Slava Akhmechet
16 notes in the collection. Writes at spakhm.com (opens in a new tab)↗
First saved Braindump on what made Stripe great on September 10, 2026.
Feeling stuck usually means a valley, not a local minimum: avoid volatile moves like quitting, build steady momentum, and take bigger steps in calm, promising directions.
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- Staring into the abyss as a core life skillBen Kuhn
How writing the Hacker News headline first, then building the release to match it, kept RethinkDB on top of HN and taught Akhmechet to write headlines that land.
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- How To Send Progress UpdatesSlava Akhmechet
- Notes on Incident ResponseSlava Akhmechet
- On Working with Product ManagersSlava Akhmechet
- How to Work W DesignersSlava Akhmechet
An insider's list of what made Stripe great around 2018, starting with nearly everyone being agentic, smart, and conscientious, and what that cost in energy.
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- Leader v Follower ModeSlava Akhmechet
- how to give feedbackSlava Akhmechet
- How to recruitSlava Akhmechet
- Stubborn Attachments On Getting Things DoneSlava Akhmechet
Blunt advice for new grads: send hard-to-fake signals of competence, get good at Leetcode-style problems and programming tactics, and use your network to get noticed.
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- Long Range Career AdviceSlava Akhmechet
- How to Market YourselfShawn Wang
- how to enter side doorsmaja
- Career DecisionsElad Gil
- Newhow to give feedback 4 min
How to give feedback people want and feedback they don't: move from a concrete example of their work to how you'd do it, why it matters, and a reusable framework.
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- Leader v Follower ModeSlava Akhmechet
- Braindump on what made Stripe greatSlava Akhmechet
- How to recruitSlava Akhmechet
- How To Send Progress UpdatesSlava Akhmechet
- NewHow to recruit 3 min
Great candidates are rare and have options, so move fast, pour energy into small gestures and their bigger dreams, and leave compensation for the end.
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- Leader v Follower ModeSlava Akhmechet
- Braindump on what made Stripe greatSlava Akhmechet
- how to give feedbackSlava Akhmechet
- How to Work W DesignersSlava Akhmechet
Tips for updates to investors, bosses, and other teams: show you take their trust seriously, vary the cadence a little, and build a record of good stewardship.
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- the world doesn’t move because you tell it tosignull
- How to Capture AttentionSlava Akhmechet
- Leader v Follower ModeSlava Akhmechet
- On Working with Product ManagersSlava Akhmechet
Great designers see the world from a vantage point you can't share, so working with one means building a common language together until the confusion clears.
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- On Working with Product ManagersSlava Akhmechet
- How to recruitSlava Akhmechet
- On Starting a New JobSlava Akhmechet
- How to Capture AttentionSlava Akhmechet
- NewInterview Advice 1 min
In technical interviews, treat small problems like bugs as a normal part of the work: no change of pace, no irritation, no surprise, because composure is what strong performers share.
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- Useful and Overlooked SkillsMorgan Housel
- Searching for outliersBen Kuhn
- Lazy Work, Good WorkMorgan Housel
- Be Wary of Imitating High-Status People Who Can Afford to CountersignalRob Henderson
Contrasts two working modes: leaders take a goal, tolerate ambiguity, and figure out the how, while followers need precise tasks and excel within a narrow range.
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- Braindump on what made Stripe greatSlava Akhmechet
- how to give feedbackSlava Akhmechet
- How to recruitSlava Akhmechet
- How To Send Progress UpdatesSlava Akhmechet
A 10-to-20-year career loop: get in rooms with the most competent people who'll have you, work hard to be reliably useful, and watch for weird asymmetric opportunities.
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- Getting a Tech Job Out of CollegeSlava Akhmechet
- On Starting a New JobSlava Akhmechet
- How to Create LuckShawn Wang
- Gradient Descent ValleysSlava Akhmechet
What good incident response takes under uncertainty and time pressure: the rare mix of equanimity, rigor, and urgency, plus calm, organized coordination of the war room.
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- Take Something AwayTed Lamade
- Measurable does not mean importantFay
- How to Capture AttentionSlava Akhmechet
- Gradient Descent ValleysSlava Akhmechet
- NewOn Failure 2 min
People respond to big failures by either consolidating lessons and moving up or hiding in humiliation, and the mode you land in is decided by habits built before the failure.
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- Gradient Descent ValleysSlava Akhmechet
- fun is the only metric that doesn’t liesignull
- PsychokineticsManav B. Ponnekanti
- Everything that turned out well in my life followed the same design processHenrik Karlsson
- NewOn Starting a New Job 2 min
Start a new job by running two threads: solve one small valuable problem fast and keep scaling up, while talking to everyone to understand what they work on and why.
Related
- How to recruitSlava Akhmechet
- How to Work W DesignersSlava Akhmechet
- Long Range Career AdviceSlava Akhmechet
- Gradient Descent ValleysSlava Akhmechet
PMs own outcomes they don't control, and engineering and PM share strategic goals but diverge tactically by design, so the relationship is part partnership, part healthy tension.
Related
- How to Work W DesignersSlava Akhmechet
- How to Capture AttentionSlava Akhmechet
- How To Send Progress UpdatesSlava Akhmechet
- Leader v Follower ModeSlava Akhmechet
Firm rules for execution: every effort needs one owner for whom it's the main job, leaders and followers rarely swap roles, and you can only run as many things as you have leaders.
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- Braindump on what made Stripe greatSlava Akhmechet
- Gradient Descent ValleysSlava Akhmechet
- Don’t Edit Your ImaginationBrian Chesky
- Do Too MuchAlexandr Wang
If you like Slava Akhmechet, try
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- Ben Kuhn6 notes · also on career and people
- Henrik Karlsson6 notes · also on people and writing