Software Lead Weekly
Issue #673, 17th October 2025
This Week's Favorite
What Two Competing Solutions to the Same Design Problem Tell About the Future of Designing AI Interfaces
6 minutes read.
What a fascinating product challenge: offering a UI/UX that allows users to define complex workflows, with some parts being deterministic and others probabilistic. Emmet Connolly shares the differences between OpenAI and Fin in creating such interfaces and the differences between them. It might inspire some interesting discussions in your company as you consider its implications for your products.
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
6 minutes read.
What a fascinating product challenge: offering a UI/UX that allows users to define complex workflows, with some parts being deterministic and others probabilistic. Emmet Connolly shares the differences between OpenAI and Fin in creating such interfaces and the differences between them. It might inspire some interesting discussions in your company as you consider its implications for your products.
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
Culture
Here’s How Many Subscribers I Had Each Year as a Kid and How Bad My Haircut Was
1 minutes read.
My humble effort to help you start the weekend with a smile on your face. MrBeast is a legend and an “overnight success” even when it comes to his haircut.
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
1 minutes read.
My humble effort to help you start the weekend with a smile on your face. MrBeast is a legend and an “overnight success” even when it comes to his haircut.
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
Failing to Understand the Exponential, Again
5 minutes read.
"Given consistent trends of exponential performance improvements over many years and across many industries, it would be extremely surprising if these improvements suddenly stopped. [...] It may sound overly simplistic, but making predictions by extrapolating straight lines on graphs is likely to give you a better model of the future than most "experts" - even better than most actual domain experts!" -- Julian Schrittwieser's take here is why we all need to adopt and iterate with AI, as it will clearly shift the way we work.
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
5 minutes read.
"Given consistent trends of exponential performance improvements over many years and across many industries, it would be extremely surprising if these improvements suddenly stopped. [...] It may sound overly simplistic, but making predictions by extrapolating straight lines on graphs is likely to give you a better model of the future than most "experts" - even better than most actual domain experts!" -- Julian Schrittwieser's take here is why we all need to adopt and iterate with AI, as it will clearly shift the way we work.
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
Not Just Scale
5 minutes read.
"Simplicity is a property of systems, not components. Systems include people and processes." -- I love how Marc Brooker adds more dimensions to Scale to fully understand business traits often required to build a system that can serve the company.
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
5 minutes read.
"Simplicity is a property of systems, not components. Systems include people and processes." -- I love how Marc Brooker adds more dimensions to Scale to fully understand business traits often required to build a system that can serve the company.
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
What if Hard Work Felt Easier?
5 minutes read.
I shared this post by Jean Hsu because it's a worthy debate to have on how to figure out your working motion, leverage your energy, invest your time, and, above all, learn new things. "If you’re leading a team, the most effective way to get output is not to mandate effort or hours. It’s to help people find work that feels easy for them — not necessarily work they already know how to do, but work that feels obvious for them to get done by whatever means possible." -- Make sure you build a team that can fit the work and challenges at hand.
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
5 minutes read.
I shared this post by Jean Hsu because it's a worthy debate to have on how to figure out your working motion, leverage your energy, invest your time, and, above all, learn new things. "If you’re leading a team, the most effective way to get output is not to mandate effort or hours. It’s to help people find work that feels easy for them — not necessarily work they already know how to do, but work that feels obvious for them to get done by whatever means possible." -- Make sure you build a team that can fit the work and challenges at hand.
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
Peopleware
996 Is Not Your Competition
4 minutes read.
I view Nikunj Kothari's take more as a danger zone analysis than something to optimize for. Joy or fun by itself is not a good target. I'm trying to solve for being proud of my work if I had to tell it to my kids in a few years. Being around the people you respect and learn from is a great indicator. If you're proud of the problem you're solving together, the stories you share when you make progress are the ones you'll remember as fun. I don't think they were fun when you grinded, and that's okay. Struggle is a big part of our lives.
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
4 minutes read.
I view Nikunj Kothari's take more as a danger zone analysis than something to optimize for. Joy or fun by itself is not a good target. I'm trying to solve for being proud of my work if I had to tell it to my kids in a few years. Being around the people you respect and learn from is a great indicator. If you're proud of the problem you're solving together, the stories you share when you make progress are the ones you'll remember as fun. I don't think they were fun when you grinded, and that's okay. Struggle is a big part of our lives.
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
Alan Watts Explained Why Your Need for Control Is What’s Keeping You Anxious
2 minutes read.
"The illusion that we can control the future" is a powerful takeaway. It's in our nature as we want to protect ourselves and the surroundings we love, so we try to predict and prepare. It's hard to separate the preparation side (which is necessary) from the feeling that we can control the outcomes or think we can predict enough steps in advance.
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
2 minutes read.
"The illusion that we can control the future" is a powerful takeaway. It's in our nature as we want to protect ourselves and the surroundings we love, so we try to predict and prepare. It's hard to separate the preparation side (which is necessary) from the feeling that we can control the outcomes or think we can predict enough steps in advance.
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
Embracing the Parallel Coding Agent Lifestyle
4 minutes read.
Simon Willison's notes on how he changes the way he writes code can open up some interesting debates within your team. Simon constantly tries new ways of work while adding a lot of value by sharing (in his blog) insights, observations, and some pitfalls you should be aware of. It is probably next year that a lot of the content around coding agents will focus on orchestration and management.
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
4 minutes read.
Simon Willison's notes on how he changes the way he writes code can open up some interesting debates within your team. Simon constantly tries new ways of work while adding a lot of value by sharing (in his blog) insights, observations, and some pitfalls you should be aware of. It is probably next year that a lot of the content around coding agents will focus on orchestration and management.
Read it later via Pocket or Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
Inspiring Tweets
@Er_dward: If you’re good at something, please talk more about it; your audience will find you. Hiding and silence never opened any door. Ever.
- 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.