Oxide and Friends Engineering Culture
01:44:08
Use Clear Language for Values
- When establishing company values, use clear, direct words.
- Don't use cute, trendy, or idiomatic expressions.
Values Should Endure
- Company values should endure and resonate, not be trendy.
- Avoid using memes or idioms when defining them.
Meta's Value System
- Meta's new values (Meta, Metamates, Me) prioritize the company over employees and self.
- This is a strange message for a company to send.
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Introduction
00:00 • 2min
What Are You After?
01:38 • 5min
Word Fortata, Is It a Word for Fritata?
06:44 • 5min
Are You Trying to Establish a Culture Against Values?
11:25 • 3min
Are They Really Reflecting of Your Values?
14:28 • 2min
Is It OKa to Copy and Modify the 14 Leadership Principles?
16:37 • 3min
What Do You Think About Your Values?
19:27 • 2min
The Leadership Principles Are Not the Principles
21:24 • 4min
Those Values Are a Lens for Everything We Do
25:50 • 2min
Principles Are Absolutes, Values Are Relatives
27:49 • 5min
The Ethics of Engineering - I've Been Crooked My Whole Life
32:30 • 2min
The Ri O Rigor Versus Urgency Is a Classic Trade Off
34:46 • 4min
Is Customer Obsession a Leader's Choice?
39:08 • 2min
How to Assess Frugality in an Interview
41:36 • 4min
Can Company Culture Be Changed?
45:43 • 3min
Sons Ind, a Culture Perspective?
48:30 • 3min
I'd Like to Agree With You, but I Also, Maybe It All Just Happened by Accident.
51:18 • 3min
Is Your Business Model a Reflection of Values?
54:36 • 5min
The Atemper Principle, Is It Reversible?
01:00:02 • 2min
Do You Like Bias for Action?
01:01:58 • 6min
Ignore the Values of Candor and Creativity
01:07:48 • 2min
I'll Take That Tasty Knife Out
01:09:26 • 2min
Engineering Leadership
01:11:45 • 4min
How Did You Change Your Values at Delphic?
01:15:42 • 2min
Changing the Culture of Your Organization
01:18:09 • 4min
What Are Your Values?
01:22:19 • 2min
Yeno, You Know, What's Happening to Gogle's Culture These Days?
01:24:42 • 2min
The Only Company That's Brian, Did We Lose Herim, Like We Lost Him?
01:27:01 • 2min
You Know, I'm Not From the States, Matt, Why Wouldn't Tey Hire if You Were From Ber?
01:29:27 • 3min
I Think It's Ok to Be in the Trouble
01:32:17 • 5min
The Right Time to Plant the Tree Down
01:37:03 • 1min
The New Value System, I'm Glad to See.
01:38:23 • 2min
How Important Are These Values to Me?
01:40:09 • 2min
Are You Conscious About It, Are You Active?
01:42:21 • 2min
Oxide and Friends Twitter Space: February 21st, 2022
Engineering Culture
We’ve been holding a Twitter Space weekly on Mondays at 5p for about an hour. Even though it’s not (yet?) a feature of Twitter Spaces, we have been recording them all; here is the recording for our Twitter Space for February 21st, 2022.
In addition to Bryan Cantrill and Adam Leventhal, speakers on February 21st included Tom Lyon, Tom Killalea, Ian, Antranig Vartanian, Matt Campbell, Simeon Miteff, Matt Ranney and Aaron Hartwig. (Did we miss your name and/or get it wrong? Drop a PR!)
Some of the topics we hit on, in the order that we hit them:
- Alex Heath’s tweet on FB meeting about updated values: “meta, metamates, me”
- [@4:44](https://youtu.be/w9MQJbC26h4?t=284) Can an established company “change its values” in any sense?
- [@8:43](https://youtu.be/w9MQJbC26h4?t=523) Draw the owl > Twilio CEO: Yes, it was a meme, but it’s a great representation of our job. > There is no instruction book and no one is going to tell us how to do our work. > It’s now woven into our culture and used as a cheeky, but encouraging reply to > those who email colleagues at Twilio asking how to do something.
- [@12:42](https://youtu.be/w9MQJbC26h4?t=762) How do you establish engineering culture?
- Copy-paste values?
- [@20:44](https://youtu.be/w9MQJbC26h4?t=1244) When are values set down in a company’s history?
- Amazon’s brand image, expanding beyond books
- Assessing values when hiring
- [@27:51](https://youtu.be/w9MQJbC26h4?t=1671) Principles vs values
- Principles are absolutes, cannot be taken too far
- Values are about relative importance, in balance with other values
- ACM Code of Ethics
- Relative importance of values. Can some values be learned, while others cannot?
- [@45:11](https://youtu.be/w9MQJbC26h4?t=2711) “Turn-around CEOs”, trying to change an established company culture
- [@47:39](https://youtu.be/w9MQJbC26h4?t=2859) Sun culture, early days
- [@54:32](https://youtu.be/w9MQJbC26h4?t=3272) Connection between values and business model
- Urgency in context, requires nuance
- [@1:03:37](https://youtu.be/w9MQJbC26h4?t=3817) Values on the wall. When are values simply ignored?
- Jack Handey wiki, Deep Thoughts recurring SNL short sketches, eg Thanksgiving ~30secs
- “Sharpen fast”
- [@1:13:49](https://youtu.be/w9MQJbC26h4?t=4429) What are the important things to get set early?
- Bryan and Adam on Joyent and Delphix
- [@1:22:05](https://youtu.be/w9MQJbC26h4?t=4925) Matt Ranney on his time at Uber
- Trying to shape an established culture
- Leadership’s values vs engineers
- Business ethics
- [@1:35:47](https://youtu.be/w9MQJbC26h4?t=5747) GE
- Thomas Gryta and Ted Mann (2020) Lights Out: Pride, Delusion, and the Fall of General Electric book
- [@1:37:03](https://youtu.be/w9MQJbC26h4?t=5823) Conclusions
- Adam: Get it right first, but it’s not a lost cause if you don’t.
- Bryan: Look for value alignment in organizations you might want to join, it’s tough to change course after the fact.
- Matt: generous compensation has an effect on how closely one cares to scrutinize their organization’s values ¯_(ツ)_/¯
If we got something wrong or missed something, please file a PR! Our next Twitter space will likely be on Monday at 5p Pacific Time; stay tuned to our Twitter feeds for details. We’d love to have you join us, as we always love to hear from new speakers!