Expedition Signals: Episode 4.
On the Newsletter Rebranding, Sustainable Software Architecture and the 3 Complexity Sources, Scrum, Opportunity Blindness, and Other Crazy Stuff.
Hey friends,
It's been quite a while since the last issue, but we're here again with a new episode.
I'm still experimenting with the newsletter, trying to come up with something that feels right. And in that pursuit, today I come with some news to share with you:
The newsletter has gone through a rebranding.
The prior brand name was not very clear to the outside world. It was too focused on me and my own journey. The show's title, Expedition Signals, reflected that fact. I could picture people's thought process when stumbling upon it for the first time: "So this is about an expedition...alright. For what? No idea. Should I care? Meh! Ok, let's move on."
It didn't convey much about what this publication is all about.
This newsletter's always been about sustainable life, business, and product growth. It's about helping people like you become more sustainable entrepreneurs, creators, and innovators in tech. So in response, I've decided to baptize it under a new name: Playing the Long Game.
I believe it better conveys the core idea and philosophy behind the publication.
But changes have not stopped there.
The newsletter also moved to a new home.
I decided to give it a chance to Substack. It's lately being praised far and wide for its growth-boosting features (namely, referrals, recommendations, Boost, and a long list of enablers and upcoming improvements in that area). You can have a look at this article if you want to learn more about the latest Substack's growth features.
And as it couldn't be otherwise, this publication now lives under a new, independent domain: playingthelongame.com.
Of course, I'd love to know your thoughts about these changes.
If there is something you'd like to share, please let me know. Let's see how the experiment plays out.
That said, here's what I have to share with you this week.
Things I'm Thinking About.
How to Engineer Your SaaS Architecture as a Beginner Founder to Move Fast Today (Without Paying the Price in the Future).
"What if we cannot easily change the system later? What if it can't scale? What if it goes down? What if...?"
I've been building software for 15+ years, and I still remember those feelings when I started building my first SaaS. You want to account for every possible circumstance...but you drown in a sea of permanent hesitation and overwhelm.
However, there is a way out. In this article, I'll show you how to grow a sustainable architecture that can adapt more quickly to your evolving needs.
Want to take a look? Let's dive in.
Gems I Found.
How Big Tech Runs Tech Projects and the Curious Absence of Scrum.
Do companies actually use Scrum?
In this piece, Gergely Orosz, an ex-tech leader at companies like Uber, Microsoft, or Skyscanner, offers a detailed deep dive into how different organizations (big and small, tech and non-tech, consulting or product-oriented) approach project management.
A surprising insight for many might be the absence of Scrum at big tech companies.
But maybe that shouldn't be that surprising after all.
As we saw in a previous episode, overly prescriptive solutions are too rigid. They tend to sell better but suffer in highly-complex, evolutionary environments. And Scrum is no exception.
Want to take a look? You can read his article here.
As a side note, I recently joined Gergely's newsletter, The Pragmatic Engineer, as a paid subscriber. It's an incredible source to keep the pulse of the industry. Totally recommendable.
If you want to look at more of his insightful content, you can visit his site here.
Opportunity Blindness.
As entrepreneurs, or simply as human beings, our goals often make us blind to unique opportunities that show up in our way.
In this episode of his newsletter, Louie Bacaj explains the topic, grounded in historical discoveries and his own experiences as a newborn entrepreneur.
Interested? If so, keep reading.
Did Figma Actually Win Sketch?
This week I stumbled upon this Twitter thread by Justin Jackson.
The news about the recent $20 billion Figma acquisition by Adobe has been all around. And as usual, the reactions have not been long in coming. The popular conclusion is the one we often find in the media: Figma's won Sketch.
But that results from the typical, misleading, winner-takes-all mindset that is so harmful.
Justin makes a powerful argument on why Sketch has not necessarily lost.
Want to see what he had to say? You can read it here.
Brilliant Quotes.
"There is only one success: to be able to spend your life in your own way." —Christopher Morley.
Thanks for reading Playing the Long Game. Did you enjoy it? I hope you did.
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And that's all for now.
Have a creative time.