AI can make engineers faster, but it doesn’t always make organizations faster."

How real strength starts with being seen.

some updates and a brief goodbye

The world is weird. Here are some weird - and not weird things I saw this week. I dug this article on Simple tips for managing any project - it's full of practical tips (many of which have worked for me). What to do when your manager asks "how can I help?" I really liked this article on Crawling out of the Incident pit of despair…

I skipped a week - but I'm back for today at least. Here are a few interesting things I found this week. Great article this week on Lenny's Newsletter about developer productivity - Introducing Core 4: The best way to measure and improve your product velocity This article on Should managers still code? answers this often-asked question - and so much more.

It's been an interesting week (aren't they all these days?). Here are a few things you may (or may not) like. Let's lead with good news. It was great to see Ash Hunsberger talking with Janet Gregory and Lisa Crispin about Developer Experience. I've been fortunate enough to work with Ash the last year, and she's amazing. I thought there was a lot of truth in this post on…

a bit about writing less

Back again for another week of semi-interesting links. I don't even know where to start with DOGE. They don't appear to know what they're doing, nor how relational databases work. And apparently - anyone can edit their website. What a fucking mess. On a more positive (but not that postive) note, it's performance review season at a lot of companies.

I took last week off - nobody noticed (or at least nobody said anything). For those of you reading, here are a few fun articles I read this week. I met Alessandra Moreira many years ago in Australia. Her substack is wonderful, and I especially liked this article on Why Engineering Leaders Must Rethink Testing to Build Reliable Software I thought…

as if I need to write another article about transparency...

It's another week of interesting things on the internet. Here are five worth sharing. I enjoyed this article on 3 Things to Embrace to Elevate Your Company’s Culture ...and I also enjoyed this one on Employee autonomy explained I've used copilot a bit for personal projects, and think that AI code gen can be pretty fantastic - however, AI is Creating a Generation of Illiterate Programmers…

Back again - here are a few things I found this week that I thought were worth sharing. I often give similar advice, but maybe someone else saying it (and better) will mean more. Why Leaders Shouldn't Try To Do It All I enjoyed (and agreed with) this article on Skip Level 1:1s I thought this article on The River: A Better Way to Code…

the nuance and terror of managing up

I'm back. I never left, and I never stopped consuming content - I just took a break from sharing things I liked. The break is over - and while nobody complained about no posts for a month here are some things to look at anyway. Tim Ottinger has a nice article on Estimates vs. No Estimates which a lot of you should probably read.

wrapping up my probably too hard puzzle

a small rant on feedback

last chance to solve the 2025 angryweasel puzzle

the risks of risk management

some of my experiences on influencing without authority

some thoughts on leading vs. telling

making space for mental health

why leaders need to trust those closest to the problem

merging psychological safety and five dysfunctions

time to piss people off again with practical advice

let's talk about adversity

when you do the same thing twice, you'll probably learn the same lessons

you're going to need a framework

the dying art of being self-aware

trying hard stuff for the heck of it

dumb science projects

sometimes the best things aren't bright and shiny

as if there weren't enough opinions on the crowdstrike issues

the importance of decision making

thirty years in software, and people still don't know what to measure

a few thoughts on tech's latest obsession

yet again, I'm writing about organizational health

some thoughts on the right-brained future of tech

some pondering on toxic vs. dysfunctional

the overload dilemma is wrecking us

the continuous quest for magic in the world of software