
People Hacks for Technical Leads - mbellotti
https://medium.com/@bellmar/people-hacks-for-technical-leads-6eef1576d046
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robax
I agree with a lot of this, disagree with "multichannel" bit. The idea of
"learning styles" is dead in the field of psychology and the advice isn't
actionable in the context of a presentation or meeting anyway (how does your
average powerpoint aid these supposed "kinesthetic" learners?").

I'd never heard of back-briefing but see that as something my company could
benefit from, however. So thanks for that!

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mistrial9
it may not be _fashionable_ in the field of psychology currently to
acknowledge "learning styles" but.. "is dead" seems to say "we can prove this
does not exist" .. the strongest possible statement about it, in the field of
_psychology_... psychology is accepted as a science, I guess, but really.. the
mind is a massive thing.. which mind ? the one that responds when you drop a
weight on your foot ? the one that responds after talking to a dear friend ?
really.. this is so closed minded..

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sdenton4
Well, a study kicked off the area of inquiry, and after years of work, the
base studies failed to replicate.

Once you throw away rigor, you're no longer a scientist.

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wolfspider
I'm glad there are articles like this and people out there trying to figure
out what it really takes to build a great dev team. Still, after all this time
trying to find the equation for getting into that magical state I call "the
groove" is insanely difficult. It could be compared to a band that put out a
really great first album but needs that same energy for another one. I've
spent a lot of time around professional musicians and their struggles mirror
development ironically. Once I saw 1/2 of a band audition two studio musicians
and hit a groove then mint two contracts for a tour in about the span of 30
minutes. That was magical and that was rare- dev teams sort of operate the
same way and sometimes when no one is looking that groove happens.

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mtmickush
Are learning styles for various individuals still a thing? I thought that was
a well debunked claim a while ago

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wcdolphin
I’ve wrongly assumed it to be real for a long time. Thanks for mentioning
this! I just skimmed
[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5366351/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5366351/)

As it stands, I believe evidence suggests that people may report to prefer a
style, but it has no measurable impact on their learning.

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eximius
Which continually surprises me and I wonder what content they test the
learning on.

Is it on primary education topics or advanced topics?

I certainly can't imagine learning mathematics or coding from a lecture
without _seeing_ the symbols. How else would I keep it all in my head[1]?

I don't know what the other 'learning styles' are so I can't really comment on
them.

[1] - Surely some with physical impairments, i.e., the blind are capable of
doing this as there _are_ blind programmers who make amazing things. But that
belies a lifetime of practice of _not_ relying on one's sight.

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mattnewport
There is some evidence that different styles work better for learning
different topics but not that different individuals learn better with
different styles. So e.g. learners might do better on average learning math
when visual learning is emphasized and English when auditory learning is
emphasized but a given individual will not learn both subjects better if both
emphasize their "preferred" style. (Just examples here, not making any
particular claims about learning math vs English)

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js8
Ah, thanks for the clarification!

The claim that the learning styles were debunked didn't jive with me because I
had a very bad experience being taught German in school using only
talking/speaking. And I feel like I need to have things written down to
remember them. (For example, I cannot reproduce sounds - like foreign names -
very easily, and I have hard time sorting them out. But if you write it down,
I can relate it to other sounds and remember it.)

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mzanchi
One comment regarding the "embedding". This is similar to the Toyota concept
of the _gemba_ , or being where the value is produced. For automobiles, that's
the factory floor. For software shops, that's with the developers, testers and
BAs.

You want to be able to understand the work flow of your staff in order to
catch opportunities for continuous improvement, and the best way to do this is
to observe the work being done, but in a respectful way, that is, respecting
the staff space and making them comfortable that you are not there to observe
__them __, but the work.

I really don't understand why a manager would want to have an office in the
21st century.

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Scarblac
As a dev I would really appreciate an office though, but those jobs don't
exist anymore.

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edmundhuber
No one has mentioned groups chats from the article. It's kind of scary to
think there's a manager out there that is mindfully siloing conversations
instead of letting smart people figure it out.

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ChuckMcM
Back briefing, very important point. It is one I still slip up on when I'm
busy and there are a lot of moving pieces in play.

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MacroChip
Great article. Threading in a chat tool is an absolute necessity for me.
Regarding embedding, I like to wave and smile without talking to makers while
they are working. I say hello and maybe chat with managers. Waving and smiling
is friendly without interrupting a maker. It still gives them an opportunity
to start conversation.

