The Ask

I've been enjoying Rands for what feels like 2 decades now. Spot on, over and over again. Great advice few newbies, great reminders for people who have been there before - just generally great.

I take this as generally focusing on the what ask (and hence give) becomes. But it reminds me of the business classic Theory of Constraints. To me the laserlike focus, or attempt to get to singular clarity is the point; in this highlight we're seeing the notion of software skills rather then a data-based approach, as it's a soft problem.

Both matter. I appreciate this reminder.

Something about this writing feels off, but for the life of me I can't say exactly what.

I liked this, although it seemed like there were unusual typos/missing words for Rands in a couple of places. Is this a book draft?

It's a good exercise to mentally go around the a meeting room and think about what each person wants from it. Given Rands' job, he obviously starts thinking about it earlier, and for longer, but even a few minutes while everyone's settling in and chit-chatting can make a difference in how you participate.

This is either very profound or not at all. Can’t figure out which.

The atrocious writing style makes it at least obvious this wasn’t written by AI. Silver linings.

Harsh take: AI should replace most middle management. It is the easiest part of an organization to replace. The people making things should mostly communicate about company strategy, cross-team issues, and job requirements with an AI. There should be a handful of high-level strategy on top of the AI. The AI should have access to all the documents for the company. The middle management should be put in a spaceship along with HR and sent off to another planet so the people who build things can just get stuff done. This will never happen.

How did you start freelancing? -> The Ask: I want to become a Korea-based freelancer securing work from the US

I hate middle management as much as the next guy.

but in this case, specifically. who are these career people thinking about orgs and their movement in years?

especially in a job economy where employees are expected to be laid off despite "staggering profits". It feels completely orthogonal to the environment I exist in.

is there room for lifers in big orgs? without getting the boot or worrying about the boot?

Seems like a good use of time