Mindset
149 articles · all categories
29 articles from 2025 · show all
December 2025
Are you playing games you want to win?
As we enter the funny week-without-time between Christmas and New Year, it's a great time to reflect. Here's a framework I like to use.
November 2025
How to lead a project
you were asked to lead or own a project. Now what? Here are a few practical steps to help you succeed.
*People* detangle a ball of mud
Ball of mud is the world's most popular software architecture. The one we all use at work. But it sucks to work with. So what do you do?
The unreasonable effectiveness of stack ranking
Stakeholders are silly people. Everything feels important and urgent. Stack ranking helps
October 2025
Chesterton's true lesson
Too many engineers cry chestertons fence and never check why the code exists
The job behind the job [of a high level IC]
Advancing big goals while you stay on top of operational day-to-day fires _is the job_. This is hard. Here are a few tips I've found helpful.
Make sure it works first
Explore the importance of functionality over elegance in Swizec's latest piece. Learn from his experience of tripling an engineering team's size within a year.
Feedback is a strange thing
Performance oscillates around your mean. Your average is what matters.
The grind won't get you there
Don't grind on something the company doesn't value. Hard work is not rewarded. **_Outcomes_** are rewarded.
September 2025
How to be witty and off-the-cuff as a slow deep thinker
Deep thinking is the super power of wit
Should you join an AI startup right now?
Beyond income there's 2 reasons to take any specific job: Invest in yourself or invest in the company. Both is best.
July 2025
What makes a senior engineer
The base expectation for engineers is that you don't just build whatever you're asked.
A few more thoughts on mentoring
Wanted to share a few more thoughts on my mentoring philosophy and answer questions that readers asked
Cursor background agents in Slack changed my workflow
a couple weeks ago Cursor launched a Slack integration and ... wow. First time I can say AI *changed* my workflow
June 2025
My mentoring philosophy
Yesterday I had lunch with a newly promoted lead and realized I have opinions on mentoring engineers. Here they are.
May 2025
You're a business
Quick thought from a conversation with friends
Stateless decision making
Do you ever feel like your brain is full and there's so much going on you can barely keep up? Me too.
Your interview is a sales call
I've been doing hiring manager screens lately. Here's a few tips.
How do you find time for cleanup work
A reader asks how do you find time for technical cleanup work. If OKRs and bugs take priority, when will you make improvements?
April 2025
What to work on next?
Younger engineers keep asking how I prioritize in a chaotic environment. Here's my approach.
The difference between a product and a project
A project is something you do, a product is something you own.
March 2025
Sprint vs Shape Up vs Kanban
Whenever I talk about sprints, someone mentions Shape Up. So you have 9 week sprints – what's the difference?
Why sprints
For the past few months I've been introducing sprints into a chaotic startup that's been growing so fast everyone's got whiplash. Since August, 5 engineers turned into 12. I think it's starting to work.
Why sprints
For the past few months I've been introducing sprints into a chaotic startup that's been growing so fast everyone's got whiplash. Since August, 5 engineers turned into 12. I think it's starting to work.
Talk to more users sooner
Debate less, ship more.
February 2025
Depth takes time
It takes about 3 years to experience the consequences of your own decisions.
Code yourself out of the job
Let go of your legos and let others do the work.
How *do* you break down a large project? INVEST
Going from Big Vision to Series of Executable Steps is a key skill for senior+ engineers. PMs can help but they don't know everything.
January 2025
The score takes care of itself
Less talking more doing