Greatest Advice I’ve Heard in a Long Time

Publish Date: Jun 25 '23

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"Just learn how to get stuff done. I’ve seen at every level people who are very good at describing problems, people who are very sophisticated in explaining why something went wrong or why something can’t get fixed.

But what I’m always looking for is, no matter how small the problem or how big it is, somebody who says, 'Let me take care of that.’

If you project an attitude of whatever it is that's needed, I can handle it and I can do it., whoever is running that organisation will notice, I promise.

And which is why I think with young people, you don't always need to be so impatient asking for the plum assignment. A lot of times the best way to get attention is whatever is assigned to you, you are just nailing. You’re killing it. Because people will notice, 'Oh, that's somebody who can get something done.'"

Obama

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Comments 14 total

May Kittens Devour Your SoulJun 25, 2023
he is needed, and needed badly—the man who can
Carry a message to Garcia.
FuadVegas Jun 25, 2023
Consider well ..!
PeterMilovcikJun 26, 2023
How can one balance the need to take initiative with the risk of taking on too much and getting overwhelmed?
- Todd PressleyJun 26, 2023
  short answer? there is no blue pill here… one simply needs to note their personal metrics - velocity comes to mind but usually in the context of teams (for good reason). once a trend can be established, and the goldilocks workload identified, one’s taking of initiative becomes a mitigated risk.
  
  i’ve personally found that taking every initiative is not a very effective way of showing initiative… becoming the expert on a specific type of thing or project area has been much more beneficial to my career than burning myself into the ground trying to do everything well.
  - Philip John BasileJun 27, 2023
    Metrics are a hot topic. You depend on alot of people getting things right to measure a task. A lot of the time it’s going in blind and hoping for the best but measuring for the worst.
Dimitri MostreyJun 26, 2023
Building a house goes brick by brick. Creating a project goes line by line. Both have something important in common: A good plan
Paweł ŚwiątkowskiJun 26, 2023
That's an advice on how to get noticed by the management - and as such it's probably good. It's worth to not mistake it for an advice about how to make a good software or something like that.
- Philip John BasileJun 26, 2023
  It’s also a way to gain job security in this market. Management isn’t interested in ‘good software’. They just want things to get done and someone who can do it. I’ve been doing this for 24 years now and the Swiss army humans always last and get promoted. This is coming from a life long ui specialist.
Riccardo BernardiniJun 28, 2023
No, I am sorry. Even if Obama said that it remains something so awfully superficial, PHB level superficial. It is just the old adagio "Bring me solutions, not problems" just in a fancier dressing.
- overFlowJul 24, 2023
  People forget that he is a politician he is good with words and what he said is probably taken out of context.
Ryan BrownJun 28, 2023
Similar to advice I was given starting work life:

Don't scoff at the scutt work. Do what needs to be done, show you can sweep the floors as good as land the next big contract. It's all work that needs to be done.

In doing so, I learned more about whole sides of business which helps in being able to problem solve in a wider domain than a silo'd "I only do X" mindset.
- Philip John BasileJun 28, 2023
  I was a ‘I only do X’ mindset human. Specialists are expensive and expendable.
overFlowJul 24, 2023
People forget that he is a politician he is good with words and what he said is probably taken out of context.
Politicians really know how to talk. And that is all politics is all about. come to coding there is a whole lot of time to be invested in it and brain work. Social life and health and other aspects of a persons life can suffer. If you are gonna be a do it all, I feel that you are gonna thin yourself out. And I really feel that one needs to get to a point where one specialises. Do a handful of things and do them very good. Have a focus. And avoid burn out.

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Philip John Basile @philipjohnbasile

Greatest Advice I’ve Heard in a Long Time

Comments 14 total