The engineering mindset | Will Larson (Carta, Stripe, Uber, Calm, Digg)
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- Опубліковано 28 тра 2024
- Will Larson is the chief technology officer at Carta. Prior to joining Carta, he was the CTO at Calm and held engineering leadership roles at Stripe, Uber, and Digg. He is the author of two foundational engineering career books, An Elegant Puzzle and Staff Engineer, and The Engineering Executive’s Primer, which will be released in February of next year. In our conversation, we discuss:
• Systems thinking: what it is and how to apply it
• Advice for product managers on fostering productive relationships with engineering managers
• Why companies should treat engineers like adults
• How to best measure developer productivity
• Writing and its impact on his career
• How to balance writing with a demanding job
• How to develop your company values
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Where to find Will Larson:
• X: / lethain
• LinkedIn: / will-larson-a44b543
• Website: lethain.com/
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In this episode, we cover:
(00:00) Will’s background
(04:12) Changes in the field of engineering
(06:27) We need to stop treating engineers like children
(08:32) Systems thinking
(13:23) Implementing systems thinking in hiring
(16:32) Engineering strategy
(20:21) Examples of engineering strategies
(25:08) How to get good at strategy
(26:48) The importance of writing about things that excite you
(32:40) The biggest risk to content creation is quitting too soon
(35:24) How to make time for writing
(37:41) Tips for aspiring writers
(41:18) Building productive relationships between product managers and engineers
(43:45) Giving the same performance rating to EMs and PMs
(48:24) Measuring engineering productivity
(55:53) Defining company values
(01:02:10) Failure corner: the Digg rewrite
(01:11:05) Will’s upcoming book, The Engineering Executive’s Primer
(01:12:04) Lightning round
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Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.
love idea of having more engineering guests on this podcast!
Absolutely. Any other suggestions?
Finally an engineer! Will's written and done some amazing stuff.
having worked in Will's org, he is one of the humblest leaders I have interacted with!
Thank you very much for very nice discussion! Especially EM/PM collabartion was key take away for me :)
I enjoyed this episode a lot, especially the references for improving strategy. I know of Will Larson but I haven’t read any of his work. Between the strategy recs and his works, I’m excited about lots of good learning here.
Hi Lenny, Why you stopped adding the mentioned books and articles in the video description. Please add it
When we max out the character limit on YT comments (which happens due to our detailed show notes) we link to the transcript and references like this: Find the transcript and references at: www.lennyspodcast.com/the-engineering-mindset-will-larson-carta-stripe-uber-calm-digg/
This was a hard one to follow.
"Will is an advocate of systems thinking"
*Will proceeds to explain how systems thinking anecdotally correlates with being unsuccessful*
"Explain systems thinking"
*Will explains basic cause and effect logic but with extra buzzwords*
Typical software engineer
Universally agreed values are not value
He seems like a smart and accomplished guy, but honestly, I don’t feel I have gotten nearly as much useful information from him as from other guests, if at all. Kinda feel like a waste of time to listen to him 😅 (sorry if I sound like a jerk) - maybe it’s just me (I have also worked as a software engineer at both startups and one of the FAANG companies, but don’t find much of what he said truly applicable/ actionable/useful )
I am not impressed, he was not able to Articulate “System Thinking” improved the processes/procedures etc. kind of using buzzwords but not able to clearly articulate anything.