Friday, October 4, 2019

RIF Notes #56

The best advice I've ever received is, 'No one else knows what they're doing either'.’” - Ricky Gervais

“To figure out whether you really understand an idea, write it down. Unclear writing is a sign of unclear thinking. To figure out whether anyone else will understand your writing, read it out loud. Unclear speaking is a sign of unclear writing.” –Adam Grant

“Corporate life (not mine) is fascinating. Book an hour long meeting with 40 people with no agenda? No one bats an eye. Ask for a few hundred bucks for professional development? Requires several weeks of discussion and goes all the way up to VP level for review.” Eric Bin

“A "vanity metric" is something that you measure that doesn't lead to improvement. They aren't "actionable." E.g.: the number of page hits on your web site is a vanity metric because there's nothing you can do if you don't like the number, & it tells you nothing useful.” – Allen Holub

“My code can’t be tidier than my thinking. The purpose of my tidying is to clarify my thinking by manipulating the code. The code ends up better, but because I understand more not because I somehow forced it to be better in spite of my confusion.” – Kent Beck