jhemann
2.5K posts

jhemann
@jhemann
Professor of Computer Science @SetonHall. My other car is a cdr. | @jhemann.bsky.social | https://t.co/b7y1CxQEZE

Gemini Nano Banana Pro can solve exam questions *in* the exam page image. With doodles, diagrams, all that. ChatGPT thinks these solutions are all correct except Se_2P_2 should be "diselenium diphosphide" and a spelling mistake (should be "thiocyanic acid" not "thoicyanic") :O


Junior PM: I'm shipping everything on time, team loves me, but my manager says I'm "not strategic enough." I'm exhausted trying to figure out what that means. Senior PM: What did you tell him you accomplished last quarter? Junior PM: Delivered 5 features, reduced tech debt, improved team velocity by 15%. Senior PM: And what did he hear? Junior PM: That I delivered 5 features? Senior PM: He heard "I kept the team busy with stuff that doesn't move numbers I get asked about." Junior PM: But velocity improvement is strategic. Senior PM: To who? Junior PM: To... the team? Senior PM: Your manager spends 20 minutes a week with his director explaining why you exist. Can he use velocity to justify your headcount? Junior PM: I... probably not. Senior PM: What business metrics did those 5 features move? Junior PM: Three were tech debt, one was a sales request, one was compliance. We don't really measure impact on that stuff. Senior PM: There's your problem. Half your work is invisible by design. Junior PM: But that work was necessary. The platform would break without it. Senior PM: I believe you. Your manager's director doesn't care. Junior PM: That seems unfair. Senior PM: It is unfair. It's also how companies work. Your manager gets grilled about revenue and retention, not platform stability. Junior PM: So I should have said no to the tech debt? Senior PM: You probably couldn't. But you should have framed it differently. Junior PM: How? Senior PM: "Prevented $200K in potential downtime costs" sounds better than "reduced tech debt." Junior PM: But I don't have that number. Senior PM: Then you're fighting organizational reality without weapons. Junior PM: I don't have analytics support or time to instrument everything. Senior PM: Most junior PMs don't. That's the trap - you get judged on business impact but don't get business resources. Junior PM: So what do I do? Senior PM: Acknowledge the game is rigged, then play it anyway. Junior PM: Meaning? Senior PM: Make allies in sales and marketing. They have the numbers you need. Shadow customer calls. Connect your work to their goals. Junior PM: That feels political. Senior PM: Everything above a certain level is political. The choice isn't political vs pure. It's visible vs irrelevant. Junior PM: What if I try this and my manager still doesn't care? Senior PM: Then you learn your manager doesn't know how to evaluate PM work. That's a different problem - one you solve by finding a better manager. Junior PM: This is harder than just building good products. Senior PM: Building good products is table stakes. Surviving organizational dysfunction while building good products - that's the actual job.






New type of compiler just dropped













