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rafapaezon [dead]

You’re an ex-Meta, ex-Google, ex-Amazon, or ex-whatever. You’ve just joined a startup, excited to apply the top-tier processes you mastered in Big Tech—only to find out they don’t work. Sound familiar?

As startups grow, there’s a temptation to adopt rigid frameworks and processes from big companies like FAANG. But what works for a trillion-dollar organization often fails miserably in a fast-moving, scrappy startup environment.

In my latest post, I share two personal stories of when popular frameworks like SAFe and OKRs backfired—and how focusing on principles like ownership, empowerment, and bias to action is the real key to thriving and scaling successfully.

Here’s a teaser: “The problem is that at a lot of big companies, process becomes a substitute for thinking.” – Elon Musk

I’d love to hear your thoughts—have you seen processes work against agility and innovation? How do you balance principles and structure as your organization scales? Let’s discuss in the comments!

rafapaezon Ask HN: Took me almost 2 months and 8 posts to get 100 newsletter subscribers

That's a good point. The problem is most of those 100 people are from my network. But it seems now other people I don't know are also joining. I guess the best thing for me is to keep being consistent at writing and forget a bit about numbers, for now. Thank you for your comment.

rafapaezon Ask HN: Took me almost 2 months and 8 posts to get 100 newsletter subscribers

This is great advice. I have to "write for myself" otherwise I won't be consistent in the long term.

Actually, since I started writing, I'm discovering my creative side, and it's helping me a lot to think clearly and expressing my thoughts in a way which is mind-blowing. It's kind of magic, to be honest.

I wish I could have started writing consistently earlier.

Thanks for your comment.

rafapaezon [dead]

Why Talent Without Agency Won’t Take You Far in Life and Work

rafapaezon [dead]

How to Effectively Progress on the Management Track

rafapaezon Ask HN: What are the best articles on managing people?

There are a lot of great newsletters nowadays about People Management and Engineering Leadership. I'm subscribed to a dozen of them in Substack. I left here mine as it's about Engineering Leadership and Management: https://rafapaez.substack.com/

rafapaezon [dead]

Have you ever experienced feeling taken advantage of or struggling to ask for what you want at work? Do you often think you fail to get your opinions heard, or do people readily dismiss or undermine your views? I have been there, and it does not feel good.

rafapaezon [dead]

Thank you. I can imagine, the current layoff's situation doesn't help. In addition, I know the FAANGs have a strict committee step that could make promotions even harder. Yes, related with what you mentioned, here's a great article about it https://www.theengineeringmanager.com/managing-managers/grow...

rafapaezon [dead]

Hey folks! Have you missed out on a promotion? What are your thoughts on my post? Let me know!

rafapaezon How to prepare a technical interview (and why good programmers also fail)

“don’t use a mouse” ... but true, I usually add some "fun" points into my videos and I tried to write it down (which is hard). Thanks for your comment.

rafapaezon How to prepare a technical interview (and why good programmers also fail)

I think this is the trend nowadays, at least in Europe startups/companies.

rafapaezon How to prepare a technical interview (and why good programmers also fail)

There is a bit of humour in the video which is hard to translate into written words. And you got these "funny" points.

rafapaezon How to prepare a technical interview (and why good programmers also fail)

You're right. I'm not a native English speaker. That's why I speak in Spanish in my videos. I wrote the article too quickly (which indeed is a summary of the video) and the grammar corrector wasn't very smart with the "changes" things. Thanks for pointing out the typos.

rafapaezon How to prepare a technical interview (and why good programmers also fail)

That's really witty! I might try to create my own acronym for interviews. Cheers!

rafapaezon Show HN: Weekly Blog/Vlog about Software Engineering and Personal Growth

Hey HN community,

I know this is a bit of self-ad but I rebuilt my website into a blog where I will share everything I know about Software Engineer, Career Advice, Financial Education and Personal Growth.

Posts will be writing in English and videos will be done in Spanish for now.

Hope you found them useful. If so, please subscribe to my channel. Thanks. Rafa.

rafapaezon What is a Senior Programmer really? I wish I had known this when I was Junior

Agree with what you said about what's important and what isn't in a particular situation. I mentioned it in the video (I said something like "...a Senior knows when to walk away and don't implement certain things...") but I forgot to write it in the post.

Your second comment is really interesting. I used to suffer from imposter syndrome but now I realised, as long as you got experienced and wiser, on just focus on different aspects, at a different level. I will probably talk about this topic soon.

Thanks for your comment, I appreciate it.

rafapaezon What is a Senior Programmer really? I wish I had known this when I was Junior

I know I couldn’t get in-depth in all the aspects but let me know what are your thoughts about the post. Do you agree with my definition of Senior Programmer? What’s the best tip it worked for you to advance in your career?

rafapaezon Show HN: Steer – Get honest feedback from your team every week

At the end, it will cost you a lot of money if you decide to build your own Performance Management System or any kind of SaaS application which is not the core of your business.

Please read this article "Build vs. Buy", I cannot agree more: https://blog.baremetrics.com/build-vs-buy-how-to-blow-100-00...

rafapaezon Show HN: Steer – Get honest feedback from your team every week

Why do you think is too much? Competitors range between 5 and 15 USD/mo/user. Some even more for Enterprise features, which we still don't have.

rafapaezon Show HN: Steer – Get honest feedback from your team every week

- If I have to choose a Ruby tech, I would go for Rails, no Sinatra, no Padrino, nop. Whatever you think is simple now it will change in the future. So start with what you know well and has everything you might need, even if you're not using it now. I've seen many "small" services being rewritten in Rails for this reason and that's painful and a waste of resources.

- Nowadays I have several reasons not to use Rails for new projects (https://blog.jaredfriedman.com/2015/09/15/why-i-wouldnt-use-...). But I actually I have more reasons to use Elixir instead (https://medium.com/@kenmazaika/why-im-betting-on-elixir-7c8f...) (http://blog.carbonfive.com/2016/04/19/elixir-and-phoenix-the...). And yes, it's fun, incredibly robust and scalable. :D

rafapaezon Show HN: Steer – Get honest feedback from your team every week

I agree with you that F2F 1:1s meetings should not be replaced, when possible.

However, there are many benefits of doing Weekly Check-ins:

- Many teams work remotely nowadays, with different time zones. It can be tricky to find a regular time for the 1-1s.

- Some people prefer async communication instead of face-to-face meetings. Meetings kill productivity.

- Managers and team members have everything documented and linked to actions through the time so effective follow-ups can be done.

Regarding the landing page, we're working on making a few videos to explain better how Steer works. Any other suggestion would be appreciated.

Many thanks for the feedback.

rafapaezon Show HN: Steer – Get honest feedback from your team every week

I disagree. Over engineering does not relate to a particular framework. In fact, you can over-engineer with any tech. It's the design of the system what defines that (e.g microservices vs monolith for a small web app).

It's a simple monolithic application with a relational database. Does this sound like over engineering? I don't think so.

It's actually the opposite. Which one seems like an overkill, Server A or Server B (https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CngB1sfWIAAbOFi.jpg)? ;)

rafapaezon Show HN: Steer – Get honest feedback from your team every week

Hey there!

I'm the Co-founder of Steer and the Maker of Transparent Startups.

This platform is 100% built with Elixir and the Phoenix Framework. I can proudly say it's a blazing fast application. I cannot be happier with the performance and productivity achieved with Elixir. I highly recommended it for your brand new projects. :)

I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Cheers, Rafa

rafapaezon Ask HN: Do you have a side project you want to sell?

http://www.transparentstartups.com/

If you are a developer, founder or wantrepreneur you should visit this site and learn from the ones that managed to build a successful business.

rafapaezon Ask HN: 'Nomad' startups?

I know about a dozen of startups that work as a distributed team. Some of the startups/founders are 'Nomads' while others have the team distributed around the world. You can check them on my site [http://www.transparentstartups.com/, search by "remote" :)]

rafapaezon Ask HN: How to promote side project being a developer with no marketing skills?

Hey, thanks for the great info. This is my main focus right, build something that people love. So far the response from the audience about the idea is being great but I really need to grow this audience and spread the word, otherwise my free/social model is not going to work.

Btw, I realised this kind of content marketing is very popular nowadays, for example today I was reading this post (https://beanninjas.com/blog/how-dan-norris-built-a-7-figure-...) which is from a Transparent Startup talking about another one, yeah, interestingly both are featured on TransparentStartups.com

rafapaezon Ask HN: How to promote side project being a developer with no marketing skills?

Thanks for your comment. I'd love to have regular engaged users - that will keep me motivated to continue with project. Revenue might come later. I've added this book into my reading queue.

rafapaezon Ask HN: How to promote side project being a developer with no marketing skills?

Hey. Many thanks for writing this great comment. I'm in that point where I'm still validating the idea while keep building the basis of the product. Once I feel I have a good product that I can monetise, I'd go for your advice of hiring or partner with someone experienced in marketing. Will definitely follow those tips!

rafapaezon Ask HN: How to promote side project being a developer with no marketing skills?

Hey, thanks for your comment. I totally understand what you said about creating your FlockMetrics project inspired by solving a real personal necessity.

Actually I built (http://www.transparentstartups.com/) because I couldn't find a place where look for startups and founders that are sharing their experiences with real numbers in a transparent and authentic way.

I feel very happy every time a developer, entrepreneur or "wantrepreneur" sends me a message about how he loves the project and how much he managed to learn from the startups and the information he found on the site. I believe that's more valuable than anything else.

It seems to me I need to find out the way to ensure this reaches to more people with the same interests and I can keep providing them a constant flow of value.