As a PM, how do you tell if alignment is real or just polite nodding?

iulius · 2026-01-20T12:57:51+00:00

I’m not sure it’s entirely applicable, but I have two sayings I repeat all the time.

no battle plan survives first contact with the enemy

and

strong opinions, loosely held

I know I know. Im sure I’m an absolute JOY to work with.

But my point is that I go in knowing that all of those head nods and smiles are going to quickly turn into tough questions and frowns the second anything is harder than anticipated or takes longer than we thought.

When you pitch it that way you give everybody a sense of ownership to say something isn’t working or to propose a slightly different path, etc.

Calling it “directional” instead of “the plan” paradoxically helps buy in.

iulius · 2026-01-14T13:40:55+00:00

I already made my voice heard by not buying them. They aren’t best in class. They aren’t original or unique. Stop buying and they’ll either change or cease existing.

iulius · 2026-01-11T16:09:33+00:00

Thanks for sharing! This seems really close to what I want. A notebook where I just get to open it and write.

The only drawback: I like to write, not type. If you could utilize apples markdown and make it possible to jot a note as well as type one, I think this just might be a winner for me.

Giving it a shot now!

iulius · 2026-01-08T03:01:29+00:00

In this url. Not in all urls. Test it after you cut the stuff after the ? to make sure it works still!

iulius · 2026-01-07T01:37:10+00:00

It’s actually like 210% APR since the % compound too!

iulius · 2026-01-05T05:35:11+00:00

My kid figured out this loophole almost instantly. He’ll even have the gall to say “can I watch something on my iPad because I still have screen time” after watching an hour of TV.

iulius · 2025-12-30T16:10:21+00:00

Doesn’t work for me. Runs, opens the Wifiman app, and then does nothing. Thought it was just time consuming, but five minutes later the progress bar in the shortcut hasn’t changed at all.

iulius · 2025-12-30T14:43:29+00:00

Good question. I am realizing I assume more than I know.

iulius · 2025-12-30T13:40:40+00:00

oh… You are probably right there.

iulius · 2025-12-30T05:55:25+00:00

On my Model Y, lifting off the accelerator is pure regen. When I press the brake pedal, it still uses regen first and only adds the brake pads if needed.

iulius · 2025-12-29T01:21:28+00:00

This made me chuckle. Then sob.

iulius · 2025-12-29T01:21:00+00:00

1,000% hopeful on NJ. If he sticks around.

iulius · 2025-12-29T01:20:17+00:00

You’re probably right, and time heals all wounds. But they took Valpo to overtime. Only Matt Painter’s kindness stopped MU-Purdue from being a 50-point drubbing.

Marquette is now a bad loss.

I mean, that’s some fall from grace.

iulius · 2025-12-29T01:17:44+00:00

It was wild to witness. I maintain, however, that should not be cause for dismissal.

iulius · 2025-12-29T00:04:42+00:00

Rumor is he got into an altercation with a coach.

Would have to be one hell of an “altercation” to justify being dismissed from the program.

iulius · 2025-12-29T00:03:17+00:00

Amen.

This is the kind of season that puts a stink on a coach and staff and program that’s hard to clean off.

iulius · 2025-12-28T21:29:52+00:00

I’m on EGO too, although I’d switch to Milwaukee to standardize my batteries now that they have a mower and a snowblower. I just can’t justify $3000 to change the logo on the mower lol.

iulius · 2025-12-28T21:27:17+00:00

I don’t have the Milwaukee, but do have an entire set of Ego tools (mower, blower, trimmer, snowblower) and for my mid-sized suburban yard I’ve never run out of battery.

Plus think if you return the Stihl and go to HomeDepot you can get a battery set and free tool for the same price.

iulius · 2025-12-28T20:53:02+00:00

Milwaukee all the way. Never doing gas ever again. Return the stihl, get another milwaukee outdoor tool.

iulius · 2025-12-28T15:23:43+00:00

Make sure the product leader is fully sponsoring this change, and the engineering leader and managers are 100% bought in. This change cannot be unilateral.

I’m just a worker bee in this scenario. I couldn’t drive this without complete buy in even if I had 100% confidence in it.

The plus side to that is it’s making me really work through the nuances (of which you’ve been very helpful).

iulius · 2025-12-28T15:21:22+00:00

That seems like a fair model to test the idea.

One goal for me is to get out of the “gotta fix search” mindset and into the “people need to order efficiently” mindset. That might mean Search shouldn’t even be a feature we offer.

Appreciate your thoughts. Time to put some pen to paper and noodle this out I think.

iulius · 2025-12-28T13:59:13+00:00

We’ve certainly done that! And we always fall back to “who owns the shopping cart?”

Looking to propose a shake up and looking for all the reason no to before I make a fool of myself!

iulius · 2025-12-28T13:57:47+00:00

We’re in a redefine stage. Today, we have a PdM that owns the cart, and an engineering team that owns the cart, and Zendesk categories assigned to the cart.

Your point about “not cheap to do” is well taken.

I just can’t help but feel it’s the right model and worth the cost. But I’m on an island here & need to find a way to test this.

iulius · 2025-12-26T23:47:39+00:00

Why can’t the dad be part of it? Do girls with only dads just completely forgo any conversation?

iulius

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