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#22: Tenets

Tenets are at the core of #Amazon culture. We expect every team to have them. Though I had drafted and used tenets in the past, but had not seen them being used effectively. While we use leadership principles (like ownership, earn trust, invent and simplify) in everyday conversations, I found limited usage of tenets. As a result, I had never dived deep into ‘Why’ they were there or how to raise the bar on writing them. So what are tenets? The standard definition is that it is a guiding principle or belief that helps teams align and bring everyone into an agreement around critical questions. The perspective I understood recently is that Tenets are a tool to reduce the *bandwidth of a team’s leadership that goes in taking decisions*. There are some decisions or tradeoffs where you can codify so that if any team member faces that choice in their daily work, they can take those decisions themselves basis the tenets. They know that if they go to any leader in the org - the de...
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#21: SOAP and REST APIs

If you google, there are thousands of articles available on SOAP vs REST API. But it was a new learning for me.. hence posting First, what is API. Application Programming Interface or APIs are like a Window at the McDonald’s drive thru. As a customer if you order something - anywhere in the country - you will get the exact same thing. You do not need to care about how it is managed inside McDonalds. You just need to know the correct name. APIs are same - as long as you give them the information as per a given pre-decided structure or contract - you will always get a standard response. SOAP APIs Simple Object Access Protocol. It uses XML as the underlying protocol  to communicate across networks. XML is a very structured and as a result more complex way to communicate. Using the above McD example, It is something like writing your order, folding the paper, putting it in an envelop and giving it. REST APIs are simpler. They use JSON or simple URLs or web verbs like POST, GET to commu...
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#20: Obstacles are Important

  “If you fail to identify and analyze obstacles, you do not have a strategy. Instead you have a stretch goal, budget, or a list of things you wish would happen”                                                                                                          -from the book Good Strategy/Bad Strategy
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#19: Questions on Feature Requests

When you get feature requests, you should ask the following questions:  Why do you want that? What would that let you do? How are you coping without it? Is it a launch blocker? How would this feature fit in your day or process?
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#18: Cloud Computing Basics

  Though I knew it conceptually , but started reading about cloud computing in a structured manner . Learnt some basic terminologies.  SaaS: Software as a Service These are the applications which any user can use it. Users can be individuals like you and me or can be large businesses. e.g. Notion or google drive or Todoist are software applications with certain set of features that we can use in our daily lives . But organizations can use SAP or Salesforce applications to set up their operational workflows . You can start using it with zero to minimal set up time. You don’t need to think about maintenance or upgrades — everything is take care by the application provider . Users: Individuals and Organizations IaaS: Infrastructure as a Service In pre-cloud times, we had to get all the physical infrastructure — like servers, storage, etc. The processing powers, memory was fixed and scaling up or down was a major effort . Now all this is available virtually . Some one has spent ...
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#17: Planning, Forecasting and the Hindsight Bias

 Hindsight bias makes one thinks that they are better predictors of events than one actually is. To understand this, we can read newspapers from ten or more years ago and know the unpredictability in the world.  Map that to the business side of things. We make plans and forecasts but there are so many factors — competition, market conditions, technology disruptions that it is mostly futile.  How can we overcome this? Take decisions on which you have much more information. Even if you have to make long term plans, break them down into what you are going to do next quarter, month, or even week.
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#16: Optimizing Workspace

  Important things to consider around your workspace for enhanced focus and productivity. Keep the Screen height at or slightly above your eye level. If you have work with eyes looking down — it lowers your alertness (tells the mind you want to sleep). It also helps in a better Posture. Try and work ~50% of your time standing up. If you lots of meetings, one way can be to take the meetings standing up. You will be more alert as well as burn more calories. If you want to use music while working — go for Binaural 40Hz music — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTZbhW2kg8M Have a lot of overhead light in the first 7–8 hours of working. The computer screen size should be roughly the width of your head. May be a couple of inches more. But a wider screen does not drive focus as your eyes do not converge at one point (which is a driving point for focused work) All ideas from Huberman Lab Podcast on workspaces.
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