My thoughts on the value you get from mentoring and being mentored, and how to make the most of it.

Once you’ve built up some seniority, you start asking yourself: should I go into management? Will I be good at it? Will I enjoy it? What does a manager do, anyway?

To tell you the truth, I collect people. I can’t help it. I love you all too much to let go. I don’t hoard my treasure like a dragon. I fling it into the sky and share it with everyone. You all are my stars. You light up my life. You glow and I cannot…… Continue reading My Twinkling Stars

Today a technical fellow (a very senior individual contributor, or IC) and I gave a talk to our org titled “What’s My Manager Thinking? A guide to working better with leadership and leading as an individual contributor.” It was fun, and among the questions we didn’t have time to answer was this one: “Can you…… Continue reading There and Back Again: going back and forth between manager and IC

One of the problems about going to a big-name university like MIT is that it comes with an expectation that you will do Great Things. Whether or not the people around you are saying that, you internalize those expectations from our society.  From the day you graduate, you judge yourself based on those external expectations.…… Continue reading The Meaning of Life