How would you explain the "Shift Left on Security" to a five years old kid? That was a question that we had to answer in a group exercise at SumUp lately. Each group in an 80-people workshop took a few of the 24 capabilities that drive improvements in software delivery performance from the book Accelerate. We found...
Hey friend, Happy new year! I hope you will have a great year which you won't need any resolutions for 2024. I have had no resolutions for the last two years, and I love it. For me, New Year's Eve is a regular day, so it doesn't mark anything that I think of celebration. But it's not in a bad way. I just don't put...
I was reading Julian's latest monthly newsletter issue—one of the few newsletters I follow. There, Julian talks about doing things consistently to become great at them by sharing what Ed Sheeran and Neil Gaiman do. Ed Sheeran uses the pipe with one faucet analogy. If you're using the pipe for the first time, the...
While we can improve our decision-making skills by learning methodologies and mental models and practicing mindfulness, one shortcut helps the most Since the industrial revolution, our daily options are multiplied each year. We have tens of alternatives for a loaf of bread and hundreds of possibilities in choosing a...
Hey friend, Do you think that you have a lot of meetings? Do you feel overwhelmed by the distractions at work that don't let you do your job? Maybe you found some tricks to manage your time and move some meetings back and forth to create "focus time" for yourself. But how many times did it also get interrupted?...
This article is part of my notes from Chapter 7 of Designing Data-Intensive Applications by Martin Kleppmann. You can read other chapter notes as well. Chapter 1: Reliability, Scalability, and Maintainability in Distributed Applications Chapter 2: Data Models and Query Languages Chapter 3: Data Storage and Retrieval...
How Strongly I Recommend: 9/10 How likely I will gift it to somebody: 8/10 The Review The book is short but very dense. It took me a while to finish it because I had to stop and think about the practical applications of concepts. The four fundamental team topologies and interaction modes help us understand how we...
The interesting side of Genghis Khan is how he destroyed his family and tribe relationships. In his childhood, building relationships based on trust and choice was more important than having kinship. He killed his brother because his brother mistreated him. He took Temüjin's (Genghis Khan's birth name) prey for...
For years, I've been planning my days hour by hour, trying to build habits that last for longer periods, not just for a few months. In a life without goals, habits are the fundamental stones, and opening some space for them is crucial to not falling into an aimless life. One of the results of these habits (writing...
Understanding our values is one thing; building personality around them is another. We do something every day. Sometimes, they differ, and sometimes, they are part of a routine. We're sometimes lost; we don't know where we're headed. In these situations, it's a good practice to ask ourselves, "If we were the last...
If a leader makes an organizational change, they have to write down clearly what it is about. No leader has all the answers. So, they must show people they don't have all the answers. They have to be authentic, intentional, and emotional. While announcing an organizational change, they should add TL;DR (executive...
Hey friend, In previous Mektups, I talked about deep work and multitasking. These two are correlated, and I wanted to return to the theme from a different perspective: time management vs. energy management. The idea of not multitasking is about maximizing the effectiveness and outcome. Meanwhile, having focus and...
