How do you deal with people reluctant to change? — Last week, I was at the WeAreDevelopers World Congress, the biggest conference I’ve been giving a tech talk. With more than 12k attendees, 300 speakers, and ~10 tracks in parallel, I was invited to give not one but two talks. One is about my experience with Extreme Programming and the…

An acceptance of powerlessness — Learned helplessness is the behavior exhibited by a subject after enduring repeated aversives beyond their control. It was initially thought to be caused by the subject’s acceptance of their powerlessness by discontinuing attempts to escape or avoid the aversive stimulus. Early experiments In 1967, the American psychologist Martin Seligman at the University…

How to find a balance of growth and happiness — I’ve got this question a couple of times recently, and this is a great topic to share. “”Have you always been like this? Constantly reading books, writing blog posts, public speaker in conferences and meet-ups, learning in your private time, etc…?” The short answer is: no, and let me tell…

Leadership starts within your own life and behaviour — As business scales, the leaders’ primary focus must shift from customers to employees. Therefore, I would like to share what I consider critical points that any leader should address and focus on regularly. For each key point, you will have book recommendations that go deeper into the matter, giving you…

Killing agility with excessive meetings — Talking to a friend about agile, he asked me a fascinating question remarking how badly sometimes Agile and Scrum fit together, especially regarding meetings. These are my thoughts about this topic. “Do you think it would make sense to just use agile and ignore scrum (sprints) completely in a product…

How can you work with other teams that aren’t agile? — Let’s assume you already know what the agile manifesto is. Let’s consider that you apply most of the “extreme programming” values, principles, and practices altogether. Let’s speculate that working in an agile environment is not new for you. Individuals and interactions over processes and tools Working software over comprehensive documentation

What is leadership and what is not? — Leadership is not a synonym for management, it has nothing to do with titles or personal attributes. So, what is it? How can we become leaders? And most importantly, why? While researching this topic, I found “What is leadership” by Kevin Kruse, which I liked particularly. I thought about sharing…

Misunderstandings, effective communication, and self-reflection — One of the most complicated challenges for everyone is avoiding misunderstandings and being aware that other people don’t think the same way as you do. Different perceptions People have different experiences and backgrounds, and we all have different perceptions of reality. This is the first thing we need to be aware of…

How to become a Senior Software Developer? — We all have been junior developers at some point. This is easy to know because it’s at the very beginning of your carrier. Your responsibilities were narrowed down by other peers who were looking after you. Suddenly, at some point, after some months or years, you got your promotion or…