Who Should Be Promoted? Who Should Be Laid Off?
When two strong colleagues compete for a single promotion, how should a manager choose? And when layoffs become unavoidable, how does a manager decide whom to let go—and live with the decision?
LEADERSHIP & CAREER · 59 ESSAYS
← All Columns & SeriesLeadership & Career
Engineering leadership, team culture, Silicon Valley & Seattle dispatches, hiring and interviewing, startup postmortems, and engineer growth.
If You Can Spend Money, Don't Spend Time
If you're looking for the stingiest people on the planet, look no further than programmers — I was once one of them. Then a simple rule changed everything: if a reasonably priced product buys back your time, never waste hours chasing a free alternative.
The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Programmers
Every programmer's first two lessons should come from the Unix philosophy: do one thing, and do it well. From there — pick a role model to chase, write code instead of tweaking it, debug smartly, write docs in markup, treat everything as a project, and stay open to new ideas.
How to Publish a Patent
Patents are neither mysterious nor lofty: they are simply public technical methods for solving a problem. This essay explains why companies file them, how engineers can get through internal review, and what a patent is really worth to your career.
Innovation Is Not a Campaign, It's a Culture
A new broom sweeps clean: no sooner has the new CEO's opening salvo landed than the company launches another full-throated innovation campaign. The question on every mind is how long this sudden wave will last — and whether a campaign can ever become a culture.
Why I Have More Time Than You
The cornerstone of time management is the four-quadrant model. My routine probably isn't universal: I'm up by 5:40, out the door by 6:10, and at my desk by about 6:50 — which buys me two or three extra hours a day. But extra hours don't automatically mean productive ones.
Under Pressure: What Doesn't Kill Me Makes Me Stronger
A TED talk argues that stress itself won't wreck your body — believing stress is harmful will. It sounds like chicken soup, yet years of research back it, echoing Harvard's happiness course: belief is a self-fulfilling prophecy. On coping, and on why you may need more pressure, not less.
Pressure Management, Continued: Comparison Kills
Beyond direct pressures lies the indirect pressure of comparison: friends marry while we stay single; less capable peers land great offers while we struggle; idealistic classmates thrive while we settle for money and miss the expected fortune. We know it is toxic, yet we brood.
The Growing Pains of a Company
Since becoming an entrepreneur, I've instinctively imagined myself at the helm, wondering what I would do in charge. One question has haunted me lately: why does every company — however brilliant or innovative — inevitably drift toward mediocrity, and finally decline?
The Monster-Slaying Road to Leveling Up in Software Development
You've just finished a course in language X — so what next? The fastest way to grow is to take your new skill and build something real with it. I walk through one concrete example and show how deepening it step by step is the true road to leveling up.
Even If Others Are Code Monkeys, You Needn't Be
There's an article lamenting that Chinese programmers are all called 'code monkeys.' Whether others deserve the label isn't your concern — you shouldn't become one. On pay, dull work, and long hours: salary follows what you build, dullness is subjective, and overtime is a choice.
On Salary, Bonuses, Options, and Stock
Most desk-bound programmers earn their living from salary, bonus, options, and stock. This essay explains how each component actually works—and why the structure of an offer matters far more than its headline number.
The Technologist's Vision
Weekends are busier than weekdays: classes, reading, and play with my child are mandatory. A friend warned that early education is useless and stressful, but I disagree—usefulness depends on the child's enjoyment, not adults. I offer chances without forcing her.
Setting Goals
A clear, well-defined goal is what drives us each day—and very likely the wellspring of our happiness. Drawing on his own half-marathon training, patents, and interviews, the author offers a mutant take on SMART: A for Aspired, not merely Achievable.
Farewell, Xierqi
In 2003, fresh out of college, I got off the train at Xierqi and nearly dropped my jaw: a cart full of farm produce was ambling down the middle of the road as if it were a country lane. Over a decade later, I returned to teach at Oracle and found the place utterly transformed.
On Management
A first-line manager reflects on the values that matter more than authority and metrics: trust, observation, service, coaching, leading by example, and clear rewards and consequences. Management, he argues, is less about books than about lived experience and understanding people.
On University
Everyone reaches for "an independent spirit and free thought" when talking about university; I'll settle for the humbler tale of my own — a botched college application, easy money and arrogance, a stock crash, and the slow reckoning with my own narrow horizons.
The Meaning of Work
We have traveled so far that we have forgotten why we set out. A typical career spans roughly 80,000 hours—longer than almost any other commitment in life, yet it slips away one exhausted commute at a time. What, then, gives work its meaning?
When Diligence Catches Up with Time
Klose, who once threw a front flip with effortless grace, has grown old. When the goal that tied Ronaldo's World Cup record went in, the celebratory flip became a tumble. The stumble passes with a sigh; what lingers is the goal — and a meditation on diligence, time, and men who refuse to fade.
Hiring and Retaining Talent
Let's begin with hiring. In this piece, "talent" means engineers of all kinds — UI/UX, software — since startups are hungriest for them, and the traditional channels for finding them are failing. Here's how to hire and keep them.
On Work: The Digital China Chapter
My career is neither long nor short: eleven years, just past thirty. Writing this is awkward — strip away two years of startups and I have nine years in just two companies, both in the same industry. Here I trace that path chronologically, starting with Digital China Networks.
Doctor Qi's Management Lessons
Mao Xiaotian is restless: his boss is leaving, and a rare shot at management beckons. So begins a young engineer's apprenticeship under Dr. Qi, an old-hand manager who teaches that leadership is less about control than about heart.
How to Land a Work Visa and a Green Card in the United States
A field guide to the three visas that can get an engineer to Silicon Valley — L1, H-1B, and O1 — how each one works, what freedom each one costs, and the roundabout route that finally got me there.
A Programmer's Guide to Productivity
Unless you build software exclusively with .NET, OS X or Ubuntu makes for a far better development platform. Countless excellent tools install with a single command there, yet on Windows can cost you an order of magnitude more time—when a Windows equivalent exists at all.
On Engineering Culture: Passion, Inversion of Control, and Open Source
Facebook's bootcamp gives every new engineer a mentor, real tasks, and a chance to choose a team. From that practice emerge three principles: connect passion to work, invert control of resources, and genuinely embrace open-source culture.
Startups and Management: Building an Experiment-Friendly Work Environment
Agile is on every tech company's lips, yet many firms adopt its rituals without its spirit. This essay argues that true agility depends on an experiment-friendly culture—one supported by better tools, adaptive processes, and management built on trust, commitment, and data.
Foreword to "The Engineer's Guide to Entrepreneurship": Welcome to the World of Engineers
I read most of this book on the train between Sunnyvale and San Francisco, often scrambling for my bag only when the conductor called my stop. What it records is not glossy tales of successful entrepreneurs but the hard, thrilling pilgrimage of ordinary yet great engineers.
Paramount, MGM, and Lionsgate
Two weeks of handing off work have stalled my writing. I've been in the U.S. nearly a year and the job hasn't gone as hoped—big American companies feel sluggish, and I can't recapture the Juniper CNRD spark. So I kept my head down... until an unexpected turn.
Make Good Art: Do Good Work, Be on Time, and Be a Pleasure to Work With
Neil Gaiman's UArts commencement speech, distilled to its working-life core: do the work only you can do, ship it on time, and be someone people are glad to hear from. Two out of three, he says, is enough.
The Engineer's Three Outlooks: Technology, Product, and Data
Good engineers need three outlooks: on technology, product, and data. This essay explores how a broad, trend-aware technical perspective, a product sense grounded in conventions, and a data-driven build-measure-learn loop shape engineering judgment.
Old Soldiers Never Die
When Jinyu, a former Innovation Works HR staffer, sent me the invitation to the July 30 old-timers reunion, it was already Wednesday in Beijing. The event began at four—two hours after my flight was due to land—so I filled out the application at once and waited anxiously.
Turn Left, Turn Right
After a half-month silence, the author resurfaces with a wry story about a reader's voice message—and a serious announcement: TubiTV is hiring engineers in Beijing to build a team alongside San Francisco.
The Sorrows of Young Werther
The question I get most often is how to choose a job that lets you grow — and how to grow once you're in it. Both hinge on one word: growth, which is exactly what I spent last weekend debating with a friend at Amazon.
How to Become an A-Player
A companion piece to my InfoQ livestream — but rather than repeat myself, let me take the broader view: a forty-year career deserves the same vision, strategy, and iteration we pour into a company. Becoming an A-player starts with one strategic question.
An InfoQ Interview
A Zhihu post on Zhang Jike’s sudden fame frames this interview: a rebellious, clear-eyed talent falls, fights back, and returns to the top. The author’s own arc—a funded startup’s rise and collapse, a year in retreat, then a second act in Silicon Valley—asks what remains when dreams break and are rebuilt.
Answering Questions for InfoQ's "Big Names Say"
After an InfoQ livestream, I answer readers' questions on what matters early in a career, taking side gigs, shoring up fundamentals as a self-taught programmer, balancing depth and breadth, and why foreign firms build R&D centers in China.
The People and Stories Behind the Public Account
After years of writing this public account, I've recommended only a couple of friends. Today I finally tell the stories behind several of them — Angela Zhu, Chi Da, the InfoQ team, and my idol Teacher Chen Liren, including the embarrassing way I once met him.
The Programmer’s Dictionary: “Awesome”
In a job posting for TubiTV's China team, I defined the real goal of a programmer's career: becoming an awesome engineer. But awesomeness resists simple metrics, so I tried to pin down the habits and attitudes that actually produce it.
Is a Silicon Valley Internet Company a Good Choice?
Over a week of phone-screening résumés left my jaw more exercised than ever. As an introvert, I'd never made so many calls so fast. Many recruiters treat interviews with condescension, as if a job offer were charity — yet we see it the opposite way.
How to Choose the Right Job
In fact, Paul already answered this in *Hackers & Painters*: choose work that has measurement and leverage. Let's break it down — on industries, companies, teams, bosses, and the X model of the company-individual relationship.
Thinking, Fast and Slow
This essay has nothing to do with the book of the same name; it's really another look at one diagram, prompted by a reader's question. Back when I was green, the ScreenOS design at my old employer Juniper taught me a great deal about separating fast paths from slow ones.
What Am I Actually Learning When I Attend a Training Course?
Reflecting on why a four-day Complete OTP course with Francesco Cesarini of Erlang Solutions is really a thinly disguised consulting engagement — and how to extract maximum value from it through careful preparation, sharp questions, and stepping out of the thousand-hour plateau.
The Road to Growth for Software Engineers
A lightly edited transcript of my Zhihu live broadcast. Drawing on a career that ran from a Chinese networking firm to Silicon Valley, I reflect on the two foundations of an engineer's growth: confidence and self-discipline.
When Will the Good Times for Programmers Run Out?
Should I switch into software development before it peaks? Tracing seventy years of programmer demand reveals three structural reasons for those fat salaries — plus the risks that make a career in code a tomb run.
A Few Tales of Interviewing in America
Interviewing engineers in America is a curious experience. Here I recount three memorable candidates — an Erlang RTB engineer brimming with ideas, a septuagenarian Android author, and a Silicon Valley living fossil from the MIPS and NeXT era.
Our Sister Mei: Silicon Valley's Beauty and Its Model Worker
Marissa Mayer once ruled Silicon Valley as Google's search chief; the press crowned her, then branded her one of Fortune's most disappointing leaders after Yahoo. Here is what she shared with our team in one hour — on urgency, mission, and daring to imagine.
Ape-arently Thirty-Five
This February is special for my whole life: I'm finally crossing the thirty-five curse that programmers dread. Reflections on labels, on love versus fear as motivation, and on what persistence actually buys you.
What is Management? (Part I)
A manager's core duties—regardless of team size—are building trust, shaping culture, setting goals and strategy, executing effectively, and learning with the team. Trust is the most precious bond between people; without it, efficiency plummets.
Face to Face with Joe Armstrong
Joe Armstrong was a totem of the Erlang world, yet he credited Erlang's birth to Ericsson's folly. In this wide-ranging talk he argues for thinking concurrency first, rejects type systems as a silver bullet, and urges engineers to look at the cracks between black boxes.
Farewell to Tubi: Three Stories I Told
The night before I told my team I was leaving Tubi, I had already decided to move into blockchain. At my farewell all-hands, I told three stories—about serendipity, belief, and time—and what they taught me about work and a finite life.
Why Tubi?
As his journey at Tubi ends, the author reflects on how a startup with fewer than thirty engineers runs five product lines and competes with giants—by betting relentlessly on R&D, automation, and order-of-magnitude engineering.
Welcome to the Blockchain World
Driving north with two empty child seats and a head full of questions, I left the Bay Area for Seattle to work on blockchain. Here is why I chose the industry, why I chose Arcblock, and what we're building.
The Oracle's Choice
The Oracle is not just a database company—the name also means seer. In The Matrix, the all-knowing Oracle cannot foretell Neo's future; instead she hands him a difficult choice. Life is an endless series of such choices, and the recent Oracle layoffs remind us that learning to choose—and to leave something behind—is the only path to growth.
Thinking, Questions, and Methods
It's July—over a month since I last updated this account and two months since I joined Arcblock. If a person is running software, I've iterated several times, like Goku training relentlessly aboard the ship to Namek. Growth comes from guidance or self-enlightenment.
A Hitchhiker's Guide to Job-Hopping
A field guide to changing jobs across the galaxy: calibrate your risk tolerance, read the market's currents, then map yourself onto stocks, bonds, or mutual funds — startups, growth-stage companies, or mature giants — before betting your finite years on someone else's future.
Arcblock’s Beijing Hackathon: Are You In?
Arcblock’s Beijing hackathon invites developers to explore blockchain, OCAP APIs, GraphQL, and Elixir through demos, talks, prizes, and a full day of building with our engineering team. Come hack, ask questions, and see how we’re simplifying blockchain app development.
ArcBlock at One Year
One year since trading the Bay Area for Washington State: a reflection on the winding road that built ArcBlock — its Forge framework, its bet on application chains, and the choices that led here.
Nana the Intern
When it comes to interns, beyond learning ability, I ask for one thing: a long enough runway. By "long enough" I mean at least two or three months — anything shorter and they leave before contributing anything of value, clutching a glowing evaluation form. Nana's story is an exception worth studying.
The Programmer's Meltdown
After enduring the 'unsafe shitstorm,' actix-web's maintainer pulled the top-ranked Rust framework and walked away from open source—a story of maintainer burnout and the hidden cost of demanding that volunteers reshape their work for everyone else.