Software Lead Weekly

Curiosity Is Compound Interest for Your Brain
11 minutes read.

"The cost (of AI tools): creativity disappears. Creativity requires sitting with an unresolved problem long enough to see new angles. When you pull the lever every three minutes, the angles never form. [...] AI tools simulate the satisfaction of curiosity without building the internal architecture that makes curiosity compound. You feel like you learned something. You retain nothing that transfers. [...] Extraction: the AI answers, you receive, nothing builds. Construction: the AI assists, you struggle, the network forms. This doesn't mean AI tools are useless. It means they're costly in ways the interface hides. Every pull of the lever is a trade: immediate answer for deferred capability." -- a fantastic essay to start the year with. It covers nothing on AI tools and everything about nurturing your inherent curiosity, where you decide it matters.

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When a Git Repo Has *.Md in Its Gitignore
1 minutes read.

My humble effort to help you start the weekend with a smile.

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Re-Orgs Are Often Done on “Vibes” (And Bias) Cloaked in Analysis and Rationality.
3 minutes read.

It's incredible how much we've lost in our ability to build teams and set structure since the term "Conway's Law" was popularized. Org structure changes became the solution to every fundamental problem. Most of the time, we lack the right talent, the right plan and the right incentives structure, way before we lack the structure to support it.

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Getting Real With LLMs
6 minutes read.

Gilad Peleg shares a practical framework for understanding when and where to use AI effectively. I've seen him using it in action (we work together at Forter), and others will benefit from exploring their ecosystem with that framework in hand. Today, closed-loop systems benefit most from AI tools, and engineers who know how to quickly enable closed-loop systems within existing software will be able to expand their impact in the organization.

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Keep the Robots Out of the Gym: Be Careful Where You Get Help From AI
3 minutes read.

This post goes well with the post about curiosity I've shared above. Once you decide where you want to develop your skills, learn when and how to use AI so you can focus on the craftsmanship. I like the framing of "Job skills" and "Gym skills".

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Publishing Your Work Increases Your Luck
5 minutes read.

It's a new year, and with that, you can decide to increase your luck surface area by making your work more visible to others. Use it to teach others the lessons you've learned and to inspire them to try new things and share them with others, too.

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@staysaasy: When you're hiring execs who had prior experience at a rocket ship company, there's nothing more dangerous than accidentally hiring someone who was a passenger but had just a good enough view of the cockpit that they can pretend they were the pilot

@CoachDanGo: I woke up. My family is healthy. We’ve got a roof over our head & food on our table. We’ve got clean drinking water & fast internet. Life is good. I am thankful.