um304

I hear people talking that it takes more than great programming skills for an engineer to be successful (particularly at fast moving tech companies). As an engineer, I have learned certain mindsets that have helped me do better in my work. For example: 1) an average to a problem well understood can potentially deliver bigger impact than a great solution to a problem poorly understood, 2) not all problems are worth solving and ability to prioritize them in terms of impact is a core skill, etc.

What mental models have you found useful in your career as an engineer? Or if you're not an engineer, what mental models you think engineers need to have to deliver bigger impact?

When working on hard problems, which might encompass unknown number of sub-problems, I often find myself procrastinating. Harder the problem, severer the procrastination. A psychology professor says that a person typically fails to begin a project when there is "confusion about what the first steps of the task are" [1].

When working on hard problem, you're bound to hit tasks of which you won't know first steps. You're likely to often find yourself in deep marshes with no way out. How do you stay motivated in situations like these? How do you not give in to procrastination?

[1](https://medium.com/@dr_eprice/laziness-does-not-exist-3af27e312d01)

Hi,

Job hunting is isn't easy for most of us. There are several tools available which can be used for the purpose, but some might be more effective than others. It's worth finding out what has worked for others before investing your time in any of them. So here's my question to the community:

How did you find your current job?

- Personal reference

- HackerNews (Who is hiring thread)

- Stackoverflow

- LinkedIn

- Other (please mention)

I was always lucky in getting very reasonable people as my managers/clients until my company found this new project from a Bay Area startup. The client has following characteristics:

1. We have standup meetings scheduled twice every week. He doesn't show up in 90% of them.

2. He doesn't respond to most of the emails which are to get his feedback on latest development progress.

3. A week before the initial deliverable was due, he demo'ed the project to CTO. He didn't give me any heads up before giving the demo. Incidentally there was a bug in the system at that point and his demo didn't work as he expected. He expressed his anger by a one liner email.

4. On the day of first deliverable, he gathered his entire department to showcase the product. He asked us to run a flow which was neither mentioned in his requirement docs nor it was related to the core features due for the deliverable. Since we weren't prepared for the flow, it didn't work. He shared his anger later with my manager.

5. He'd agree to everything I present in initial requirements, and later get angry for something not even remotely present in the initial requirements.

The project is super complex and he is barely involved in the development process. I know I can technically face any challenge, but I'm struggling with locking down requirements and managing his expectations. I'm whole-heartedly committed to learning and adapt to this challenge, but I'm not been able to develop a mental model so far.

How you'd handle a difficult client like this one?

Hi,

I'm a software engineer (focused on fronted) from Islamabad and visiting Bay Area 17th of this month. Along with my colleague Haris (who is focused on data-backend), we had been part of a Santa Clara based HealthCare IT startup, where we developed visualization systems for complex medical decisions. The startup unfortunately ran out of money after about 5 years which forced us to look for new opportunities.

Haris and I would like to be part of a growing startup where we could help them build complex dashboards or user interfaces. I'm wondering, while I am in Bay Area for 3 weeks, what would be the best way to find/meet startup folks who might need our skill-sets. Will appreciate your ideas/pointers/suggestions.

Thanks, Umar

Do you agree that a lot of manufacturing businesses don't exploit internet for promotion? How would you advise a foreign manufacturer/supplier to promote themself on internet so they noticed and make business relationships? Is there any effective promotion channel available other than Google Analytics?

Hi all,

There are many aspects of organizing a successful networking event, but I'm curious about one very specific aspect:

How do we make sure that people make new acquaintances at a networking event you've organized?

I'm part of executive team at OPEN Islamabad where we organize networking events for local professionals and entrepreneurs almost every month. We have observed in those events, most people don't come out of their comfort zones and stay in the company of people they already know. We are exploring what can be done, so that attendees get best out of these events by making new connections. I'm very much interested in benefiting from experience of other folks who have organized such events and have faced same problem. Here are my specific questions:

* As the saying goes "You can't improve what you can't measure", I'm curious how we can measure that attendees are exchanging contacts?

* After we have measured number of contact exchanges, what can be done to improve it?

* After people have exchanged contacts, how to educate them that they convert those acquaintances into long term contacts for their own benefit? Can this aspect also be monitored and improved?

Any thoughts, opinions, pointers and experiences will be much appreciated.

Many thanks,

Hi,

We are a team of 3 developers who are working on a part time project (our own product idea), which started as a very simple weekend project, but over the time has grown into a mammoth, which is getting hard to tame.

We do cut down the scope again and again, but it doesn't seem to help. We are struggling with visibility, estimations and eventually control. Everyone is motivated in the beginning, but eventually ambiguity creeps in, which kills the motivation of team with time.

My question is to all startup founders, particularly those who are building MVPs in part time, out there:

* How do you manage your projects so you don't lose control?

* How do you keep ambiguity at bay?

* How do you keep motivation of your founding team up when you're slogging?

Thank you.