Shibui

Shibui (渋い) (adjective), shibumi (渋み) (noun), or shibusa (渋さ) (noun) are Japanese words which refer to a particular aesthetic or beauty of simple, subtle, and unobtrusive beauty. Like other Japanese aesthetic terms, such as iki and wabi-sabi, shibui can apply to a wide variety of subjects, not just art or fashion.

Shibui objects appear to be simple overall but they include subtle details, such as textures, that balance simplicity with complexity.

This balance of simplicity and complexity ensures that one does not tire of a shibui object but constantly finds new meanings and enriched beauty that cause its aesthetic value to grow over the years.

🐕‍🦺 Leadership

Hard to work with

Will Larson's advice on how to deal with a situation in which you want to do your job effectively, but can’t due to the low performance of a peer, plus, obviously, the manager's role in all this.

The Ultimate Guide to Onboarding Software Engineers

Shameless plug: learn how to onboard engineers with an empathetic and structured approach. Includes a 30-60-90-day check-in template.

What Great Hybrid Cultures Do Differently

Hybrid work, in the authors’ experience, only works when all employees are treated as remote employees. To do this, companies need to do five things: embrace asynchronous communication, make communication boundaries clear, champion documentation and the production of artifacts, share information widely, and provide the right tools for employees to succeed.

How Engineering Managers Are Set Up To Fail

This article from Pat Kua will cover three common ways EMs are set up to fail and what you should do instead.

💻 Tech

My guiding principles after 20 years of programming

Alex Ewerlöf provides you with a distillation of what he's learned in his 20+ years as a software engineer - I caught myself silently nodding while reading his post.

Contributing to Complex Projects

Mitchell Hashimoto's excellent advice on how to onboard on complex foreign projects and become productive.

Rapid Event Notification System at Netflix

The engineers at Netflix give an overview of the Rapid Event Notification System (a backend-initiated event update solution) they designed and developed and share some of the learnings they gained along the way.

Managing Your Manager

I put this in the "tech" section because the main target audience is engineers. We tend to forget that a management relationship isn't one-way. Learn how helping your manager will help you, too.

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