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Leadership & Management

Project delays: why good software estimates are impossible
Christian M. Mackeprang uses Rubix cubes, Einstein, and the stock market to explain the challenges of estimating software projects. How often do you and your team run into "unexpected complexity"?

Google Finds That Successful Teams Are About Norms Not Just Smarts
Hunter Walk of Homebrew takes a look at Google's research into what makes high functioning teams successful. They found what distinguishes the good teams from the dysfunctional groups is how teammates treat one another. Does your team behave this way?

Leadership lessons for managers from a VP of Eng
Kate Matsudaira discusses what she's learned about management, including the biggest mistake that most people make, recommended books, and key habits of successful managers.

The Art of the Awkward 1:1
Change and growth are always awkward. Does that mean your 1:1s should be too? Mark Rabkin of Facebook describes his unusual approach to 1:1s and offers tips to help you "embrace the awkward."
Status meetings are the scourge
Jason Fried of Basecamp says what we're all thinking: "Status meetings are the worst kinds of meetings. Eliminate them and you’ll actually know more, save a pile of money, and regain dozens of hours a month." We couldn't agree more.
Only Slightly Off-Topic

Inside the Jet Propulsion Laboratory: NASA's Crazy, Kooky, Legendary Research Facility
Popular Mechanics takes us inside NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and introduces us to a few of its colorful characters. Climate scientists who work side gigs as comedians, engineers who shave stars into their Mohawks, and an MIT grad that switched all of his clocks to Mars time one summer. It's a fascinating read.
Less Than Serious

Good Meeting
What’s the most inappropriate thought you’ve ever had during a meeting? What if you said it aloud—and everyone else at the conference table did the same? In Colin Nissan’s Daily Shouts piece “Good Meeting,” an afternoon meeting goes way off the rails—snorting oxycontin is the least of the problems.

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