, whether that is true or not is up for debate. Whether true or not we do need to ensure long term value is weighed as it’s natural to always over-value short-term returns. You see this outside of the stock exchange within software development and production in general.
From an internal Basecamp announcement re: pings/IMs
https://m.signalvnoise.com/from-an-internal-basecamp-announcement-re-pings-ims-e0f61ec9e3bd
Sending a ping with no information would be like sending an email with a subject “Hey” but with no body. Then only when someone emailed you back saying “What’s up?” would you follow up with a separate email containing your complete thought. That would be silly, but it’s exactly what we’re doing with pings.
What’s worse, compared to emails, pings are very interruptive. Being pulled away from your work to check out something with no information in it is bad for everyone involved.
- Amen. This is a great policy. The empty ping is terrible. I have nightmares about receiving “there?” or “hey” messages with no follow up information.
- Also in general we spend too much time in messaging apps. We see everyday how terrible the “discussion” is on platforms like Youtube, Twitter, Facebook, etc. Even without anonymity when you can’t hear the voice or see the face of the person you are communicating with you lose context. And often this loss of context leads to incorrect assumptions of the intention of the communication. I spent lots of time at my last job mitigating Hipchat fallout that would have been completely avoided with a phone call. And, nearly every time the issues were solved by just having that phone call.
Haskell for all
http://www.haskellforall.com/2017/10/advice-for-haskell-beginners.html
Some people learn Haskell with the expectation that they will achieve some sort of programming enlightenment or nirvana. You will be disappointed if you bring these unrealistic expectations to the language. Haskell is not an achievement to unlock or a trophy to be won because learning is a never-ending process and not a finish line.
I think a realistic expectation is to treat Haskell as a pleasant language to use that lets you focus on solving real problems (as opposed to wasting your time fixing silly self-induced problems like null pointers and “undefined is not a function”).
- These are great recs. I’ve made the mistake of doing the opposite of each of them and it’s only slowed my use of Haskell.
- Also if you’re interested in Haskell you should absolutely follow Gabriel Gonzalez. He is fantastic.
You fired your top talent. I hope you’re happy.
If you read in between the lines, it appears that management was complacent to lay problems at Rick’s doorstop, and didn’t care that Rick and/or the team didn’t take time to document the problem and/or resolution.
- I read the original “Rick” post as a failure of management. This post does a good job highlighting why. Look, “Ricks” exist. But A) you should attempt to avoid hiring them, B) If they don’t start out a Rick but become one, then you really need to do an analysis of your org and especially those around Rick (specifically his manager), and C) try to fix them. If Rick doesn’t become un-Rick then you let them go.
The Revenge of the Country
http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2017/09/the_revenge_of.html (PODCAST)
When EconTalk host Russ Roberts looks at the series of images in Philip Auerswald’s Medium piece on the rise of populism, he sees “a Milky Way of darkness instead of brightness.” Auerswald describes the populist phenomenon as a global trend, not at all unique to the United States, and calls it, only slightly in jest, the “revenge of the country,” or the emerging tension, caused by voting systems, between urban and rural.
- Some really good discussion here around the productivity of cities, how it’s negatively impacting rural areas, and how those in rural areas are using politics to fight back. But the tech industry is a prime example of much of what’s discussed here. Also towards the end when they get to solutions there’s some interesting points around new markets in health care.
What I Learned From Reading Every Amazon Shareholders Letter
Despite memes (below) to the contrarian, the core operating principles of Amazon hasn’t changed much if at all since the company went public in 1997.
Amazon aims to be the world’s most customer-centric company. In the 1997 letter, Jeff laid out 8 bullet points on Amazon’s philosophy and throughout the years, he repeatedly talks about these principles. I highlight some in this post.
- A good recap article but I highly recommend you actually good read the letters. This was recommended recently to us at RK (by I believe Marty Cagan) and they are worth the read.
My 20-Year Experience of Software Development Methodologies
“Soon we doubled in size, moved out of our cramped little office into a much bigger one with bigger desks, and multiple floors. You couldn’t shout out your question to the room anymore. Teams got bigger, and these things called ‘project managers’ started appearing everywhere talking about ‘specs’ and ‘requirements gathering’. We tried and failed to rewrite our entire platform from scratch.”
- This hits home … hard
- Honestly this entire article is great. We’ve seen much of the same through our years. There is no silver bullet. And whatever methodology you start with you’re almost certainly going to need to evolve it as your company evolves.
Woebot: AI for mental health
While a software chatbot will never replace a human therapist, Woebot makes it possible to inexpensively deliver counseling to millions. Woebot delivers a mood management program based on Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT). A Stanford University randomized controlled trial showed that Woebot reduced symptoms of depression and anxiety in 2 weeks.
- I’m intrigued by this. I mentioned a very similar idea to my wife the other day.
- At the same time these are such sensitive areas. This could go very, very wrong. But it’s the risk that is almost always there when attempting to combine technology with health care. That said we need to try these things. I wish them success.
A Letter to Jamie Dimon
It’s easy to believe cryptocurrencies have no inherent value. Or that governments will crush them.
It’s also becoming fashionable to believe the opposite: that they will disrupt banks, governments, and Silicon Valley giants once and for all.
Neither extreme is true.
The reality is nuanced and important. Which is why I’ve decided to write you this briefing note. I hope it helps you appreciate cryptocurrencies more deeply.
- As somebody that hasn’t spent much time digging into the crypto-currency world this was a great breakdown. It appears to present the most pragmatic view of the situation. After at first blowing crypto-currency, and “the blockchain”, off, I’ve become more interested recently and I do believe there is immense potential here.
