AlexDReeve

In my experience, it's shockingly difficult to stop consuming caffeine.

N of 1: I had a similar experience to the author. I was fine for a few weeks, slowly weening down my caffeine intake (I did get to zero eventually w/o headaches).

But I never felt quite "right." I always felt a little slow/sluggish, and I missed the routine. Perhaps work just isn't as interesting without caffeine?

Anyway, I'm back on it now, but I limit myself to one cup per day (and perhaps a second 1-2 days a week).

Hey folks — author here! Hope this is useful. Had some great discussion on HN with my last article; always happy to debate!

Hey folks, author here. I'd love feedback – I'm also happy to answer any questions and/or debate!

What you're describing as a "so-called" leader is in fact what a good leader should do, in my opinion. It's a fine balance!

Thanks for the suggestion! I'm on Digital Ocean; I had to do a quick droplet upgrade to avoid the "hug of death" – I'll keep Cloudflare in mind!

Thank you, and great point — another way I've heard it said by a friend/mentor is that "80% of PM is prioritization and communication". Where prioritization basically means "making good decisions on what gets prioritized".

Thanks for reading! PG has a great article on "maker" vs. "manager" (I borrowed the framing from him and linked it in the article).

http://www.paulgraham.com/makersschedule.html

To your second point: Ultimately, the PM and the people they work with (engineering, design, PMM, research, etc.), are a cross-functional team. The PM shouldn't just provide a list of what to build; the PM should help lead them towards figuring out what to build, collaboratively, together.

That's an awesome way of putting it. I may borrow that! ;)

Thanks! Principle #23, triple-check your links! ;)

I'm saying it's aged well! Despite the author's caveat, I think it's still accurate in a lot of ways.

Completely agree. The PM is there to help the team figure out what to build, and help them succeed in building it. They can do this in a number of ways: Being an expert on the product is "must have", but they also need to know the market, the needs of users/customers, the metrics, and more.

I agree. In my opinion, over-communication is to help maintain alignment between people/teams/functions. It can't replace real, valuable work and results. Ideally, if the PM is a good communicator, execution is a lot smoother for every team (because the PM is carrying the alignment/communication burden).

One of the greats! It's amazing how well "Good PM/Bad PM" has aged. =)

Back online, sorry about that, folks!

Too true! =(

Ugh, I'm on it!

Hey folks, author here. I'd love feedback – I'm also happy to answer any questions and/or debate!