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by hardwaregeek 1289 days ago
I’m currently reading Peopleware which is simultaneously very insightful and very obvious. It’s also a bit of a marker in time of how software development worked. I’d say a lot has improved with remote work, at least for some companies.

I found The Mom Test pretty helpful for honing a product mindset. I’ve fallen into the trap of writing code simply because I find it less daunting than talking to users. The Mom Test is a good reminder on priorities.

2 comments

Oh man, Peopleware was so good when I read it in the 2000s. You indicate that time has passed it by a bit? Any particulars you remember?
I think there was a whole section about dress code for engineers and things like that. Tbf it was more of “dont have dress codes” but that’s status quo today so largely irrelevant
I can’t say I’ve ever worked at an office that had a public announcement system, or had phones on the desks. Sure we have slack now but in my experience most companies don’t expect slack to be responded to immediately.

Also remote work solves a lot of the problems around open offices, while introducing new problems of its own.

Everyone even thinking about creating a startup should read "The Mom Test" first.