johnlyle.com
British parent with interests in technology, security, and 90s computer games. Previously a software engineer at a large social network (not this one). He/him.
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330 following
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I wrote a post on Workplace debunking some myths about how collaborative work is rewarded at Meta.
It requires conscious effort to keep a safe culture where working together is rewarded not penalised, good individuals are still recognised, and people don’t jump on bandwagons without adding value.
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Im not saying “all the survivors do this, therefore it is good”.
I’m pointing out that there are survivors despite this “default” and so perhaps there are multiple routes to success. Wouldn’t it be interesting to explore the other factors and circumstances to learn more? Is it all just luck?
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I agree that starting with the problem and talking to people is the best way to solve it.
At the same time tremendous numbers of successful tech products have been built in the last 30+ years so a lot of companies must be getting it right. Including some that seek PMF and “pivot”.
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Largely agree though it’s hard to judge without exploring the counterfactual. I can absolutely imagine people complaining about inaction and ignoring of these fiscal rules if government borrowing costs go up again.
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www.nytimes.com/2025/03/26/h...
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"depends" is such a weird synonym for "rewards"
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I still observe a lot of AI startups burning through VC cash at tremendous rates. Maybe I am just seeing the tail end of the last era, but I’m yet to be convinced.
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The Waitrose in the petrol station 10mins up Holloway Road is probably still open but the same items will cost you at least 7x more.
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It’s not super hard to train a good classifier. But then the bots change approach and you end up with a useless classifier that only gets false positives. Unfortunately wasting a lot of your time and not much of theirs.
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Based on - www.linkedin.com/posts/stuart...
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Honestly? I sort-of assumed that the “thank you” would come with an apology and acknowledgement in that scenario - it was so basic (as you say) that I just assumed it. I can see that wasn’t explicit in my reply.
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I agree - leaders should acknowledge their mistakes beyond just a “thank you” and at least an apology and promise to improve.
I wasn’t thinking about billionaires or heads of state with huge power in my reply. I agree that the power/wealth imbalance is key and puts a very different spin on it.
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Re-reading my original reply, it sounds like I’m excusing or apologising for the original behaviour of those in power failing to speak up. Not my intent, sorry.
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I think i might have been unclear in my quoted reply, sorry about that. I wasn’t trying to excuse them for being cowardly at the time. They messed up and should be accountable.
I just asked for suggestions of what they could do better to fix it after the fact.
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Yeah if all they say is “thanks” then that’s a bit pathetic, I agree. Gratitude with a clear “I screwed up but I won’t again” makes sense.
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To reiterate - I’m saying you did something brave and awesome and they did something cowardly and bad.
I’m just wondering what someone with genuine remorse should do in that situation aside from thanking you? I’m sure it depends on the situation - maybe resign or perhaps a more public mea culpa?
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I’m confused - I didn’t side with anyone? I said they made a mistake, I’m just asking - given this flawed human screwed up, what else should they do?
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Leaders make mistakes. If they screw up in this way - missing a key moment - what should they do, ideally?
Acknowledging it and thanking the braver person seems better than saying nothing.
Maybe the leader is in the wrong job, I get that, but everyone makes mistakes. I hope they reflect & improve.
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The first principle here is - EMs should always do what the teams needs to be successful. Do they really need another part-time coder?
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Mistakes I have previously made as EM:
1/ taking coding projects that have tight deadlines (EMs get interrupted)
2/ taking projects that shield the team (rather than building their resiliency)
3/ coding rather than thinking about the team’s strategy, future direction, or coaching team members.
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Coding as an Engineering Manager should be a reward for already having a high performing team. Until then, it’s unlikely to be the right place to invest time. And even when the team
Is doing well, coding is only one way to spend your spare cycles.
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> Here's my best effort to work out why Bluesky blew up over the weekend.
Did it, though? I unfortunately haven't read the paywalled article (sorry) but it's not obvious to me that Bluesky grew more than Threads over the weekend. It did generate more noise, but that might be misleading.
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TIL: "Bluesky" not "BlueSky". Whoops.
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Sigh, I wish I wasn't falling into the trap of making use of a new platform just for talking about the platform...
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The moderation options are _fascinating_ as an experiment - I'm curious to learn how well you can detatch big profit centres (who owns the apps eventually showing ads) and big cost centres (content moderation, infra, etc). Maybe better AI will make content moderation much cheaper?
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Also, love having to fit text into smaller character limits again - it's a great way to improve writing.