Hacker News with Generative AI: Management

AI makes bad managers (staysaasy.com)
It’s performance-review season and I’m watching managers kneecap their careers. Gleefully they share the best prompts to have ChatGPT write their performance assessments - exactly the sort of shortcut that guarantees they’ll never get better at the job.
The Grugbrained CEO (sam-rodriques.com)
Ask HN: When will managers be replaced by AI? (ycombinator.com)
There is no shortage of articles about AI replacing entry level jobs.
Why Our CTO Banned TypeScript After One Migration (arthur.place)
I migrated one of our biggest JavaScript codebases to TypeScript — and after everything started working too well, our CTO banned it.
When a team is too big (alexewerlof.com)
The Precise Language of Good Management (staysaasy.com)
As a manager, your words are your bond
Hit hardest in Microsoft layoffs? Developers, product managers, morale (seattletimes.com)
Microsoft’s push for efficiency placed a heavy emphasis on eliminating layers of management, but layoff data from this week showed managers didn’t bear the brunt of job cuts.
What do executives do, anyway? (2019) (apenwarr.ca)
What do executives do, anyway?
Microsoft boots 3% of staff in latest cull (theregister.com)
Microsoft is axing 3 percent of its global workforce - its biggest purge since chopping 10,000 jobs in early 2023 - this time to flatten its management structure.
Persuasion methods for engineering managers (manager.dev)
Persuasion is an essential skill for Engineering Managers.
Ask HN: Fictional business books like The Goal (ycombinator.com)
I feel like The Goal and The Phoenix Project were seminal books, partly because their fictional style allowed people to see the ideas in applied form. Are there any other fictional business books we should be reading
Why developers and their bosses disagree over generative AI (leaddev.com)
There’s a stubborn disconnect between what engineering leadership thinks will make developers productive and what they actually want.
How Google measures and manages tech debt (techworld-with-milan.com)
Google recently faced this challenge at scale – a substantial percentage of its engineers reported being blocked by “unnecessary complexity and technical debt” in internal surveys.
Ask HN: Advice wanted – director distrusting of our team? (ycombinator.com)
Hi -- I've posted before about a director of mine, who joined a few months ago. I'm trying to get a sense of how to interpret this situation, and what (if anything) there is to do for me here.
A $1B company has operated for 53 years with ZERO managers (twitter.com)
Something went wrong, but don’t fret — let’s give it another shot.
Getting things “done” in large tech companies (seangoedecke.com)
What does it mean to get things done? In the abstract, you can complete a mathematical proof or a problem set, but the real world is much fuzzier. Suppose I plant a tree in my backyard. Once the sapling is in the ground, is that done? Not really. There’s always more work to do: clearing the ground around it, watering, keeping pests away, pruning, and so on.
Management Habits Burning Out Your Best Engineers (techleaderslaunchpad.com)
Burnout in engineering teams is rarely caused by a single event. Instead, it’s the result of persistent, often overlooked management habits that quietly erode motivation, well-being, and performance. Here are 9 habits, why they matter, what happens if you ignore them, and actionable tips to build a healthier, more sustainable engineering culture.
"AI-first" is the new Return To Office (anildash.com)
The latest fad amongst tech CEOs is no longer "founder mode", or taking drugs that they would fire you for taking, or telling everybody to return to the office — it's demanding that all work be AI-first! This is a great idea if you think nobody at your company is great at what they do. It may otherwise be a suboptimal strategy. Let's dive in!
New Manager Survival Guide (yusufaytas.com)
Alright, this is gonna be a long one. And not just a one-time thing. I’ll keep updating it as I write more about leadership. I’ll try to link everything I’ve written before. This one’s the one, just like in the Matrix. All the things I wish I had when I first stepped into managing.
Ask HN: Why so many companies reducing middle management recently? (ycombinator.com)
Lessons Learned Writing a Book Collaboratively with LLMs (ycombinator.com)
I recently finished a months-long project collaborating intensively with various LLMs (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini) to write a book about using AI in management.
How to Tell Your Boss They're Wrong–Tactfully (hbr.org)
Your boss is set on a strategy that sounds great in theory, but which you’re sure will be a logistical nightmare. Or maybe you’re in a team meeting, and everyone is nodding along to your boss’s idea that you believe will crash and burn. Speaking up in these moments takes finesse and nerve. How do you voice your concerns to your boss without being confrontational? Should you ask questions or make a direct case?
Dear Lewis, my CEO wants AI to do it all. How do I argue for humans? (lewislin.substack.com)
An executive has 48 hours to convince his CEO why AI can't replace human talent—revealing the irreplaceable capabilities that no algorithm can simulate.
'A big part of my job is sacking people': Life in HR (news.sky.com)
Caroline Wood sits down with the Money blog to reveal what life is really like as an HR boss, including the most common complaints she has to deal with, and what you need to be wary of on a staff night out.
Ask HN: What made your favorite manager so great? (ycombinator.com)
Ask HN: What made your favorite manager so great?
Work Simplification and the History of Government Efficiency and Management (governance.fyi)
Dave Deek: Okay, recording has started. How's your week been going?
Gravity Maps: An Alternative to Org Charts (leadinginproduct.com)
An organizational chart shows who’s responsible for what. It’s like a map of job titles and tasks, but it doesn’t tell you who really gets things moving. It’s great for understanding formal roles, but it misses the hidden forces that actually drive decisions and progress.
The Precise Language of Good Management (staysaasy.com)
As a manager, your words are your bond
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 Laws (manager.dev)
Some of those are famous, and some are quite niche. ALL of them are super useful to engineers and managers.