Sunday Reads #107: The #1 thing to do when you onboard a new employee
Plus Life on Venus (!) and other link love.
Hope you and yours are keeping safe (and sane).
Lighter Sunday Reads this week, as I've been working particularly long hours this week (and weekend đ). So couldn't get much reading done.
This week, we begin with a short read, on the #1 thing to do when you onboard a new employee.
Next, updates from the World of Apple and Fortnite. You already know about their legal tussle from my blog post, Fortnite, Apple, and the Fate of the Metaverse â A Game Theory Perspective. Whatâs the latest?
And third, scientists have found signs of life on Venus!! (and one more ! for good measure). Is this exciting, or is it alarming?
Here's the deal - Dive as deep as you want. Read my thoughts first. If you find them intriguing, read the main article. If you want to learn more, check out the related articles and books.
PS. If youâre new here, donât forget to check out the compilation of my best articles: The best of Jitha.me. Iâm sure youâll find something you like. And hereâs my newsletter from last week: Sunday Reads #106: Execution trumps Strategy.
PPS. If you like what you see, do forward to your friends. They can sign up with the button below.
1. The #1 thing to do when you onboard an employee.
I've written a couple of articles before, sharing my key learnings on hiring great people, and the five principles of effective team management (even when working remote).
One crucial area I didn't talk about is employee onboarding.
As the author says in Optimize Onboarding,
It takes roughly 2 weeks to form a habit; it takes roughly two weeks to get comfortable in a new environment.
If your report spends the first two weeks reading C# documentation and having lunch out on the town with the team, guess what, theyâve just normalized that behavior as what the role is.
It's critical to start your report doing real work as soon as possible.
If theyâre a software engineer, they should be committing code in week one (ideally day 2 or 3).
If theyâre a product manager, they should be attending meetings and picking up supporting activities on a similar time frame.
This approach holds for managers and executives as well.
In this cohort itâs common for people to spend the first couple weeks putzing around under the guise of âgetting to know whatâs going onâ.
Managers and executives should be involved in the decisions of the team from day 1 and developing artifacts - plans, TODO lists, strategy documents - in the first couple weeks.
How do you make sure this happens? By putting KPIs in place around employees getting up to speed.
For new engineers, this could be "time to first code commit".
For new managers, it could be "time to first meeting led".
Further Reading:
Marc Andreessen, on how to hire the best people you've ever worked with. It's a classic.
2. The World of Apple and Fortnite.
Regular readers of my newsletter have probably read my article on Epic Games and Apple, looking at their latest legal tussle from a game theory perspective, and predicting the outcome.
The story is far from over (and it's no fun if predictions come true too soon đ).
But two updates to the saga:
One, Apple announced changes to its App Store policy. As MG Siegler says in Compete!, they are ridiculously insufficient.
The announced changes this past week to the App Store rules are maybe the most absurd attempt to placate bad PR that Iâve ever seen.
Instead, they helped clarify something pretty fundamental: Apple no longer wishes to compete.
Apple clearly â I mean this: clearly â does not want to have to compete with the best offering and experience any more.
These changes will not be enough to deflect the attention of anti-trust authorities. As Siegler says, This is a Band-Aid on a dam.
And two, Epic Gamesâ CEO explains why he launched this battle against Apple (and Google).
3. The World of Venus.
The big news of this week (to me at least), was that scientists have found signs of life on Venus!
As WIRED explains,
Scientists have discovered phosphine on Venus.
Phosphine â a compound of phosphorous and hydrogen â is thought to be a potential biomarker. In other words, we know it can be produced by life, and its detection hints at biological production.
Itâs either a chemistry thatâs really different and unusual, or itâs life.
It'll take decades to substantiate this finding. But at first glance, it sounds exciting.
Right?
Well, it may actually be more alarming than exciting. It implies that our future in the cosmos may be more short-lived than expected.
Why do I say that?
It all comes down to the "Great Filter", which I wrote about in Sunday Reads #86.
I summarized Robin Hanson's seminal 1998 paper, The Great Filter - Are We Almost Past It?.
The money lines:
The fact that our universe seems basically dead suggests that it is very very hard for advanced explosive lasting life to arise.
There may be a Great Filter at any crucial step in evolution of an interplanetary civilization.
Maybe it's very hard for RNA or DNA to arise. Maybe single-cellular life is a giant step that almost never happens. Maybe it's sexual reproduction that's an almost impossible step. Or maybe it's the evolution of tool-using animals with big brains (us).
If the steps in our past were improbable, then our chance of colonizing the galaxy is high.
But if the steps in our past were easy, then we're virtually certain to get extinct before we colonize the galaxy.
If we find single cell life evolved independently on Mars, it would mean the steps up to that point are not that hard. Bad news.
So... now that we might have found life - not on quasi-hospitable Mars (didn't Matt Damon survive there for four years?), but on Venus, the hell-hole - what does it mean?
It means it's actually easy for life to evolve.
As Robin Hanson summarizes,
4. Link Love and other stuff.
PSA: Donât put photos of your boarding pass on Instagram (not like youâre traveling much anyway).
When you browse Instagram and find former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbottâs passport number.
I found this article very funny. Both for the innocuous way in which vital personal information can be found online, and for this hacker's hilarious hyperventilation - "oh jeez oh boy oh jeez is it possible that iâve done a crime!".
Two very interesting reads on history from Gareth Harney.
1) A thread of Roman treasure, wartime intrigue, secrets, lies and obsession.
2) What if Lord of the Rings was inspired by a real-life 4th century theft of a cursed gold ring?
Facebookâs latest mind-blowing invention.
It looks like the amazing genius innovators at Facebook have invented... Facebook?
To end, some food for thought.
That's it for this week! Hope you liked the articles. Drop me a line (just hit reply or leave a comment through the button below) and let me know what you think.
See you next week!
Jitha