Become a more effective leader with this guide covering AI's "cognitive debt," the art of concise communication, empowering "normal" engineers, the difference between being liked and being effective, and strategies for managing the lows of leadership.
Is your prioritization framework flawed? This week, learn to master strategic urgency, disagree productively, and fix expectation mismatches with your manager. Plus: why your team needs more boredom.
Discover how pizza orders predicted global crises, why AI chatbots can be persuaded like humans, and the secret to hiring engineers who build great teams.
Feeding the error messages back into the LLM is the "banging the tv to fix the picture" of our generation.
No, I didn't "forget your name", I didn't store it in the first place, it's called being GDPR compliant. Lead Forward, Even When the Path Isn’t Clear * 🌫 When the road disappears, leadership shines — True leadership emerges not when everything’s predictable,
From what tech workers are telling me, AI has been automating the role of "CEO's annoying nephew who needs to be included in your project or you get fired" The deadline doom loop * 🔄 The Vicious Cycle — The core idea is the “Deadline Doom Loop,” a cycle
Moore’s Law states that every two years, we double the amount of time we waste on computers. The Software Engineer Spectrum: Speed vs. Accuracy * 📊 Challenging the traditional “junior-mid-senior” career ladder — arguing it’s too linear and fails to capture the different ways an engineer can be valuable beyond just
hacker: I am spying on you through your webcam linux user: omg you got it working? Eyes light up (ELU) This is the moment when your audience is viscerally, undeniably excited about what you’re talking about. Aim for ELU. * 🔥 Growth comes from recognizing patterns — Understanding common patterns in successful
Why do we say 'slept like a baby'? Babies wake up every two hours crying. I want to sleep like my cat. 14 hours, no responsibilities, zero regrets. 5 things I learned from 5 years at Vercel “When I joined in 2020, we were 30 people and had
Boss: wow this web portal is really fast, light and responsive Me: of course it was 100% developed on Train WiFi it had to be light 😂 Maartje Leading with Integrity: Why the Best Leaders Are Models of Values * 🎯 Integrity isn’t just about honesty — it’s about a deep congruence
It's a common misconception that types exist on computers. In reality everything is just integers, except for floating point which are integers but fancy Eniko Fox Expert Generalists * 🧠 The core idea is the “T-shaped” individual — someone who combines deep, expert knowledge in one area (the vertical bar of
The hardest problem in computer science is getting someone to clearly describe a problem Tying yourself to the mast How to keep commitments * ⛵️ The Ulysses Pact — The central idea is the “Ulysses Pact” or commitment device — a strategy where your present self makes a choice that intentionally limits the options
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The 3 kinds of queues are: - FIFO - LIFO - FAFO Matthew Martin The hidden time bomb in the tax code that's fueling mass tech layoffs * 💸 A tax rule change — part of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act — is the primary issue. Since 2022, companies can
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When standing as a group of people, always leave room for 1 person to join your group. The Pac-Man Rule of Conferences Ephemeral taskforce * 🚀 Core Idea — Ephemeral taskforces are temporary, focused units bringing together diverse skills to solve a specific, critical problem, then disbanding — offering agility without permanent restructuring. * 🎯 Key
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I don’t hold on to anything, don’t reject anything; nowhere an obstacle or conflict. Layman Pang How to make architecture decisions * ⚖️ Embrace Trade-offs — Architectural decisions are rarely about finding a “perfect” solution, but rather understanding and choosing the best set of compromises — or the “least bad” option — for
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Your mind is a mad monkey trying to understand life which is unfair and crazy. Get used to it. Maxime Lagacé Complain & Propose * 😠 The Problem with Unadorned Complaints * Simply complaining without offering a way forward can be unproductive — it often fosters negativity, drains collective energy, and implicitly places the
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Have the fearless attitude of a hero and the loving heart of a child. Soyen Shaku Lessons learned in 35 years of making software * 🧑🤝🧑 Human Element is Central — Software development is fundamentally about people — users, stakeholders, and the team. Effective communication, empathy, and understanding motivations are often more critical than
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We just let it happen… and that’s the beauty of this technique. Bob Ross The CTO's Hidden Notebook * 📓 Beyond the Code — The article posits that a CTO's effectiveness hinges significantly on mastering aspects beyond pure technology. This “hidden notebook” contains the unwritten rules and implicit
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Purity is something that cannot be attained except by piling effort upon effort. Yamamoto Tsunetomo Seven tips to help you succeed when presenting to executives * 😬 — Presenting to executives is high-stakes; success makes a positive impression, while stumbling can create a negative one. * ⏱️ — Executives are a demanding audience, often short on
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Little people try to control everything. Thus, they control nothing. Wise people focus on one thing, the most important, and let go of the rest. - Maxime Lagacé Goal-O-Rama * 🎯 Product teams often fall into “goal-o-rama” — setting too many goals that become overwhelming and counterproductive, particularly when they cascade KPIs and
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The first and the best victory is to conquer self. - Plato Design Your Organization for the Conflicts You Want to Hear About 🔍 The author presents two key organization design principles: * Design for the conflicts you want to hear about * Don't put department B under department A unless
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Treat every moment as your last. It is not preparation for something else. - Shunryu Suzuki Salary expectations questions - How should you answer them? How to approach the dreaded salary expectation question as a candidate. * ❓ Understand the employer's motive: Companies ask about salary expectations primarily to ensure
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Relax. Nothing’s missing. - Maxime Lagacé 💡Wait… something has changed, right? Well, yes. I've decided to leave Substack. I'm now using the Ghost platform, but the rest is unchanged — the same old newsletter. PwC’s 2024 Workforce Radar Report * 🔄 Transformation Urgency — Business leaders must act
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The mind of the beginner is empty, free of the habits of the expert, ready to accept, to doubt, and open to all the possibilities. - Shunryu Suzuki 💡Wait… something has changed, right? Well, yes. I've decided to leave Substack. I'm now using the Ghost platform,