Published
Weekend Reading - 🅿️ Park downhill
This week we look at FB's telework policy, declare 2020 the year of Linux on the desktop, watch for cows, and pay George Clooney a visit.
Kia K “why do i stay up really late for SoftBank's earnings every quarter? for amazing presentation slides like this, of course:”
🏠 WFH
So this week, Shopify, Spotify, and Coinbase all join the ranks of “remote? why not?” Even Tinder dating is going remote.
But the most interesting announcement came from Facebook. I think Facebook's announcement embodies where the tech industry — the average of companies large and small, new and old — is heading.
maybe closer to 10 than five, but somewhere in that range — I think we could get to about half of the company working remotely permanently.
It will be a steady and measured migration, granting telework benefits to employees in good standing.
Salaries adjusted to your place of residence, so if you were hoping to live in Vermont on a Bay Area income, think again. It will probably look something like Gitlab's remote compensation calculator.
Most important, the power center will remain HQ. And I absolutely agree with this exchange:
Jeff Morris Jr. “ I feel like WFH full time is the new ‘unlimited PTO’- like nice to have but good luck getting promoted and rising ranks as full remote employee.”
Daniel “Generally, if the CEO isn't a member of the distributed team, you probably don't want to be either.”
Ikea shares instructions for building comfy homemade forts and tents When you need a moment of peace and quiet.
🪑 Design Objective
Psychology of Design: 101 Cognitive Biases & Principles That Affect Your UX A cheat sheet of 101 cognitive biases, supported by UX case studies, so you can see how they get put in practice.
The Current State of Checkout UX (18 Common Pitfalls) This article goes deep into exploring the common pitfalls of checkout UX. Not surprisingly bad UX is more common than good UX. For example, look at these 3 (of 18) pitfalls:
- Make “Guest Checkout” the Most Prominent Option (72% Don’t)
- Have the Right Microcopy in the Account-Selection Interface (33% Don’t)
- Avoid Overly Complex Password-Creation Requirements (68% Don’t)
Ivor “When a project has 1 designer and 1 engineer. 🤣”
🧰 Tools of the Trade
Microsoft is bringing Linux GUI apps to Windows 10 As if 2020 couldn’t get more strange. Microsoft is doubling down on open source, just launched Windows Terminal, which can run Linux command line tools, and plans to support Linux GUI (without you having to configure X Server). Is Microsoft planning to make 2020 the year of Linux on the desktop? I’m so confused.
Ask HN: What are your favorite developer-efficiency tips? Fantastic threads. These two help me immensely managing context switching:
With reverse procrastination, you trick your brain into doing your intended task: Ok lemme just open Visual Studio Code and edit this one file then im good, I'll just change this one line of code, I'll just do 5 pushups then i'll stop”
And
Park downhill
Before putting a project or incomplete task away, make notes of what the next thing was that you were going to work on. This lets you bypass that 10 minute orientation getting back into the project the next time you pick it up.
Joseph Hughes Yes.
Quickstart | Kea 2.0 I’m digging this. I like Redux the architecture, but hate spreading business logic over gazillion files. Kea is an elegant solution that keeps all your logic in one place.
What do you think of TailwindCSS? My experience using TailwindCSS on a couple of small size projects:
The ease of inline CSS with a nicer syntax and breakpoints. A great choice for a small app, when you just want to get it out fast. Give it a try. The docs are really good, expect to spend many an hour getting familiar with just enough TailwindCSS to get that Aha moment.
I tried so hard
and got so far
but in the end
git push --force origin master
Marina Ayano K “Kids these days will never know the hardships of each week having to overcook a fresh hardboiled egg yolk for the computer mouse”
🧑🤝🧑 Teamwork
Encouraging a Culture of Written Communication I will never get tired of pointing this out: a culture of written communication forces deep thinking, clear communication, and accountability. It allows more people to participate. In particular, the default mode should be sharing in public (which is what Weekend Reading is all about):
As much as possible, encourage people to post anything of interest to the public channels. Notice that I’m saying public channels, and not private messages, because we don’t ping anyone unless it’s necessary. We just want to make the information available.
If you are changing a configuration option on production, considering to do a database migration, or just noticed something interesting in the performance graphs… post it to the chat.
John Cutler Embrace incremental delivery:
Some of the best roadmaps...
- mention 0 feature
- use no shorthand (e.g. "redesign V2.0")
- are not on a timeline (have no dates)
- mention Who and Why
- tell a compelling story
- acknowledge uncertainty
- set qual and quant goal
- embrace incremental delivery
#youcandoit!
Productivity Has Increased, Led By Remote Workers I don't know about the methodology of this survey, but I absolutely love this nugget:
use of calendaring apps dropped more than 22%, suggesting that fewer meetings – known for their negative impact on productivity and morale – can help make workers more productive.
📈 Business Side
2PM This is what an accelerated timeline looks like. 10 years vs 8 weeks!
How Google, DoorDash, & Grubhub Conspire To Screw Local Restaurants That sounds like the mafia:
DoorDash & GrubHub charge restaurants an advertising fee and then use that money to pay Google to run advertisements that use our restaurant’s brand name to divert cust
New Facebook Survey Highlights Plight of Small Businesses Do you want the bad news, or the bad — not as bad as we feared — news?
- 36% conduct all of their business online
- Just 45% will rehire the same staff when they reopen
- Only 11% of operating businesses predict they’ll fail in next 3 months
🔒 Locked Doors
Flipper Zero — Multi-tool Device for Hackers. Lite version based on STM32 Tamagotchi for hackers!
Flipper Zero is a tiny piece of hardware that has a curious personality of a cyber dolphin who really loves to hack. It can interact with digital systems in real life and grow while you are hacking. Flip any kind of access control system, RFID, radio protocol and perform any kind of hardware hacks using GPIO pins.
All your reaction GIFs now belong to Facebook, as it buys Giphy for $400M Does Facebook need to compete with Slack, if they can just peek into your Slack channels and DMs? Turns out Giphy SDK is already tracking your device ID, and of course there's a keyboard app. Facebook doesn't have a history of being good with people's privacy, or as Nick Takayama put it:
Actually it's pronounced GIF with a silent tracking token
Ok here's a new one: did you know that cows can cause network outages? Don't laugh, it happened to us.
The beginning of the story: recently, we noticed frequent short outages ("flaps") on a multi-terabit fiber path through Oregon. 1/
⭐ None of the Above
Giant Military Cats “ID this aircraft. Wrong answers only. #avgeek”
hey seniors, if you're really missing graduation sit in the sun wearing a shower curtain while someone reads from a phonebook for 3 hours
Unreal Engine 5 is meant to ridicule web developers Did you see that Unreal video? It is unreal! Also, this had me laughing:
Turns out that the level of computational optimization and sheer power of this incredible technology is meant to make fun of web developers, who struggle to maintain 15fps while scrolling a single-page application on a $2000 MacBook Pro, while enjoying 800ms delays typing the corresponding code into their Electron-based text editors.
Chris Jones And now for a different kind of tale:
It's 2006. I'm working at Esquire, assigned to write about George Clooney. He invites me to his house. Now, understand something: Celebrities never invite you to their house. Except for George Clooney, apparently. The house! Amazing.
Ryan Mac “This is Grimes' mom. Thanksgiving is going to be fun.”
My Favorite Newsletters You asked where I find the content for Weekend Reading. Since newsletters are the new blogs, I decided to share the list of my favorite newsletters. Subscribe and enjoy.
Kate McNamara “I think my BBQ just offered to be my default browser?”
Where to Buy a Bike: Sales Surge in US in Coronavirus Lockdown I hope this trend lasts, the US is overdue for better modes of transportation.
Kevin W. “A memory that will last a lifetime 🤗”
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