Isaac’s product development blog
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Browser history shame: the undervalued asset
There are bros out there who make pacts to delete one another’s browser history (and porn collection) in the case of a sudden, untimely death. But, today I want to talk about a different browser history shame: one we can turn to our advantage. For many of us, the time we spend working at our…
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Why the timer by my keyboard is sticky
It’s easy for me to get distracted with (sometimes unrelated) side tasks. Admitting I have a problem often means admitting this moment’s activity isn’t essential to my goal for right now. Putting my to-do-right-now list on a sticky note for each time block helps me stay focused. Benefits of a small, tangible ‘“now list” I’ve…
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It is important to quit at the first hint of an obstacle
Having productive blocks of time is incredibly important to technical workers–and creators of all kinds. Our curiosity can take us from the main path toward our objective without us even realizing that’s happening. The amount of time it takes to rebuild my mental state and get into a flow again is highly non-linear: there’s a…
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I live in the past, you should join me
I need to stick to what I planned to do yesterday, by handling today’s interruptions in a time box. In the glory of yesterday, I was blissfully free from all of the minor emergencies that came up today. Managers need to stay on top of things to keep their team pointed in the right direction. …
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Resources for an engineer trying to work themself out of a bad mental space
killall -i negative-daemon-process Technical people tend to be comfortable with systems and rules, but sometimes those standard mental patterns lead to our getting stuck when things aren’t looking up. Most of us know intellectually that processing a down point in life takes some self-examination, but where do we start? What are the processes our minds…
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My top media recommendations for techies
Regardless of what your current struggle in life, these are the things I recommend most often as the technologically inclined need to interact with others, and get things done in life. As a technical person I can get focused on things and how they work. The real magic for moving life forward tends to be…
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Books, Articles, Videos, Podcasts that I have found useful in twenty different life situations
My media recommendations for your situation Isaac Davenport 2023.12.04 1. My top recommendations Power Weekend Six Rules for Success Speech Getting Things Done The revised psychology of human misjudgement Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion Difficult Conversations: How to discuss what matters most Clear Thinking: Turning Ordinary Moments into Extraordinary 2. You’re in your first technical…
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Tools for managing your technical team don’t matter if you don’t use them: a self assessment
Isaac Davenport, Nat Crutcher, Matt Zenthoefer 2023.10.23 To get a sense of how you stack up against other technical managers, see how many boxes you can tick for these vital tools and techniques. Over the course of a couple months, the twelve senior technical managers I surveyed would use on average 17 of these 29…
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Possible Articles to Write
5 Business fundamentals you need to understand before being promoted into management Career Path The First Job Search The Path to Partner Why you are not being promoted Why you are not being promoted, Part II The leadership ladder Leadership: balancing the big picture and details Big Picture How do we do this better? Hiring…
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How do we do this better?
This is a summary of some high level advice I put together for a friend starting his first position in which he would lead a department. In this case it was the test engineering department for a hardware company. The group needed to improve, but the complaints from above were vague. How do we do…