Scarlet Ink

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What's On My Mind After 4.5 Years of Writing a Newsletter

A bit of this and that.
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The Easiest Way to Get a Yes at Work
Why most career asks fail (if you even ask) and how making your requests smaller, clearer, and time-bound dramatically increases your odds of getting a…
 • Dave Anderson
Your Strength Got You Here, but Doing The Opposite Will Take You Farther
Your natural tendencies work brilliantly in the right context, but real growth comes from learning when to flip them.
 • Dave Anderson
Twelve Career Lessons They Don’t Put in Onboarding
A few hard-earned lessons about people, politics, consistency, and the parts of work we pretend aren’t part of the job. But really are.
 • Dave Anderson
Confidence: A Legal Performance-Enhancing Drug for the Office. 7 Manipulation Tips for Winners.
You don’t need permission to lead. You just need to look, sound, and act like a person others instinctively follow. Because, yes, we're all sheep.
 • Dave Anderson
Please, for the Love of All That’s Holy in Corporate America, Stop Saying These 8 Things at Work
Doing your work absolutely matters. But you can easily sabotage yourself by saying the wrong thing. These are a few phrases that quietly sabotage your…
 • Dave Anderson
Think Your Skip-Level Is for "Visibility"? That’s Cute. It’s Not.
Levels in an organization garble communication. A skip-level meeting is an opportunity to communicate clearly. Most importantly, it helps low-level…
 • Dave Anderson
5 School Habits That Make You Worse at Your Job
Being a good student might make you a poor worker. Here are a few habits and behaviors that might serve you well in the classroom but poorly in the…
 • Dave Anderson
If Your System Never Fails, That’s the Real Failure
Investments in operations should be at a minimal level that maintains the systems in an acceptable state forever. Poor operations are clearly bad news…
 • Dave Anderson
The AWS Outage—Lessons on Worst-Case Scenarios
How bad is the worst-case scenario of your systems? I suspect it's not as bad as the DynamoDB system.
 • Dave Anderson
Scarlet Ink
Scarlet Ink
Tech industry career and leadership advice from an ex-Amazon GM and Tech Director.
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