Will Larson
lethain.com (opens in a new tab)
Larson argues that a long career is managed through pace, and that steady investment in people, prestige, profit, and learning compounds over decades.
Read the original of A forty-year career. (opens in a new tab)Larson argues that writing your own career narrative beats chasing the next promotion, because it steers you toward work that’s uniquely valuable to you.
Read the original of Career narratives. (opens in a new tab)Larson argues that performance systems built on ladders, designations, and calibrations are a manager’s most valuable lever for shaping culture and performance.
Read the original of Designations, levels and calibrations. (opens in a new tab)Larson argues that getting into the rooms where decisions happen is an ongoing skill, and that you should leave any room that isn’t worth your time.
Read the original of Getting in the room. (opens in a new tab)Larson argues that managers learn fastest by treating their peers as their first team, turning a quiet rivalry into real collaboration.
Read the original of Make your peers your first team. (opens in a new tab)Larson summarizes Rumelt’s argument that good strategy is rare and bad strategy common, and that learning to tell them apart sharpens your own decisions.
Read the original of Notes from “Good Strategy, Bad Strategy.” (opens in a new tab)Larson argues that an inclusive organization gives people both opportunity, meaning access to growth and success, and membership, meaning room to be themselves.
Read the original of Opportunity & Membership. (opens in a new tab)Larson argues that partnering with your manager means each of you knowing the other’s problems, priorities, and constraints, and refreshing that picture regularly.
Read the original of Partnering with your manager (opens in a new tab)Larson lists the common ways engineering managers stall, from managing only down or only up to seeing nothing but problems.
Read the original of Ways Engineering Managers Get Stuck (opens in a new tab)