The Looking Glass: Cringe stories

April’s weekly Twitter threads, in one handy e-mail

Hello dear readers,

I hope you are well, and healthy, and that the sound of spring rains give you pleasure. Over the past few months on my tweet thread journey, I meandered through embarrassing personal stories, company lore, and a metaphor or two.

What should be next in my topic queue? Write me your suggestions.

The Right Feature > More Features

How to win in product development with fewer resources.

Julie Zhuo @joulee

One of the stories we used to tell in the early days of Facebook was how a small, two-engineer project came to dominate the entire photo sharing landscape in the late 2000s. Thread 👇 1/10

3:37 PM ∙ Apr 8, 2021

717Likes133Retweets

Getting Through the Cringe of Asking for Favors

How asking more often leads to greater generosity all around.

Julie Zhuo @joulee

Before The Making of a Manager came out, my publishers and I had a chat that left me deeply uncomfortable. “Who are some business writers / leaders you admire?” they asked. Easy. I rattled off a dozen names. “Great, can you ask them to read your book and give a blurb?” 1/10

3:27 PM ∙ Apr 15, 2021

279Likes32Retweets

Pick a Company like You’d Pick a Friend

No company is without flaws. A guide for picking the next one you’d want to join.

Julie Zhuo @joulee

Companies are like people. Not sprawling networks of people (though technically that’s right) Rather, thinking about a company as an individual makes many things easier to understand. Pick the company to join like you’d pick who you’d want to hang out with every day. Thread👇

3:46 PM ∙ Apr 22, 2021

527Likes122Retweets

That Time I Got Feedback That Stung

How I rationalized away a perfectly good feedback lesson.

Julie Zhuo @joulee

“Some people are simplifiers. You’re a complexifier.” This was a piece of feedback I received once from a colleague. Yeah, it burned. It felt like a shitty thing to say. Thread 👇(1/11)

3:28 PM ∙ Apr 28, 2021

545Likes57Retweets

Warmly,

Julie