Hacker News with Generative AI: Management

Software Engineering Laws (manager.dev)
Some of those are famous, and some are quite niche. ALL of them are super useful to engineers and managers.
Software Engineering, Management, Software Development, Best Practices
11 points by thunderbong 21 hours ago | 1 comments
Forking Work Simplification – Let's Bring Back Eisenhower's Process Improvement (governance.fyi)
Happy April Fool’s, but frankly we are all (well almost all) business today with a neat little update.
Process Improvement, Management, Business, History
60 points by RetiredRichard 1 day ago | 41 comments
We replaced all our managers with AI (yolodex.ai)
Yolodex, a word-of-mouth growth engine for DTC businesses, has made a bold move: we eliminated all human managers and replaced them with a bespoke, multimodal AI management system.
Artificial Intelligence, Management, Business, Startups
11 points by hazzadous 2 days ago | 3 comments
Managing People You Can't Fire (staysaasy.com)
One of the worst situations in management is needing to fire someone and getting blocked. This happens somewhat regularly and is one of the most trust-breaking experiences between a manager and their boss. Let’s talk about why it happens and how to right-size the situation
Management, Human Resources, Workplace Dynamics, Trust
13 points by kiyanwang 4 days ago | 4 comments
The Worst Programmer I Know (2023) (dannorth.net)
The great thing about measuring developer productivity is that you can quickly identify the bad programmers. I want to tell you about the worst programmer I know, and why I fought to keep him in the team.
Programming, Software Development, Management, Productivity, Humans
519 points by rbanffy 11 days ago | 368 comments
Career Development: What It Means to Be a Manager, Director, or VP (2015) (kellblog.com)
It’s no secret that I’m not a fan of big-company HR practices.  I’m more of the First Break all the Rules type.  Despite my general skepticism of many standard practices, we still do annual performance reviews at my company, though I’m thinking seriously of dropping them.  (See Get Rid of the Performance Review.)
Career Development, Management, Leadership, Human Resources
545 points by AnhTho_FR 13 days ago | 252 comments
What qualities should an excellent product manager possess? (ycombinator.com)
Here are some of my thoughts, which might be wrong or incomplete, and I welcome discussion on them.
Product Management, Leadership, Skills, Management
5 points by noahgwok 20 days ago | 3 comments
Ask HN: EM to Director (ycombinator.com)
How are you all thinking about your careers and making this move?
Careers, Management, Professional Development
20 points by emthrowaway123 21 days ago | 18 comments
Ask HN: How do you have effective 1:1s with your manager? (ycombinator.com)
I'm about six years into my career now and I have no clue how to make my 1:1s with my manager more effective. How do you all prepare for your 1:1s, how do you conduct them, how do you see them as a tool for improving your career?
Management, Career Development, Communication
69 points by justsocrateasin 22 days ago | 107 comments
Unpopular Defaults for High-Performing Tech Organizations (avivbenyosef.com)
“No one ever quit!” “Look at our hackathon!” “We hard-allocate time to fight tech debt.” Ostensibly, good things. In reality? Just the advice to follow… if you want to lead a mediocre team.
Technology, Management, Software Development, Team Performance
19 points by kiyanwang 26 days ago | 6 comments
Should managers still code? (theengineeringmanager.substack.com)
This month we have a mailbag question from a reader who asks:
Management, Software Engineering, Leadership
245 points by blah2244 29 days ago | 307 comments
Difficult Employees (and How to Handle Them) (canopy.is)
👋 Howdy! Claire here, Founder & CEO of Canopy. Welcome to my weekly newsletter on leadership, “Views from the Canopy”. If you’ve been enjoying my writing (and illustrations!) recently here, do please make sure you’re subscribed so you can receive a fresh piece each week, and consider sharing with a friend or colleague who you think might enjoy as well.
Leadership, Management, Human Resources
45 points by BerislavLopac 31 days ago | 58 comments
The Hollow Core of Elon Musk's Productivity Dogma (newyorker.com)
On Saturday afternoon, Elon Musk posted on X that “all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week.”
Elon Musk, Productivity, Management, Work Culture
7 points by rbanffy 35 days ago | 0 comments
"At Our Companies, Employees Just Disappear" (slate.com)
Few people are as knee-deep in our work-related anxieties and sticky office politics as Alison Green, who has been fielding workplace questions for a decade now on her website Ask a Manager. In Direct Report, she spotlights themes from her inbox that help explain the modern workplace and how we could be navigating it better.
Workplace Culture, Management, Human Resources, Work-Life Balance
24 points by tekdude 37 days ago | 4 comments
Work-Life Balance as a Manager (yusufaytas.com)
As an IC, you close your laptop at 6 PM, log off, and forget about the work unless you are oncall.  As a manager, you check Slack at 10 PM because someone might need you. Your calendar looks like there’s no time to do anything and you haven’t had an actual deep focus hour in weeks. Sounds familiar? Welcome to management, where your time is no longer yours. Or is it?
Management, Work-Life Balance, Time Management
10 points by jatwork 42 days ago | 0 comments
The CTO Graveyard: 7 Archetypes That Always Fail [video] (youtube.com)
Leadership, Technology, Business, Video, Management
3 points by avivby 44 days ago | 0 comments
Walking the Doge (thedailywtf.com)
One thing I've learned by going through our reader submissions over the years is that WTFs never start with just one mistake. They're a compounding sequence of systemic failures. When we have a "bad boss" story, where an incompetent bully puts an equally incompetent sycophant in charge of a project, it's never just about the bad boss- it's about the system that put the bad boss in that position.
Software Development, Management, Humor
7 points by askl 45 days ago | 0 comments
Yes you built that but at what cost? (abhinavomprakash.com)
You tighten the last screw on the bridge. Feeling triumphant you raise your hands and cheer. Your crew cheers. The bridge is five years too late but it is done. The people you started with are no longer with you. But they were traitors and disloyal people. “Tough times don’t last, tough people do” you utter to yourself, rationalizing the loss of your entire team.
Management, Leadership, Team Dynamics, Success, Cost
9 points by lazyfolder 46 days ago | 0 comments
Ask HN: How to handle pushback on a team switch? (ycombinator.com)
Here's an _imaginary_ but common scenario in the corp tech hemisphere:<p>VP: Gives the IC a dubious signal about a promo in the next cycle, mentioning tenure, budget constraints, or something incredibly vague.<p>IC: Lets go of the promo and seeks to switch teams at the same level in search of more interesting work and possibly to avoid a similar situation in the next cycle.<p>VP: Feels betrayed, claiming they were working hard on the promo case and that it might have happened
Career Advice, Team Dynamics, Software Engineering, Management
38 points by rednafi 57 days ago | 46 comments
DOGE Staff Had Questions About the 'Resign' Email. Their HR Chief Dodged Them (wired.com)
On Friday, staff at what was formerly the United States Digital Service and is now part of Elon Musk’s DOGE initiative met with Stephanie Holmes, who identified herself as a part of the DOGE team and as the staff’s new HR representative.
Elon Musk, DOGE, HR, Staff, Management
66 points by impish9208 60 days ago | 13 comments
Beat the Drum (dannyguo.com)
My former COO gave me a piece of advice when I became a manager. He said that leaders have to deliver the same message again and again and again to make sure it gets through to everyone in the organization.
Leadership, Management, Communication
25 points by dguo 61 days ago | 4 comments
How to work effectively with contract developers (medium.com)
Recently, a friend reached out because his startup had hired a contract development firm to build a new feature. He wanted advice on how to ensure the project’s success. Having managed many teams that included contract developers, I shared what I’ve learned over the years.
Software Development, Management, Contract Work, Startups
7 points by dlevine 62 days ago | 1 comments
Soviet Shoe Factory Principle (wiki.c2.com)
This site uses features not available in older browsers.
History, Business, Management, Technology
201 points by dccoolgai 63 days ago | 146 comments
Ask HN: How to explain to execs why gen AI hasn't 10x'd feature dev (ycombinator.com)
Our senior eng team has found that gen AI tools like GPT and Claude haven't significantly reduced the time required to develop features in our system.
Generative AI, Software Development, Management
14 points by macphisto178 66 days ago | 27 comments
Creativity vs. Toil (numeric.substack.com)
A significant part of being a good software engineer, as well as a good engineering manager, involves understanding the psychology that plays out for an individual developer.
Software Engineering, Psychology, Management
8 points by bihla 69 days ago | 0 comments
Hidden Champions (wikipedia.org)
Hidden champions are relatively small but highly successful companies that are concealed behind a curtain of inconspicuousness, invisibility, and sometimes secrecy.
Business, Companies, Success, Management
9 points by aragonite 71 days ago | 1 comments
Brainwash an Executive Today (mataroa.blog)
A few years ago, I had an annual one-on-one with the Chief Technology Officer of an employer with more than ten thousand staff.
Management, Leadership, Humor, Technology
43 points by Tomte 79 days ago | 2 comments
Valve Handbook for New Employees (2012) [pdf] (akamaihd.net)
Valve, Gaming, Business, Management, Human Resources
4 points by Rygian 80 days ago | 0 comments
Cascading OKRs: We can do Better (jessitron.com)
OKRs (Objectives & Key Results) are a framework for validating alignment through the organization. As a company, as a department, as a team: what are we focused on this quarter? What are we trying to make true?
Business, Management, OKRs
32 points by zdw 80 days ago | 10 comments
Bottleneck Dirty Webs (staysaasy.com)
Delegation, specialization, and federation are critical to scaling companies. But scaling doesn’t mean stepping back from everything. Especially for unsavory, cross-functional, time intensive tasks, leaders should position themselves as bottlenecks - owners that feel pressure when the work grows too much, forcing them to find ways to push back on the growth in time and effort.
Management, Scaling, Leadership, Startups
4 points by Garbage 81 days ago | 0 comments