Curated Content: December 2018

Articles

• The Most Obvious Question -
  An article about the importance of being willing to be vulnerable and
  ask the question that seems obvious. Also makes a compelling case for
  junior folks on teams, because they can be more willing to ask these
  kinds of questions, to the benefit of the team.
• Scaling Engineering Teams via Writing Things Down and Sharing - aka RFCs -
  I haven't been able to put this idea into practice yet, but I found
  this idea of using RFCs to enable light weight async, and recorded,
  conversations about how and why architecture should be shaped, and how
  to improve it's shape before the coding has begun, again in a light
  weight way, very interesting. I hope to return with a field report on
  using this in the future.

Books

• The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else In Business by Patrick Lencioni
  If you haven't been paying attention to the research that has been being done in the area, you may find this book to be shocking, but otherwise it's set of useful strategies for improving the health of your organization, which is a key determinate in your organization's longterm ability to succeed.
• Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design by Charles Montgomery
  An excellent read considering the city, the environment we spend most of our time in. The author doesn't just cover the urban landscape, he also reaches out into suburbia and highlights the research showcasing how the environments we have shaped for ourselves shape our lives, and our happiness. I'd highly recommend it for everyone, in order to best consider if where they live is serving them, and making their life better.

Conference Talks

No new conf talks this month. Between the holidays and transitioning to a new role I haven't had the time.

Podcasts

I tried Scribd this month, and their selection of audiobooks now has me busy enough with them that I didn't get around to any podcasts during December.