#257 – August 31, 2025
how to get a promotion or more money
What I say when people ask me for more money
10 minutes by Brad Dunn
Brad shares advice on getting more money or promotions at work. First, lower your expectations and understand the company's salary review cycles. Timing matters since out-of-cycle requests are much harder to get approved. Come prepared with data showing you met objectives, went beyond your role, and research on market salaries. Four key factors determine success: completing goals, going above and beyond, building good relationships, and making your work visible to others.
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Just people in a room
10 minutes by Lucas Pierce
Lucas shares stories about workplace conflicts and toxic behavior from Autodesk, Amazon, and Snap. He describes how easy it is to blame others while missing our own flaws, like when his entire team got laid off despite thinking management was the problem. He argues that tolerating cruel behavior from high performers creates a culture where being an asshole seems necessary for success but, ultimately, it isn't.
Communication is the job
6 minutes by Andrew Bosworth
Silicon Valley builders rely on information connectors who help them decide what to create. These connectors depend entirely on communication skills to succeed. Since we constantly communicate whether we intend to or not, we must embrace it strategically. Boz shares eight key strategies including layering messages for different engagement levels, considering how your audience will repeat your message to others, and communicating early even with imperfect information.
The hidden cost of slow feedback loops
10 minutes by Revon Tulet
Slow feedback loops in software development cost teams significant productivity. Many teams deploy code to staging environments just to test simple changes that could be verified locally in minutes instead of taking 20-30 minutes per attempt. This gradual degradation happens like a boiling frog - teams don't notice as local testing becomes harder with each new dependency. A team of 8 engineers spending just 10 extra minutes per verification 6 times daily effectively loses one full-time engineer's capacity.
The management skill nobody talks about
4 minutes by Matheus Lima
Management involves making many mistakes, from poor feedback to bad decisions. The key isn't avoiding errors but learning to repair them properly. Good repair means being specific about what went wrong, focusing on impact rather than excuses, and actually changing behavior. When managers acknowledge mistakes and take responsibility, they often build more trust than those who never mess up.
Auth standards don’t stand still, and neither do attackers
sponsored by FusionAuth
Authorization and authentication standards have been protecting users, apps, and resources for over a decade; plenty of time for attackers to develop methods to exploit implementation weaknesses. Join FusionAuth’s Kim Maida on Sept. 30 for a webinar and learn how new guidance like RFC9700 and modern app architectures are reshaping what your teams need to stay secure.
And the most popular article from the last issue was: