Decision types, building trust, and WFH setups 💡

Monday Ideas — Edition 93

This week I am happy to promote Build: Elements of an Effective Software Organization — a new book from Swarmia’s Rebecca Murphey and Otto Hilska.

It’s a fantastic read for any current or aspiring engineering leader interested in improving the three key perspectives of engineering effectiveness: business outcomes, developer productivity, and developer experience.

I have read it personally and I am happy to recommend it 👌

You can read Build for free online, or order your copy on Amazon.

Back to this week’s ideas 👇

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1) ⚖️ Type 1 vs Type 2 Decisions

Type 1 vs Type 2 is a simple framework by Jeff Bezos to help with decision-making. It divides decisions into two categories:

1. 🏆 Type 1 — irreversible decisions that represent a large amount of risk. They require thorough decision-making and careful consideration. Examples in tech may include choosing your database or committing to a specific stack.

2. 🥈 Type 2 — reversible decisions that can be easily adjusted or undone if they don't work out as planned. They don't require excessive attention and can be made more quickly. Examples may include choosing between two similar tools, or making minor adjustments to a project.

The reason why this matters is that most decisions in life and work are Type 2, so you should move forward quickly with them, as opposed to applying the Type 1 decision-making style. In my experience, analysis paralysis on Type 2 stuff is way more common than the opposite — that is, being careless on irreversible decisions.

This mental model is similar, or correlated to other ones:

Bias for action

The general tendency to favor action over inaction. Type 2 decisions are bias for action material, while Type 1 ones are those where you stop and consider.

Asymmetric risk-reward

This was made popular by Nassim Taleb in Antifragile, and refers to the strategy of positioning yourself in situations where the potential losses are limited, while the potential gains are high or unlimited.

In other words, aim for capped downside + uncapped upside. This is ideal for Type 2 bets — where you potentially get a big benefit, but quickly cut your losses if things don’t work out.

You can find plenty of mental models for engineers and managers in this recent newsletter edition 👇

Mental Models for Engineers and Managers 🎲

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2) 💛 How to build trust

A few months back we read Trillion Dollar Coach in the community Book Club.

It is the story of legendary Silicon Valley’s coach Bill Campbell, who during his life advised the likes of Steve Jobs, Larry Page, Jeff Bezos, Sheryl Sandberg, and many others.

The book is full of evergreen advice on how to build trust — here are my favorite items:

Psychological safety 🤗

Psychological safety means ensuring that everyone can be fully themselves and take risks without fear of reprisal.

Bill insisted that high-performing teams are not made of people with similar personalities who never disagree about anything: they are made of people who feel psychologically safe.

So, task conflict should never degenerate into relationship conflict:

• ⬆️ Task conflict is healthy — it leads to discovering the best way to get things done.

• ⬇️ Relationship conflict is unhealthy — it leads to low morale and poor-decision making.

Be a world-class listener 👂

As a manager, you should listen to people with your full and undivided attention.

Bill's listening style included asking many questions. This is a take on the classic Socratic method: when you tune in to what someone is sharing and ask thoughtful, curious questions that get to the heart of the matter, it helps people feel comfortable opening up more. Plus, they feel highly valued.

Tough love 🤎

For both strong relationships and strong performance, honesty and authenticity are key. This means, sometimes, giving tough feedback.

Bill’s advice is very similar to Kim Scott’s tough love concept, explored in her book Radical Candor. We also talked about it in our edition about how to give feedback:

How to Give Feedback 💛

An important observation by Bill is that, for negative feedback, prompt timing is critical. Tough criticism should always be delivered immediately — don't hold off on feedback for a future performance review in a month.

4) Don't tell people what to do 📣

Most of the time, when faced with a problem, Bill would simply listen and ask probing questions, then let people come to their own conclusions. Instead of saying, “Do it this way instead of that way,” he would say “How could you do it differently?”

It might feel like a small change, but people feel more engaged when managers reframe the way they communicate to sound less authoritative.

So, instead of suggesting the best decision, he would often tell anecdotes about events that had happened in his own career that might guide people to making the decision on their own.

You can find the full review + summary of the book here:

Trillion Dollar Coach 📕

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3) 🪑 My work-from-home setup

I work 100% from home so my setup is in continuous evolution. I wrote a newsletter edition in 2022 about it, and a more recent one earlier this year.

I reviewed more than 15+ items that I use personally, and many others recommended by the community.

Here are a few greatest hits:

• Standing desk — for posture, energy and focus. Probably the #1 item.

• Hermann Miller Sayl — a good chair for when I am sitting, which hits the sweet spot of looks, comfort, and price.

• My iPhone as a webcam — even now that I have the podcast I continue to use my iPhone for recording video.

• CalDigit TS3 — an essential hub which declutters my desk and powers everything on there.

Check out the full article for the full list + links 👇

My Work-from-home Setup in 2024 🪑

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And that’s it for today! If you are finding this newsletter valuable, consider doing any of these:

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I wish you a great week! ☀️

Luca