Early Career
12 Things I Learned in Big Tech
A list of 12 things which stood out to me as things I didn't originally understand before working at big tech.
Latest
Organizations
How to Improve the Cognitive Diversity of Your Organization
Cognitive diversity (vs. protected class diversity) is about finding people who think differently. How can we encourage different thinkers in our organizations?
Late Career
Why Leaders Never Say 'That's Not My Job'
A big part of leadership is recognizing that the boundaries of what is 'yours' is much broader than what is written in your job description.
Personal Dave Posts
A Guide on Building Your Newsletter and Coaching Business
How to make a newsletter, from tools to social media marketing to writing.
Career Growth
Navigating Career Bottlenecks in Management aka How to Progress to Middle Management
Many people don't successfully navigate the various hurdles in place between a successful IC career, and a high-flying middle management career. A few thoughts on that path.
Organizations
The Amazon Working Backward Process for Engineering
The working backwards process is the key mechanism Amazon uses to ensure that the right projects are funded. This same process should be used by engineering teams for their work.
Late Career
But It's Not Fair! How to Deal With Irritating Situations.
Numerous things in life aren't fair. However, complaining about it won't fix things. Let's focus on fixing things.
Personal Dave Posts
Insert Clickbait Title Here – Lessons After 1.5 years of Newsletter Authorship
Social media is silly and valuable. Newsletters can make money if you're patient.
Late Career
Proactive vs. Reactive: Understanding the Mechanisms Behind Effective Leadership
Reacting to situations means that the situation leads you. Act like a leader and use mechanisms to drive change.
Career Growth
Are You Behaving Like a Senior Engineer? Tips to Level Up.
Senior engineers distinguish themselves from junior engineers in larger ways than simply technical skills.
Organizations
How to Increase the Agility of Your Organization, Improve Quality, and Reduce Costs
Slowing down deployments to add QA is viewed as trading off improved quality for slower speed. I'm going to convince you that it also lowers quality.
Organizations
Why Twitter had 7500 Employees, and Startups Crush Big Companies.
Long-term vs one-time cost of product engineering is a core reason why companies grind to a halt over time.