[10th November 2024] Interesting Things I Learnt This Week

1. One Company A/B Tested Hybrid Work. Here’s What They Found. - Recent research has revealed that a hybrid work model, where employees work from home three days a week, can significantly boost employee satisfaction and reduce turnover rates. This not only improves employee morale but also saves companies millions of dollars in recruitment and training costs. To successfully implement a hybrid model, businesses should prioritize rigorous performance management systems, coordinate team and company-wide schedules, and secure leadership support. Moreover, executives should experiment with different management practices to optimize their approach and maximize the benefits of hybrid work.

My Take: There have been too many debates about remote work versus office work. I would have loved to see data comparing the effectiveness of remote, hybrid, and office-based work. I've worked at companies that mandated office work, like Tata Elxsi, where we didn't have laptops and had to rely on office desktops. I've also worked in hybrid models at Adobe, Intuit, Adnear, and Google (pre-pandemic), where attendance wasn't a major factor. At Adnear, as a startup employee, I was often on-call, even when working remotely. The push for mandatory office work often seems to stem from incompetent management and poor hiring practices. If a manager is uninspiring and micromanaging, forcing employees into the office might seem like the only solution. However, with the right communication, tools and performance metrics, remote and hybrid work can be just as effective as traditional office work. But I would also say, there is no one size fits all solution.

2.  San Francisco's Train System Is Still Run on Floppy Disks. It May Finally Get an Upgrade. - San Francisco's Train System Is Still Run on Floppy Disks. It May Finally Get an Upgrade. Officials approve a $212 million plan to replace its wildly outdated train control system. 

My Take: It's interesting to learn how floppy disks have survived this long. I do have a few floppy disks, but I doubt I could read anything from them now. I have great respect for old technology that is still functioning well and maintaining critical systems. However, I imagine the maintenance of these systems is a nightmare. Sourcing floppy disks and ensuring their reliability must be incredibly costly. I'm sure the $212 million budget is for replacing more than just floppy disks. In my opinion, every piece of tech needs to be replaced every decade or so. If there is a tech which is older, maintaining that is going to be a nightmare. Once a decade is over, its best to look at revamping that system IMHO.

3. Screenshot to Code - Convert any screenshot or design to clean code (with support for most frameworks)

My Take: Adobe built a PSD to HTML tool a long time ago, but I don't think it always worked well. I hope this one works better. I haven't tried it yet, but the repetitive promotional tweets on the homepage aren't very inspiring. If you try it out, let me know how it goes.

4. At All Costs - If one of your principles is, “win at all costs”, then you have no other principles.

My Take: Principles are your compass in life. You may have many principles. But if your core principle is 'win at all costs,' it will leave you very poor. You will lose friends and respect. All I would say, choose your principles carefully.