Comparison is an incredibly important tool. But most of the time, the comparisons we are making are imaginary - even the ones that seem real. In this episode we'll talk about why we should be mindful of this, and in some instances, take measures to debias our decisions.

Are you acting on impulse? How would you know? One door to understanding this "acting without thinking" is to investigate our hypotheses. Implicit hypotheses are expressed as instances of our beliefs. What implicit hypotheses are you relying on today?

Model Manager episodes of Developer Tea are dedicated to helping engineering managers find models of thinking that improve their approach to management. Great managers don't attempt, in vain, to control the actions of others. Great managers take advantage of the unique parts of being a human: that they can self-improve through learning and change, and they can create environments that encourage others to do the same.

What are you waiting on? What are you replaying? It doesn't have to only be anxiety that takes you out of this moment. You may be looking forward to something exciting, or remembering a positive experience. But what are you missing right now?

Discipline is not about punishment or punctuality. It's about perseverance in the face of changing circumstances. And it's critical to your success as an engineer.

Model Manager episodes of Developer Tea are dedicated to helping engineering managers find models of thinking that improve their approach to management. Processes create uniform approaches and uniform outputs. But what is the output you should care about the most? In this episode, we'll discuss why human behavior is the primary and most critical output of any process.

You don't have to choose to be a generalist to have career security. If you pursue mastery, you will be building skill-acquisition at the deepest levels, and picking up skills that are ancillary to that master-set. Don't follow the latest trend - develop mastery.

We all have 24 hours in a day. How can you compound your time? In many ways, this is what "spend it wisely" means. In this episode we classify different types of decisions and actions, and provide a reminder that direction is ultimately the most critical thing to align.

If you are progressing slowly in your career, it might be because you are working in the bowl of mediocrity. This is where you are taking very little risk, but are also disconnected from the fundamentals of your business or role. In today's episode, I challenge you to work on the edges of this bowl instead of the middle.

The execution phase of any work you do is where you find the most satisfaction. But it's possible that you aren't finding flow because you have a broken working process. It's difficult to stop working and fix the process, and especially difficult to balance fixing process with actually being productive. In this episode, we'll discuss this dichotomy and the practice of staying mindful during execution.

Everyone has the tendency to procrastinate. Is there something you're putting off? It seems simple, but finding the first step and putting it on your calendar in as much detail as possible is a proven way to break through the barrier of inaction.

Should you live every day like it's your last? What about preparing for the future? Chasing your goals and dreams? How can you both be mindful of the present moment and plan for the future? We don't have every answer to that question, but we'll discuss the tension on today's episode.

There's too much to remember. Instead, integrate that information. You don't need to memorize everything. Develop your intuition.

When two smart people or groups disagree, what is happening? Sometimes one is plainly wrong about the facts. But more often than not, these two people are arguing from a local rationale. We'll talk about local vs global rationale in this episode and how they apply to your job as an engineer or manager.

We intuitively imagine our skills and capabilities to be one-dimensional and permanent. However, what goes into whether we can actually execute on our skills is multi-dimensional. In today's episode, we'll discuss a frame of thinking for capabilities that provides a lens for thinking about constraints and context.

Call it luck, serendipity, or chance - all of these unexpected moments of life require entropy to occur. On the other hand, if we don't control our lives to some extent, we'll never be able to make meaningful progress in a chosen direction. How do we invite luck into our lives without floundering in place endlessly?

When you think about probabilities, you likely think in one of two ways. We'll talk about both of these models for probabilistic analysis, their drawbacks, and decision-making in the face of uncertainty.

Humans are driven to resolve cognitive dissonance as efficiently as possible. We pay little regard to whether our solutions are accurate or correct, but rather we only seek harmony in our minds. Unfortunately this can mean reinforcing unhealthy thought patterns and incorrect beliefs. However, cognitive dissonance can be turned around and used towards positive gains.

How does learning happen? In one fell swoop - linear? Or is there another path that learning takes? We pass judgment on ourselves and others, designing our attempts in ways that are suboptimal based on the assumption of linearity. Almost nothing is truly linear.

If you don't understand the motivations underlying your goals, you will always deal with brittle, high-stakes situations. If you understand your goals through the lens of your deeper human motivations, you will be more able to see the flexibility and many pathways to success.