Im Slack CTO Cal Henderson, and This Is How I Work.Cal Henderson is the co founder and CTO of Slack, the leading workplace messaging platform, which Hendersons team invented while trying to build an online game called Glitch.That wasnt the first time Henderson and his Slack co founder Stewart Butterfield set out to build a game and ended up with a startup.In the early 2. 00.The Systems Engineering Students Bag.Figuring out what to keep in your bag is one challenge.Keeping your bag organized is a totally Read more Read.Henderson joined Butterfields team to build Game Neverending, which spawned the photo sharing site Flickr.Hes been programming and blogging at iamcal.We talked to Henderson about how he works, how he Slacks, and how it feels to pivot into massive successtwice.Location San Francisco.Current Gig CTO of Slack.Archive Blog Buy Inurl Software Engineering' title='Archive Blog Buy Inurl Software Engineering' />One word that best describes how you work Relentless. Call Of Duty 1 And United Offensive Download Music there. Current mobile device i.Phone 7 with the ugly battery case.Current computer 1.Mac. Book Air, but running Windows.Screenshot_3(2).png' alt='Archive Blog Buy Inurl Software Engineering' title='Archive Blog Buy Inurl Software Engineering' />Tell me a little about your background and how you got to where you are today.I got into computers at a pretty young age it started when my older cousin got a Texas Instruments TI 9.I was around six.Like most computers at the time, it came with a BASIC interpreter, and I was fascinated.VHwASjOyV4/UI0bT2g2EkI/AAAAAAAAD8E/JHQeHUfO8gg/s1600/Pleasurephoto.wordpress.com+-+heady-notions-nadja-auermann-in-philip-treacyc2b4s-hats-for-vogue-1996+++Deluxshionnist+Uk+Fashion+Workshop+by+British+Council.jpg' alt='Archive Blog Buy Inurl Software Engineering' title='Archive Blog Buy Inurl Software Engineering' />Within a few years I had decided that programming is what I wanted to do when I grew up.Ive been pretty obsessed ever since.Ive been in San Francisco for 1.San Francisco from Vancouver with the acquisition of Flickr by Yahoo.During my time at Flickr, I spearheaded a number of technologies that are still commonly used, including APIs, o.Auth, and o. Embed, and wrote a best selling OReilly book, Building Scalable Web Sites.I worked on Flickr at Yahoo for 4 years before leaving in 2.MMO massively multiplayer online game called Glitch with Stewart Butterfield, Eric Costello and Serguei Mourachov, all from Flickr.Whats your workspace setup like I have a desk in our headquarters, but Im rarely found there.Most of my days are spent in meetings.Given our SF HQ office is 5.Im able to get most of my 1.However, when I am found at my desk, youll notice that my desk is usually a mountain of junk.I use a very small laptop 1.Mac. Book Air, RIP but plug into external monitors whenever I can.Im also a mechanical keyboard nerd, and currently use a tenkeyless Varmilo with blue Cherry MX switches.Its super loud and sounds a bit like a typewriter.Whats your best time saving shortcut or life hack Listening to audiobooks at 23x speed.I switched almost exclusively to audio books about 5 years ago, so I could combine my walking commute with reading, but finding the speed setting has been a real boost.How do you rechargeWhat do you do when you want to forget about work Listening to books or podcasts at 3x speed while playing i.Phone games Bit City is the latest one to catch on in the office.Or, spend time with my 3 year old son.Nothing forces you to reorient your attention like a toddler.Whats your sleep routine like I have a very regular sleep schedule Im typically in bed by 1.I usually spend 3.I wake up at 7 3.You and your co workers famously developed Flickr and Slack while developing video games.What were these pivots like What was different the second time around, Slack vs.Flickr The pivots were hardno one sets out to fail.You dont know, when youre going through shutting down a failed company, that there will be a good outcome on the other side.Whats been different this time around is the growth and maturity of the web as a platformthere are 1.When we built Flickr, the idea of putting your photos online was pretty new.Now the idea of putting them anywhere else is weird.The other big shift is the development of infrastructure and the cloud.The bar to getting started has gotten lower and lower, allowing you to spend less time racking servers and more time working on the thing youre trying to build.What everyday thing are you better at than everyone else Whats your secret Thats a bit full on.Ive been told I have a tremendous capacity for focused work and high output, but whats allowed me to grow into the CTO role at an org the size of Slack has been my 1.I find in the human aspects of the work.Theres a very prevalent stereotype that engineers are socially unsophisticated, but thats just not the case.Interpersonal communication is an absolute requirement for management and leadership in all functions of a company, and no less so in engineering.Its a team activity.What apps, software, or tools cant you live without Work Slack.News BBC, Twitter.Family Whatsapp, Snapchat.Entertainment Audible, Reddit.Whats your biggest struggle in the workplace Probably prioritizing my time.As an organization grows in size and complexity, its easy to fall into just being reactive.Theres always one more thing coming to you that wants attention and needs to be done now.But stepping back and being strategic about what you focus on is really important.What do you listen to while you work I spend most of my workday in meetings, but when Im working from home Ill plug into Spotifythis week has been a mix of Kanye and British trip hop group Sneaker Pimps.What are you currently reading, or what would you recommend I recently finished Ada Palmers Terra Ignota series, which I strongly recommend.A view of humanity post scarcity and what it takes to hold a society together.Whats the best advice you ever receivedIm not sure where this advice came from, but the idea of finding a set of people you like to work with, rather than the perfect project.We didnt set out to make Flickr, or start a company to make Slack, but finding a group of people that you trust and love to work with means that you enjoy what youre doing, even when you pivot into something completely different.And to drink lots of water and get regular exercise.Whats the greatest idea youve had that you dont want to do yourself I still think that what we were trying to do with Glitch a multiplayer online social game space around would building and collaboration is a great idea.We didnt manage to make it into a successful business and I dont think Ill try doing it again, but the core of the idea was great.If someone manages to make what we were aiming to, Id play the shit out of it.Whats your own Slack etiquette, and how much does it line up with the rest of your team For example, how much do you use Slack during off hours Have you ever made a big faux pas like sending a sensitive message to the wrong channelI think I make that mistake more often with email than with Slack, probably because I use it less frequently.While I read Slack at all hours, I try to avoid DMing people late at night.The pressure for people to respond quickly can guilt people into thinking they need to be always on.Queuing up a bunch of messages to send first thing in the morning lets people know that my questions can wait.Youve pulled off some great stunts, like the who looks like a manager game at Yahoo.Hendersons game asked fellow Yahoo employees to guess which of two people was higher up at the company, based only on their photos.What role have side projects played in your career I had a lot of fun with the early internal Hack Days at Yahoo, showing that you could build interesting projects that werent just a user facing product feature.Playing Game Never Ending the game that preceded Flickr was something I did for fun in my spare time in my early 2.Stewart to come work at Flickr.Fill in the blank Id love to see answer these same questions.Jay Parikh VP of Engineering at FacebookIs there anything else youd like to add that might be interesting to readers and fans Ive always loved the way you can use software to just make stuff, and get it into the hands of people quickly.If thats something that you enjoy, right now is a great time to get into the industry.Theres a lot of opportunities to make things that people use and rely on every day.As an industry we still have a long way to go, but theres never been a better time to pursue a career in software engineering you dont need to have studied computer science at a prestigious university or come from a typical software engineering background.People from all walks of life who have a great passion for what they do can accomplish a lot.This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.Power Of Hacking part.M Tahir. Published on Aug 1.
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