productivity

"But if AI does it all, what's *my* job?"

On AI, mental load, and delegation

What you need to make an agent

I've been digging into agents for internal tooling and processes. Looking for how to scale without drowning in manual work. Here's what I found

AI now writes 97% of my code. Here's what I learned

Forget the bullshit tips and tricks, just talk to it.

Watch people work

We talk a lot about outcomes over outputs and how engineers are supposed to get us over the water, not blindly build a bridge because someone asked for a bridge. But how do you do that in practice?

Frustration Driven Development

Frustration is your greatest engineering asset. What do you do the 5th time someone asks for the same damn thing yet again?

In praise of the stacked pull request

How fast you do code review is how fast you do everything. Your PR queue is the leading indicator of team velocity. Stacked PRs can help.

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.

How do you prioritize?

How do you choose what to work on first? As an empowered engineer that's a key skill.

Your next mountain, pt2

3+1 quick book recommendations to help you think about next year

You can side-step a yak, they don't all need to be shaved

When yaks aren't procrastination, they might be tunnel vision. You're so focused on the right solution, you miss the good enough solution

Better is good

A small improvement that lands is better than a large improvement stuck in review

Scaling Fast, my talk on lessons from tech startups

This talk from C3Fest summarizes the key lessons I've learned in the past ~15 years of working in tech startups. It's a high level overview of a new book I'm writing (60% done).

The dangers of spurious automation and how to automate anything

Discover the potential pitfalls of spurious automation and learn a foolproof three-step process to automate any task effectively. Don't miss out on understanding when automation is truly beneficial and when it can become a hindrance.

Outputs are not outcomes

Doing the work is not the same as getting things done

Be action oriented

Unearth the surprising connection between the CIA's Simple Sabotage Manual and your productivity, and learn how to transform tiny actions into big wins. Dive into Swizec's engaging exploration of how small actions can make a huge impact on your progress.

Software engineers, exercise, health, and productivity

Don't worry about the hype, just get some sun, some rest, and remember to hydrate.

Done means Shipped

Don't overthink, just ship

Squash merge? Really!?

Learn why squash merging is your friend - from hating it to loving it! Squash merging helps you keep moving and focus on the work instead of recording the work.

Why trunk-based development is best

Merging finished work straight to main and deploying to production right away, scales to teams of thousands. This approach is counterintuitive to many engineers who may be used to working on their own

Scaling teams is a technical challenge

A founder friend asked me about growing pains on his team. How do you avoid stepping on each other's toes?

The art of the cowboy merge 🤠

how do you catch a critical deadline that cannot be missed? We're talking external stakeholders, millions on the line, and it all hinges on *your* team getting it done on time. No overtime

Reader Question: What do collaborative teams look like?

New members on our team invariably say 2 things: 1. Wow I've never seen a team move this fast 2. This approach feels weird. I'm uncomfortable Teams like this are not common.

Reader question: So about that perfect burndown chart ...

If your approach works so well, why isn't every team doing this?

Reader question: Feeling guilt as a tech lead

Keep getting the guilt, that I'm not able to code, just running around for discussions and solving other issues, managing people. Any idea to manage all the fronts and get rid of this guilt?

A work ritual that keeps me sane

A coworker asked me for tips on how to stay focused during the day. Here's what I said.

How we made the best burndown chart you've ever seen

My entire career I've never seen a sprint finished on time. The new manager said "Oh I think we can fix that" ... 18 months later he proved me wrong

WorkInProgress kills your progress

If it takes 6 engineers 10 days to complete 6 projects in parallel, why does it take 8 days when you work together 🤨

When you code, write down everything

I've hit a glass ceiling of coding productivity. Now what?

A case for multi-tasking