Shows / Developer Tea
Developer Tea
Developer Tea exists to help driven developers connect to their ultimate purpose and excel at their work so that they can positively impact the people they influence. With over 17 million downloads to date, Developer Tea is a short podcast hosted by Jonathan Cutrell, engineering leader with over 15 years of industry experience. We hope you'll take the topics from this podcast and continue the conversation, either online or in person with your peers. Email: developertea@gmail.com
Episodes
- Developer Tea
Von Restorff Isolation Effect and a Backfiring of Process
The Von Restorff effect says we remember things that stand out. This is probably mostly intuitive - "that stood out to me" is a common colloquialism. But what…
- Developer Tea
Perform a Career Premortem
In today's episode, we do a journaling exercise to provide a new lens on developing your own career roadmap. We're going to practice the power of hindsight…
- Developer Tea
Delegation, Ownership, Responsibility, and Agency
As you grow your career, you will continuously lean on delegation to scale your efforts and focus on the most important things. True delegation requires…
- Developer Tea
Apply Little's Law To What You Can Control
Little's Law explains, in a given queuing system, what the relationships of throughput within that system are. We can garner insights both for our work, and…
- Developer Tea
Finding Leverage by Escaping Functional Fixedness
Finding leverage is difficult to do, but a lot of the reason for this is that we allow ourselves to fall into well-traveled cognitive pathways. If we reject…
- Developer Tea
Is it Actually Important to Question Assumptions?
In today's episode, we discuss turtles, resolutions, and why your beliefs and what you see as fact is probably worth questioning anyway. 📮 Ask a Question If…
- Developer Tea
9 Years - Persistence by Reducing Expectation
Today Marks 9 Years of Developer Tea. Thank you all for your support, and your friendship. I wish you all well on your journey, and may you find clarity…
- Developer Tea
Good Plans, Bad Plans, and Road Trips
What characterizes good plans from bad ones? And how can you make your plans better on average? In this episode we discuss how to better organize your…
- Developer Tea
Negative and Positive Lollapalooza Effects
The "lollapalooza" effect (coined by Charlie Munger) occurs when multiple other effects have a compounded outcome that tends to create an extreme situation. In…
- Developer Tea
Fresh Eyes - How Anchoring Bias, Bandwagon Effect, Status Quo Bias, and Uniqueness Bias Interact When Joining New Groups
When you are newly joining a team, you have a huge opportunity to do something that no one on the team has: to find your "weathervane." The pressure pushing…
- Developer Tea
The Dark Side of Optimism Bias
Most people believe good things will happen by default. Not to be the bearer of bad news, but there's a downside to this endless optimism. You cannot will good…
- Developer Tea
Backlog Psychology - Breaking Out of the Habit Trap
Your team's process for managing a backlog is probably growing stale because you are running on habit rather than procedure. Break out of procedure and remind…
- Developer Tea
Availability Heuristic and Substituting Hard Questions
What is it about our present situation that changes our perspective? In today's episode we talk about the availability bias and why our present reality looms…
- Developer Tea
Spend Your Time Intentionally Through Expectation Mapping
What do you expect of yourself? Are you spending your time in ways that align with those expectations? In this episode, I provide you a simple framework as a…
- Developer Tea
What is the Real Question? How To Be An Exceptional Listener
Almost every conversation you have will start with a question. Have you stopped to listen closely? Questions are extremely meaningful and deeply human. Paying…
- Developer Tea
Backlog Psychology - Fix Your Broken Expectations
How often does reality match your expectations exactly? Sure, you may guess in the ball park, but usually there are errors in our expectations. In today's…
- Developer Tea
Backlog Psychology - Practice Requires Rhythmic Predictability
In this episode we continue a little mini-series called "Backlog psychology." How do you get better at anything? (Hopefully you said "practice" almost…
- Developer Tea
Backlog Psychology - Hyperbolic Discounting, Tech Debt, and Hacking Your Habits
In this episode we continue the mini-series "Backlog psychology." Would you rather have $5 now or $50 next week? The answer to this question, though it seems…
- Developer Tea
Backlog Psychology - The Ziegarnik Effect - Why Limiting Work In Progress Protects Your Cognitive Load
In this episode we kick off a little mini-series called "Backlog psychology." You've heard you should "limit your work in progress" - why? What makes more work…
- Developer Tea
Two Tips for Better Retros - Add Specificity, Respect Uncertainty
Your retros may feel like deadends where complaints go to die. If you're running retros and treating it only as an avenue for emotional support rather than…
- Developer Tea
One Big Step Versus A Small Random Step
Count the cost of learning. When you choose a path towards a goal, it's absolutely critical to optimize for the cost of learning. Often, with software, it is…
- Developer Tea
Interrogate Your Decision Making Rules
Decisions are made in many ways, but one important type of decisionmaking tool is the "rule." This is something you follow without any cognitive processing…
- Developer Tea
Schedule Carving
Are you stuck trying to prioritize your long list of things you need to do? Maybe you're trying to establish a habitual routine or areas of investment in your…
- Developer Tea
Long Term Scoreboard for Short Term Games
Are you measuring the wrong thing for your short term game? If so, you probably continuously change directions and are never sure if anything you do is…
- Developer Tea
Slow Down and Start With One Goal
Your career doesn't have to take off without your approval. Slow down, and make sure you actually have goals you are setting. Control your own destiny by…
- Developer Tea
Using the Accountability Triangle When Diagnosing A Failure
Accountability can be complex. When something goes wrong, fingers start flying: *someone* needs to be held responsible. But true accountability starts before…
- Developer Tea
Career Growth Starts With Improving Your Clarity
Improving your clarity is the beginning of your journey in engineering leadership. This takes courage and patience, but the investment will benefit everyone…
- Developer Tea
Tech Lag Over Tech Debt
If you've used the term Tech Debt, you probably know that the metaphor is loose at best. Taking on tech debt sometimes becomes a permanent choice, and the…
- Developer Tea
Good Negotiation is About Collaborative Problem Solving
Negotiation is not about getting more of what you want out of another person. Real artful negotiation is about finding alignment, and solving the problems…
- Developer Tea
Tools To Deal With Layoff Anxiety
Layoffs happen whether we want them to or not. Being prepared with a principled approach can help relieve anxiety and produce better outcomes for when layoffs…
- Developer Tea
System Design - Limiting the Responsibilities Of A Given Actor
Everything around us is primarily governed by some kind of system. The question is, are you designing your systems intentionally, or just letting them emerge?…
- Developer Tea
Focus on Process Orientation for Goal Setting
If you don't have agency over your goals, how can they help you to begin with? 📮 Ask a Question If you enjoyed this episode and would like me to discuss a…
- Developer Tea
How to Give Better Feedback - My Single Biggest Piece of Advice to Increase the Effectiveness of Your Feedback
Good feedback isn't about getting something off of your chest. It's not about sharing your feelings (though that doesn't mean your feelings aren't important)…
- Developer Tea
Planning is About Creating Clarity, Not Certainty
Planning will give you the illusion of certainty. What you really need to execute on your plans is clarity. The reality is that the future is impossible to…
- Developer Tea
Process is Primarily for Managing Critical Moments
You may hate hearing the word "process." You aren't alone if you do. But, what feels like a slog today is really in place for when the most critical things…
- Developer Tea
Taking Advantage of Hedonic Adaptation
The psychological phenomenon of hedonic adaptation can seem like the enemy of your happiness, but once you understand how it works, you can use it to create…
- Developer Tea
Weber's Law and Contextual Framing
Today we look at a mental model from the field of psychophysics called Weber's Law. This concept is a great analogy for a lot of problems we face as engineers…
- Developer Tea
What Defines a Senior Developer? - You Won't Use All of Your Knowledge
A senior developer understands that they have to be very selective about how they apply knowledge. Know matter how vast your knowledge may be, you are limited…
- Developer Tea
The Pitfall of Control and Antidote of Trust
Your intuition says that control is the ladder you climb to improve your career. But most great leaders tend to do one thing: the opposite of increasing…
- Developer Tea
Working Balance - Confronting Reality with Optimism
In today's episode we explore the duality between confronting difficult realities while maintaining optimism. Specifically, we discuss a critical question…
- Developer Tea
What Defines a Senior Developer? - Choosing the Right Granularity Level
The traits that define a senior engineer are not catalogued perfectly in one spot. But, nevertheless, we'll try to cover some of the most important traits and…
- Developer Tea
What Defines a Senior Developer? - Difficult Does Not Equate To Valuable
The traits that define a senior engineer are not catalogued perfectly in one spot. But, nevertheless, we'll try to cover some of the most important traits and…
- Developer Tea
What Defines a Senior Developer? - Systematically Communicating Value
The traits that define a senior engineer are not catalogued perfectly in one spot. But, nevertheless, we'll try to cover some of the most important traits and…
- Developer Tea
What Defines a Senior Developer? - Dynamic vs Static Understanding of Situations
The traits that define a senior engineer are not catalogued perfectly in one spot. But, nevertheless, we'll try to cover some of the most important traits and…
- Developer Tea
Long Game, Short Game
We play the short game so we get the chance to play the long game. Early in our careers, we imagine the best way to play is always focus on the long game. But…
- Developer Tea
The Rate of Change for Change Itself
We can become accustomed to the rate at which we experience change, and imagine that that rate will continue to increase linearly. Eventually, change will…
- Developer Tea
Protecting Flow State - Setting Your Session Feedback And Goal
At the beginning of any work session, practice, performance, or any other activity you want to achieve flow during, you can give yourself the best shot at…
- Developer Tea
Protecting Flow State - Plan Now, Pause Later
Protecting your flow state may help you have more "peak experiences" - whether in your career or in your personal life. This is your opportunity to make the…
- Developer Tea
Golden Advice - Always Leave Margin For Extra
Sometimes I hear advice that is worth its weight in gold. In today's episode I share one piece of advice that is almost universally applicable across life and…
- Developer Tea
Your Purpose is A Projection of Your Complex Identity
If your identity is complex, your purpose is by extension complex. In this episode, we talk about purpose as an expression, rather than a regulator, of your…
- Developer Tea
Demystifying Purpose by Focusing On Your Purpose For Today
You don't need to overthink purpose. Focus on clarity, and finding your underlying motivation. That clarity can be short-lived; purpose is a dynamic and…
- Developer Tea
Reframing Deficiencies as Strengths
What you are afraid of in your career may be the thing that propels you. It's all about framing, and removing the negative and positive language. Instead…
- Developer Tea
Management Model of Ability and Will Applied to Self
If you aren't doing something, you either can't or won't. In today's episode, we explore this very simple starting point for behavior change and habit…
- Developer Tea
Beginner Confidence
You aren't going to put your foot in your mouth, or reveal some devastating level of ineptitude. Asking questions, especially as a beginner, is much more…
- Developer Tea
Comparing Cost Curves and Second Order Thinking
What does a feature cost? Your first answer will probably focus on the time to build, or the features needed... Maybe the amount of hiring necessary to…
- Developer Tea
Spectrum of Buy-In For Behavior Change
There is a spectrum of buy-in for behavior change. In today's episode, I'll give you a thinking model for considering different types of buy-in along this…
- Developer Tea
Your Learning Investment Portfolio
What is your learning strategy? If you don't have one, you are implicitly saying that all learning is equal. Learning is an investment of time. Choose what you…
- Developer Tea
Celebrating 8 Years - Plus, What it Feels Like to Be Wrong
Developer Tea has been around for 8 years. Thank you so much for your incredible support over these years! In today's episode we discuss how it feels to be…
- Developer Tea
Using Strategy, Tactics, and Operations to Achieve Intentions
Most resolutions aren't as simple as saying something and then doing it. Instead, focus on breaking apart your resolution by looking at intent, strategy…
- Developer Tea
Resolve To Make Important Asks In The New Year
Make a commitment to determine three requests that could change your life for the better, and the people you need to give those requests. Then, in the new…