How to Do Great Work
10 Jan 2026
paulgraham.com
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Embracing the parallel coding agent lifestyle
6 Oct 2025
open.substack.com

Plus prompt injection attacks against Sora 2 cameos and notes on DSPy and Litestream 0.5.0

An AI assistant that remembers and sets goals

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Parkinson's Law: It's Real, So Use It
13 Dec 2024
theengineeringmanager.substack.com

Yes, just set that deadline.

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Onboarding can be a well-documented, up-to-date, repeatable process that helps new hires become productive quickly without having to ask so many questions.

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Do "outline speedrunning": Recursively outline an MVP, speedrun filling it in, and only then go back and perfect. This is a ~10x speed up over the 'loading-bar' style (more on that below) Don't just read this article and move on. Go out and do this for the very next thing you make so y

You’re working on the most complex problem in computer science: fixing permissions on a deployment pipeline. It’s been 4 days you started on that simple task...

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In the fast-paced rhythm of today's world, managing time effectively is not just an advantage; it's a...

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An On-Ramp to Flow
6 Apr 2023
census.dev

Tips for developers on getting into flow states

Shoshikantetsu
16 Mar 2023
asnewman.github.io
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Vectors of Action
3 Feb 2023
nesslabs.com

Thinking about your actions as vectors instead of scalars is a helpful mental model to manage your goals. Considering your vectors of action can help you objectively assess your progress, your impact, and your well-being.

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Being Glue — No Idea Blog
21 Dec 2022
noidea.dog

Slides and notes for the Being Glue talk.

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Perfectionism is on the rise, and its consequences for mental health can be devastating. The Japanese philosophy of "wabi sabi" can help.

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Henry Rollins on defining success
18 Jul 2022
thecreativeindependent.com

Henry Rollins talks about not labelling what you do, why he’s not interested in advice, the need to make things constantly, and why he’s never had a creative block.

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Todoist Inspiration
18 Jul 2022
doist.com

Productivity inspiration and tactical advice that’s actually useful.

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Note Scott Hanselman (me): I had been meaning to write up my productivity tips ...

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In Praise of Pointless Goals
9 Jul 2022
theatlantic.com

These achievements aren’t about productive self-improvement. They’re designed to make the pursuit of joy a deliberate practice.

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The best productivity methods keep your to-dos in front of you and prioritized so you never wonder what to work on next. Some are complicated, but oth

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The Productive Art of Doing Nothing
30 Jun 2022
betterhumans.pub

Pause and think on purpose

Life Is Not Short | DKB Show
29 Jun 2022
dkb.show

The most surprising thing is that you wouldn’t let anyone steal your property, but you consistently let people steal your time, which is infinitely more valuable.

Getting things done
28 Jun 2022
jvns.ca

Life-Hacking. Climbing. Striving for awesome. Coffee.

Kanban
13 Jun 2022
atlassian.com

An introduction to kanban methodology for agile software development and its benefits for your agile team.

My productivity app is a single .txt file
27 Dec 2021
jeffhuang.com
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Something small, every day - Austin Kleon
24 Dec 2021
austinkleon.com
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If you're having trouble with your productivity, consider finding the root using the 5 Whys technique.

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Timeboxing is the nearest thing we have to productivity magic, yet most people don’t utilize it. It amounts to boxing out periods of time to work on distinct tasks each day. But when I recommend perhaps the most effective technique ever devised to help people stay on track, most of them balk.

Bring all your engineering data in one place and build dashboards in minutes

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the diminishing returns of productivity culture
9 Feb 2021
annehelen.substack.com

This is the midweek edition of Culture Study — the newsletter from Anne Helen Petersen, which you can read about here. If you like it and want more like it in your inbox, consider subscribing.

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I've worked at various tech companies: from "traditional" shops and consultancies, through an investment bank, to high-growth tech firms. I've also talked with software engineers working at startups, banking, automotive, big tech, and more "traditional" companies. This mix had a healthy sample of Silicon-Valley companies and ones headquartered outside this

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A few timeless productivity lessons that apply no matter what you’re doing.

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Stephen Wolfram, creator of Mathematica and WolframAlpha, on his carefully-crafted techniques for being effective at work.

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Productivity inspiration and tactical advice that’s actually useful.

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Work is a Queue of Queues
23 Dec 2019
amontalenti.com

Do you ever get that feeling like no matter how hard you work, you just can't keep up? This isn't a problem uniquely faced by modern knowledge workers. It's also a characteristic of certain software systems. This state — of being perpetually behind on intended work-in-progress — can fall naturally…

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The author wasn’t all about literary masterpieces, dry martinis and rakish charm – he also invented a technique that can beat procrastination and boost productivity.

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Two Things to Do After Every Meeting
6 Nov 2019
getpocket.com

To make sure productivity doesn’t slow after you walk out of the room, do two things after and in between meetings.

Dev diaries is a development community providing daily tips and tricks about web development. Learn about how to become a better dev, and get a refreshed perspective on what it means to be a web developer. We share daily web development tips on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, & Pinterest. Being a good web developer comes down to a lot of things, but one of the major skills is being able to Google and find the right answer on Stackoverflow...

Hustle As Strategy
21 Apr 2019
tomtunguz.com

In a world where there are no secrets, where innovations are quickly imitated or become obsolete, the theory of competitive advantage may have had its day. Realistically, ask yourself, If all your competitors gave their strategic plans to each other, would it really make a difference? In 1986, Amar Bhide wrote “Hustle as Strategy” for the Harvard Business Review. At the time, he was an assistant professor at HBS. He examined the dynamics within the financial services market.

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Inefficient does not mean ineffective, and it is certainly not the same as lazy. You get things done – just not in the most effective way possible. You’re a bit sloppy, and use more energy. But don’t feel bad about it. There is real value in not being the best.

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“Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination.” — Oscar Wilde

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In a recent survey of 100 productivity hacks, timeboxing — migrating to-do lists into calendars — was ranked the most useful. Timeboxing can give you a much greater sense of control over your workday. You decide what to do and when to do it, block out all distractions for that timeboxed period, and get it done. The benefits of calendarized timeboxing are many, varied, and highly impactful. The practice improves how we feel (control), how much we achieve as individuals (personal productivity), and how much we achieve in the teams we work in (enhanced collaboration). This may be the single most important skill or practice you can possibly develop as a modern professional, as it buys you so much time to accomplish anything else. It’s also straightforwardly applied and at no cost. Box some time to implement a version of this that works for you.

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My magic response to "Hey, can I pick your brain?"
12 Sep 2018
stackingthebricks.com

The first few times it happens, it feels like a positive signal. Somebody wants your advice and perspective. You must be good at what you do. And th

L
10 Jun 2018
l.facebook.com
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Designing High Performing Teams
17 May 2017
eleganthack.com

This is Part 2 of a three part series on high performing teams. Part one is of Design the Team You Need to Succeed Now you’ve decided you want more than a workgroup, what should you do? What does i…

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The Dreaded Weekly Status Email
3 Oct 2016
eleganthack.com

I remember the first time I had to write one of these puppies. I had just been promoted to manager at Yahoo back in 2000, and was running a small team. I was told to “write a status email covering …

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Do Quests Not Goals
24 Aug 2008
raptitude.com

South Island, New Zealand, a.k.a. Middle-Earth If you were to make a list of what you want to get done this week, it would mostly consist of things you have to do. Get groceries. Book a hair appointment. Get back to so-and-so. Read that health and safety thing for work. If you were to make a list of things you