Software Lead Weekly
Issue #653, 30th May 2025
This Week's Favorite
After Months of Coding With LLMs, I'm Going Back to Using My Brain
7 minutes read.
The best engineers find ways to leverage their skills and the latest technology to provide value to their users more quickly and sustainably, so we can support that value and build on top of that: "So yes, I’m worried about the impact of AI, but I’m not worried about the jobs, I’m worried about losing my mental sharpness, my ability to plan out features and write tidy and functional code. [...] I'm writing this as someone super excited about new tech, someone who loves to be an early adopter, someone who is still really enthusiastic about AI. I think and hope we’ll get there eventually, but as of right now we’re in a very weird time, where the tools look amazing, everyone tells you they’re amazing, but they’re actually good-but-not-great, and they're potentially making us dumber."
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
7 minutes read.
The best engineers find ways to leverage their skills and the latest technology to provide value to their users more quickly and sustainably, so we can support that value and build on top of that: "So yes, I’m worried about the impact of AI, but I’m not worried about the jobs, I’m worried about losing my mental sharpness, my ability to plan out features and write tidy and functional code. [...] I'm writing this as someone super excited about new tech, someone who loves to be an early adopter, someone who is still really enthusiastic about AI. I think and hope we’ll get there eventually, but as of right now we’re in a very weird time, where the tools look amazing, everyone tells you they’re amazing, but they’re actually good-but-not-great, and they're potentially making us dumber."
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
Culture
"Man Singing a Song About Being a Venture Capitalist" Made by #Veo3, but I'm Pretty Sure I've Met This Guy...
1 minutes read.
My humble effort to help you start the weekend with a smile on your face.
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1 minutes read.
My humble effort to help you start the weekend with a smile on your face.
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
Why LFI (Learning From Incidents) Is a Tough Sell
4 minutes read.
"The RCA approach implicitly assumes there’s only a single thing that we didn’t know: the root cause of the incident. Once we find that, we’re done. To believe that the LFI approach is worth doing, you need to believe that there is a whole bunch of things about the system that people don’t know, not just a single vulnerability." -- In complex systems, thinking that there is a root cause to anything is a bit naive. Leadership teams that convey the notion this is possible (a single failure due to a single reason) create a team that builds brittle systems.
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
4 minutes read.
"The RCA approach implicitly assumes there’s only a single thing that we didn’t know: the root cause of the incident. Once we find that, we’re done. To believe that the LFI approach is worth doing, you need to believe that there is a whole bunch of things about the system that people don’t know, not just a single vulnerability." -- In complex systems, thinking that there is a root cause to anything is a bit naive. Leadership teams that convey the notion this is possible (a single failure due to a single reason) create a team that builds brittle systems.
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
10 Years of Engineering Ladders
4 minutes read.
"You should not try to create a ladder that functions as a pure checklist or scorecard that guarantees promotion if people check enough boxes; promotions are as much about the needs of the organization as the skills of the employees." and "Details matter. Your ladder should be more prescriptive than a horoscope; it’s impossible to avoid all subjective language like “increasing complexity”, “large systems”, “high impact”, but pay attention to where you use that and try to provide ways of roughly measuring this where possible." are great two insights by Camille Fournier for those of you who are considering writing and publishing a Career Ladder. We published ours at Forter, and it continues to help shape our thinking as we build the organization. We continue to iterate every year as our needs change, and so does the industry.
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
4 minutes read.
"You should not try to create a ladder that functions as a pure checklist or scorecard that guarantees promotion if people check enough boxes; promotions are as much about the needs of the organization as the skills of the employees." and "Details matter. Your ladder should be more prescriptive than a horoscope; it’s impossible to avoid all subjective language like “increasing complexity”, “large systems”, “high impact”, but pay attention to where you use that and try to provide ways of roughly measuring this where possible." are great two insights by Camille Fournier for those of you who are considering writing and publishing a Career Ladder. We published ours at Forter, and it continues to help shape our thinking as we build the organization. We continue to iterate every year as our needs change, and so does the industry.
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
Big Bets
5 minutes read.
I can feel the pain of Jack Danger of being pitched (or forced to) a Big Bet and seeing the many downsides of executing it. It's an eye-opener to ensure you understand how to protect yourself and your team by setting better expectations and involving your go-to-market teams, not just your engineering and product teams. Success requires demonstrating utilization, clear value to your customers, and a clear path to scale it.
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
5 minutes read.
I can feel the pain of Jack Danger of being pitched (or forced to) a Big Bet and seeing the many downsides of executing it. It's an eye-opener to ensure you understand how to protect yourself and your team by setting better expectations and involving your go-to-market teams, not just your engineering and product teams. Success requires demonstrating utilization, clear value to your customers, and a clear path to scale it.
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
Peopleware
The Copilot Delusion
7 minutes read.
"Because you don’t know what you don’t know. That’s the cruel joke. We’ll fill this industry with people who think they’re good, because their bot passed CI. They'll float through, confident, while the real ones - the hungry ones - get chewed up by a system that doesn’t value understanding anymore. Just output. Just tokens per second. [...] Defer your thinking to the bot, and we all rot." -- Defer your thinking to someone else, bot or human, who believes they can only be right, and we all rot. Taste comes from deeper insights, from nuances around how humans and machines interact. We may reach a point where this, too, will be solved. In 2025, we scratch the surface.
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
7 minutes read.
"Because you don’t know what you don’t know. That’s the cruel joke. We’ll fill this industry with people who think they’re good, because their bot passed CI. They'll float through, confident, while the real ones - the hungry ones - get chewed up by a system that doesn’t value understanding anymore. Just output. Just tokens per second. [...] Defer your thinking to the bot, and we all rot." -- Defer your thinking to someone else, bot or human, who believes they can only be right, and we all rot. Taste comes from deeper insights, from nuances around how humans and machines interact. We may reach a point where this, too, will be solved. In 2025, we scratch the surface.
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
You Can’t Outsource Drive. You Can Only Design for It.
3 minutes read.
"And that’s the part nobody tells you. Hard work isn’t a personality trait. It’s energy management. It’s not about discipline or hustling or some deep moral virtue, it’s about what your system reinforces. [...] But most people do want to do great work they’re just stuck in systems that deaden effort. Want hard work? Design for it. Create a culture where ownership is real, feedback is fast, and the cost of apathy is visible." -- Stuck in systems that deaden effort. That's a powerful framing. What does your intuition tell you? Where should you invest to improve the environment?
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
3 minutes read.
"And that’s the part nobody tells you. Hard work isn’t a personality trait. It’s energy management. It’s not about discipline or hustling or some deep moral virtue, it’s about what your system reinforces. [...] But most people do want to do great work they’re just stuck in systems that deaden effort. Want hard work? Design for it. Create a culture where ownership is real, feedback is fast, and the cost of apathy is visible." -- Stuck in systems that deaden effort. That's a powerful framing. What does your intuition tell you? Where should you invest to improve the environment?
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
Five Opinions I’ve Kept, Let Go, and Picked Up as a Software Builder and Leader
5 minutes read.
Wonderful format and great insights by João Alves. If you had to write a similar document, what would you share with your team?
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
5 minutes read.
Wonderful format and great insights by João Alves. If you had to write a similar document, what would you share with your team?
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
Inspiring Tweets
@garrytan: Something absolutely everyone should be doing right now, to get ahead of the coming wave of AI change: Identify toilsome tasks in your work and life that AI could handle, freeing you up for higher-value activities. There is massive alpha in being the 1st expert in your field.
- Oren
P.S. Can you share this email? I'd love for more people to experiment and improve their company's culture.
P.S. Can you share this email? I'd love for more people to experiment and improve their company's culture.