Samir Shah

Just finished recording a great podcast with Ankit Jain on his #HangerDX podcast. We chatted a lot about engineering metrics, their value, and how you should/shouldn't use them to drive change across your organization. It should be released soon, so make sure to check it out! #softwareengineeringinsights #engineeringmetrics #developerexperience

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From Astrologer's Whispers to Real Connections: Reclaiming Belonging in a Lonely Age Have you ever consulted an astrologer, their predictions swirling in your head, only to feel empty when your day takes a different turn? The emptiness might not be about the details themselves, but about seeking outside approval for your happiness. This same feeling can creep in even when you achieve success. Remember climbing the career ladder, landing that dream apartment, only to find yourself lost in a quiet emptiness? In India's bustling cities, it's a familiar, painful emotion. We're surrounded by people, yet there's a little loneliness at the edges of our lives. Thinking back to Mrs. Deshmukh, your friendly neighbour with the legendary Til Gur Barfi's, who brought the whole neighbourhood together with tea and friendly chats. Those evenings of shared stories and laughter, a web woven by simple human connection, feel like a distant memory in our super-connected yet broken world. We chase success with thumbs glued to screens, building online bridges that leave us feeling more alone than ever. The pressure to create a perfect online self-drowns out the whispers of our own desires. But here's the real deal, that shiny designation and fancy car can't fill the hole left by genuine connection. There's hope, though! We can rewrite this story. Let's ditch the small talk and chase deeper connections. Share your fears and worries, break free from feeling isolated in this sea of ambition. Remember the warmth of family gatherings, the joy of shared childhood games? Revive those small traditions. Pick up the phone for a real heart-to-heart conversation rather than What's Apping. Every act of connection, no matter how ordinary, how small, builds a more satisfying life. Imagine hearing back from an old friend, reliving an old laugh, and being surrounded by people who truly see us, where we belong. Isn't that what life is all about? Together, one conversation, one meal, and one act of kindness at a time, we can tear down the walls of loneliness. We can rewrite the narrative of modern society, where connection becomes the foundation of a life well lived. It's not too late, or is it? #HumanConnections #BelongingMatters #OvercomeLoneliness #RealConversations #MeaningfulRelationships #CommunityOverConnectivity #AuthenticLiving #SocialWellbeing #RedefiningSuccess #TraditionsRewoven #FightIsolation #VulnerableAndReal #KindnessRevolution #SmallActsBigImpact #ReconnectingHumanity #IndianSociety #UrbanLoneliness #DigitalDetox #QualityOverQuantity #ConnectionCures Photo by Tim Marshall on Unsplash

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All conversations start with how my profile/ EB1 application looked. Here's a brief review of what I think worked. https://lnkd.in/g3pTgc4P More blog posts are on the way as I break down the conversations I have been having. And, as always, find a time to chat here: https://lnkd.in/gJ2eyCGP #EB1 #EB1A #immigration #profile

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If there is one skill which applies universally in life….

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To most of us, who has been working in the field for years, LLMs started as being a "smarter autocomplete", that can provide the next best word by "reading" a corpus of documents. And it turned out to do much more sophisticated things demonstrating human like capabilities. We were chatting with a friend in the weekend, and the question came up, "as humans, do we actually just do autocomplete?" Is innovation or thinking all about predicting the next thing all the time. For instance, think of sports, such as soccer, it is all about predicting the next move of the proponent if you are in defense or predicting where you can move the ball to maximize the probability of scoring a goal. Or more obvious things like playing chess, which is all about predicting the next n moves or predicting the whole game moves if you have enough memory. How do we innovate? We read a lot (training the neural net) and then find a challenge, look into the sequence of things that exist today and predict next big move. Probably we all autocomplete. Never thought about this way.

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While there are certainly individual variations in skill and experience when discussing modern software development the story is much more nuanced than pure individual effort.  * software development is a team sport -- individual performance is heavily impacted by the system in which they are asked to operate in.  * we pair skill and experience to this model of understanding performance by expecting people to be able to influence and adapt in direct proportion to their seniority, aka the more senior you are the more responsible you are for the outcomes of your work, the less senior you are the more your manager and management chain are responsible.  * humans want to succeed, we're social animals who derive purpose from demonstrating skill, and working collectively. All of which is to say there is no way you have over 1000 people underperforming at your company without senior leadership deeply implicated in.  If nearly 10% of your company is failing, versus just having the market move against you, you need to fire the CEO.

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One of the aspects that I've found most amazing about working for Google is the basket of employee benefits that are deliberate in their design, delightful in their experience and diverse in their coverage. Pretty much every conceivable cohort of employees has a customized benefit that fits the need that is relevant to their stage of life. Very proud of my colleague Shraddha and the awesome #People team at Google #India for adding to the cornucopia of benefits that I and my colleagues at Google enjoy, by bringing in a very progressive and comprehensive suite of benefits to aid the journey of Family Building. Check out Shraddhanjali Rao's post below that outlines a benefit that will hopefully become the norm in all companies that share an ethos of deep concern for employee wellbeing!

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Insightful explanation of how do go channels work behind the scenes. Its all about yielding the ptocessor for other goroutines. https://lnkd.in/gbyQ4yH9

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Key insight from the Tech Leadership Summit: Sai Charan Tej Kommuri from Google explained a multi-agent system that can do the whole product development process automatically: ▶ Discovery with persona creation, user empathy mapping, user journey creation ▶ Design & Delivery through backend and frontend coding agents plus an architect agent ▶ Go to market with all product marketing All of this can be initiated by putting in a topic. He started that by himself in his spare time. I am between excited and scared. #tls24 #pmf24

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True success lies in the dedication to continuous growth and learning. Each step forward, no matter how small, is a testament to our resilience. #Success #GrowthMindset #StepForward #PersonalDevelopment

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"American culture 'has venerated mediocrity over excellence,' leading to a nation that does 'not produce the best engineers.'" 🤦🏽Look, if you want to do business in the U.S., it’s reasonable to expect investment in its citizens through hiring, training, or supporting education. Many nations demand far more just for market access to sell products. Ignoring education and workforce development leaves the population vulnerable to manipulation—an issue both political parties seem to tolerate, as high school remains a four-year standard unchanged for over a century. Education is the primary pathway to the American dream. Neglecting it while relying on talent from countries that prioritize education undermines fairness and sustainability for the nation you’re operating in.

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Check out the latest in our "Debuggability" blog series! This blog is authored by Kevin Downey Jason Johl and me and talks about how we built a Debuggability Paved Road at Intuit using Ephemeral Containers and Argo Workflows. We'd love to hear your thoughts on the topic. Also, what tools do you build as-a-platform to help debug service, compute and network issues in Kubernetes at scale? #intuit #kubernetes #debug

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I have been blown away by the AI Notes feature of Microsoft Teams. Meeting notes are very well articulated and all the details are captured under MoM and Action Item sections. Correct owners are tagged in both MoM and Action Item sections. What's amazing is that owners are tagged correctly even if some speakers have not joined from their individual laptops but from a common meeting room. It's not hard to imagine a day when AI will actively participate in our meetings and remind us when someone contradicts themselves from what they said in previous meetings. 😀 #Microsoft #MicrosoftTeams #GenAI #AI

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#15 What Happened to All the Heroes? When my mother talks about her younger years, she recalls a time when astronauts were the ultimate heroes. Names like Neil Armstrong, Alan Shepard, John Glenn, and Buzz Aldrin represented bravery, exploration, and the spirit of human achievement. America followed their every step; literally and figuratively, on television, in magazines, and through inspiring stories that transcended generations. But where are the heroes today? Have they shifted to pop artists, sports figures, or Hollywood stars? My parents vividly remember the day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated—not just the day, but the exact moment they heard the news. They recall where they were, what they were doing, and the wave of shock that swept the nation. For many, the gravity of that day mirrored what we experienced on 9/11, a moment that stopped time and made people sit in stunned silence as the news unfolded. The same could be said for the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. His words, actions, and ultimate sacrifice left an indelible mark on the world. In their own ways, figures like JFK, MLK, Gandhi, Mandela, Jesse Owens, and Rosa Parks inspired generations with their courage, leadership, and dedication to humanity. But who inspires us today? Who are our heroes now? Perhaps they are more commonplace yet equally significant: first responders, nurses, doctors, and teachers; everyday individuals whose heroism is quieter but no less impactful. They may not appear on magazine covers or in primetime broadcasts, but they make a difference where it matters most. Yet, it’s hard to ignore a growing concern: Are we losing the kind of role models our parents had? Are we filling the void with social media influencers and viral sensations? These figures may captivate our kids' attention, but do they truly inspire them to reach for greatness or contribute meaningfully to society? The world still has heroes, but perhaps they are harder to recognize in the noise of modern life. The question is not whether they exist, but whether we are looking in the right places; and whether we’re teaching the next generation to seek and celebrate the values that make someone truly heroic. #InspirationMatters #ModernHeroes #RoleModelsForGenerations

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Very often, it's people problems, not technical challenges, that actually holds a team back from high performance. In my recent post, a reader wrote in with a challenging situation working with an architect who was having a hard time letting go of details. Because he has to provide input on any changes, it slows the whole team down (and likely he is burning out as well!). I share some suggestions for approaches to build a positive relationship with the architect, as a newcomer to the team, as well as ways to bring the architect into a productive conversation about how he can step away from the details. I've been really enjoying this Reader Mailbag format, so if you have work situations or feel stuck, please share with me (form in post, which is in comments)!

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The job market in 2024 has been like navigating a storm—one that’s not following usual patterns. Despite a "good" economic environment (the stock market booming, companies making record profits) - hiring seems to be scarce, and the average job search is stretching to nearly 14 months. What’s causing this bizarre situation? 🌐 Legacy Things Crashing and Burning Legacy bits are finally reaching the end of their lifespans. Many companies have delayed upgrading for decades, but now have no choice (because things either have stopped working or upgrading {with "AI"} is the only way to prevent competition from crushing them). Higher interest rates mean money put into these necessary capital expenditures has to come at the expense of operational expansion. Instead of hiring new talent, companies are restructuring and laying off staff, further burdening already skeletal crews (all the while keeping job posts they aren't going to fill open). ⚔️ Too Many Seekers, Too Few Roles Too many job seekers are now fighting for too few non-ghost roles. Layoffs and restructuring have increased the number of qualified professionals hunting for jobs at the same time. With fewer companies expanding, the imbalance between job seekers and openings is at an all-time high, making competition fiercer than ever (even with 4x the number of job postings to job seekers). Not to mention the AI-Resume-ATS battles raging on in the recruiting world. 🧱 People Aren't Leaving Their Jobs People aren’t leaving their current roles as frequently as they did in the past. Job hopping has slowed significantly, whether due to economic uncertainty, job security, or fear of not finding another role (due to current job market conditions). This stagnation means fewer positions are opening up, bottlenecking the job market. 🌄 The Silver Lining: Relief Is Coming It’s not all doom and gloom—there’s a silver lining on the horizon. Once the Federal Reserve reduces interest rates, capital will be available for companies to start hiring again. The current strain on the bare-bone-marrow workforce has led to increased burnout. Without support, employees will start leaving (even if the market is bad), opening up more vacancies. Over the next few months, we can expect the number of open positions to increase as companies hire again (because they have money or to prevent more people leaving) or as people leave their jobs, creating more opportunities - which will then spur others to leave their roles accelerating this process. 🌟 The Light at the End of the Tunnel As the market rebalances itself again, the number of job applications per role should drop, finding that next position will become easier. The storm will pass, and the job market will begin to normalize. Until then, hang tight; this imbalance is hopefully a phase—one that will eventually clear, making way for brighter days ahead. #Jobpocalypse2024 #OpenToWork

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TSMC | founder has a great story. As with the world’s most valuable tech companies they were founded in dorm rooms, garages and diners by entrepreneurs who were remarkably young. Bill Gates was 19. Steve Jobs was 21. Jeff Bezos and Jensen Huang were 30. Morris Chang however was 55 …. when he founded Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, now one of the world's largest manufacturers of semiconductors. Chang worked for a quarter-century at Texas Instruments and then joined the Taiwan research body that spun off TSMC. TSMC customers include Apple, Nvidia and Qualcomm. Now 92 - his most known quote is as follows. “ ….. Without strategy, execution is aimless. Strategy without execution is useless ….. “

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