I am filtering ChatGPT and you will too…

Recently one of my team members sent me an email about the salary increase and how he deserves a better raise. Now don’t get me wrong generally we do give appropriate raises but these are trying times.

I didn’t consider his request genuine and gave it a passing thought because most of it was generated using ChatGPT. I can easily make out that the sentences and vocab used were not his and it’s formulated using Generative AI. Even though the mail was good and to the point, but, it was rather too good and accurate. Hence my suggestion is to be genuine not be lazy and don’t use the tool for everything, specifically if there is ingenuity and originality required, be yourself.

When to use and when not to use ChatGPT is at your discretion but beware that everyone can filter the ChatGPT-generated text and may not feel your passion, pain & emotion if it’s wrapped around ChatGPT text.

The Power of Progress…

Progress can be a powerful tool to motivate employees and drive their performance in the workplace. When employees see tangible progress in their work, it instills a sense of achievement, purpose, and personal growth, which in turn boosts their motivation and productivity. Here are a few ways in which the power of progress can be harnessed to motivate employees:

1. Clear Goals and Milestones: Setting clear and achievable goals provides employees with a roadmap for progress. When employees have a clear understanding of what they need to accomplish and can track their progress through milestones, it creates a sense of purpose and direction. Regularly reviewing and celebrating milestones reached can further reinforce the feeling of progress and motivate employees to continue pushing forward.

2. Feedback and Recognition: Regular feedback and recognition are essential for fostering a culture of progress and motivation. Providing constructive feedback helps employees understand where they stand, identify areas for improvement, and make progress towards their goals. Recognising and acknowledging their achievements, both big and small, reinforces the sense of progress and motivates employees to continue performing at their best.

3. Learning and Development Opportunities: Offering learning and development opportunities allows employees to continuously grow and progress in their careers. Providing access to training programs, workshops, mentoring, and other skill-building initiatives not only enhances employees’ knowledge and expertise but also gives them a sense of progress and personal development. When employees see themselves acquiring new skills and knowledge, they are more likely to stay engaged and motivated in their roles.

4. Challenging and Meaningful Work: Assigning employees challenging and meaningful tasks can fuel their motivation. When employees are given responsibilities that align with their skills and interests, they are more likely to feel a sense of progress as they overcome obstacles and achieve results. Encouraging autonomy and ownership of projects allows employees to see the impact of their work and feel a sense of progress in contributing to the organization’s success.

5. Opportunities for Advancement: Providing employees with opportunities for advancement and growth within the organization is a powerful motivator. When employees can see a clear career path and know that their progress can lead to promotions, increased responsibilities, or new challenges, it gives them a sense of purpose and motivates them to continually improve their performance.

6. Celebrating Successes: Celebrating individual and team successes is an important way to acknowledge progress and motivate employees. Recognizing achievements publicly, such as through team meetings, newsletters, or internal communication platforms, boosts morale, fosters a positive work environment, and encourages a culture of progress and continuous improvement.

In conclusion, harnessing the power of progress in the workplace can be a potent motivator for employees. By providing clear goals, offering feedback and recognition, providing learning opportunities, assigning challenging work, offering advancement prospects, and celebrating successes, organizations can create an environment where employees feel motivated, engaged, and empowered to make progress in their careers.

Apple Products – Highlights…

1. Storytelling is the superpower.

2. Build Products not MVPs.

3. Take Big Leaps even if it takes time.

4. Big ideas are more important than usability fixes.

5. Trust your instincts in making product decisions don’t rely on user testing.

System Design Interview Process…

System Design Interview Process:

1. Ask Questions to understand requirements:

  • Functional Requirements
  • Non-Functional Requirements

2. Handle Data 

  • What’s the size of the data right now?
  • At what rate is the data expected to grow over time?
  • How will the data be consumed by other subsystems or end users?
  • Is the data read-heavy or write-heavy?
  • Do we need strict consistency of data, or will eventual consistency work?
  • What’s the durability target of the data?
  • What privacy and regulatory requirements do we require for storing or transmitting user data?

3. Divide and Conquer – Discuss the components and trade-offs

  • Different components have different pros and cons. We’ll need to carefully weigh what works for us.
  • Different choices have different costs in terms of money and technical complexity. We need to efficiently utilize our resources.
  • Every design has its weaknesses. As designers, we should be aware of all of them, and we should have a follow-up plan to tackle them.

What not to do in an interview

Here are a few things that we should avoid doing in a system design interview:

1. Don’t write code in a system design interview.

2. Don’t start building without a plan.

3. Don’t work in silence.

4. Don’t describe numbers without reason. We have to frame it.

5. If we don’t know something, we don’t paper over it, and we don’t pretend to know it.

Reverse Conway’s Law…

You can deliberately structure your team the way you want your code to look like.

Geographically distributed teams will tend toward more modular distributed software. 

Most importantly – Development teams that include product users will produce software that clearly reflects their involvement making it more relevant to the users. Whereas teams that don’t bother will reflect that in the product with not much relevancy to the users.

Focus on quality as AI beats quantity…

With more tasks being automated today with advent of AI (GPT3), the value of quality is enhanced much more now.

AI or bot can do only limited quality work but can easily beat humans in quantity. Hence as an expert in your field you will be valued more because you bring quality. Your uniqueness, your experience will have more value, since no one can copy or generate it.

At the same time quantity will be culled out more and more because of its abundance. And for those who go after quantity, beware of it, as it will hit roadblocks sooner or later and leave you stranded.

Best case will be, to have right mix of quality and quantity as you go along.