Changelog Interviews

Engineer to manager and back again


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Lauren Tan joined us to talk about her blog post titled “Does it spark joy?” In this post Lauren shared the news of her resignation as an engineering manager at Netflix to return to being a software engineer. We examine the career trajectory of a software engineer and the seemingly inevitable draw to management for continued career growth. The idea of understanding “What are you optimizing for?” and whether or not what you’re doing truly brings you joy.

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  • Featuring:

    • Lauren Tan – Website, GitHub, LinkedIn, X
    • Adam Stacoviak – Website, GitHub, LinkedIn, Mastodon, X
    • Jerod Santo – GitHub, LinkedIn, Mastodon, X

    Show Notes:

    • Does It Spark Joy?
    • Go Fast and Break Things: The Difference Between Reversible and Irreversible Decisions
    • WHAT AM I GOING TO DO WITH MY LIFE???
    • The Engineer/Manager Pendulum
    • The Regret Minimization Framework: How Jeff Bezos Made Decisions
    • How to quit your job spectacularly well
    • Stay Uncomfortable. Stay Hungry.
    • The one question that will change your life
    • Steve Jobs on connecting the dots
    • thepricegeek.com
    • Something missing or broken? PRs welcome!

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