Scarlet Ink is a newsletter by Dave Anderson, and here’s a quote from its About page:

Scarlet Ink educates both technology veterans and newcomers on how to grow their careers, build their leadership capabilities, and level up their interviewing skills.

I read a lot of newsletters and often find myself with more articles to read than time available and Scarlet Ink is often one that I choose to read later. That’s probably because I already spend so much time thinking about work I’d rather spend my free time reading about my hobbies or other interests. But the value to time-spent I get from his articles is incredibly high. Even better, the hit-rate for relevancy in my day is also high. That was again the case today when I read The Six Steps to Saying No — Why Being a Team Player is Not Necessarily Great. The relevant paragraph to me today was:

There’s a popular saying at tech companies. We say that our work is a marathon, not a sprint. That means that we’re out to create value over years, not over months. If you’re expected to do something which cannot be sustained for years, it’s a defect, and it should absolutely be temporary.

Here’s a parting quote that nearly perfectly describes me:

There’s a common illness in the workplace. It’s called being a “team player.” A team player does the extra work that is falling on the floor. The team player stays late to ensure that the weekly sprint completes on schedule. The team player comes in on Saturday to shepherd the new build. The team player also burns out and quits.