Software Lead Weekly
Issue #686, 16th January 2026
This Week's Favorite
2025 Letter
22 minutes read.
What an incredible read, an optimistic read, from someone working for Google's DeepMind, experiencing the progress in the AI space firsthand, thinking that "it's too late!" just to see another step function improvement. It becomes clear we're only beginning, or as Zhengdong Wang writes it: "The biggest mistake people make when they make the case for AI is that they say it’s different this time. It’s not different this time because it’s always been different. There hasn’t been any constant normal trend ever, and all we’ve ever done is be optimistic that we’ll muddle through. Nothing is truly inevitable, certainly not progress. And progress, too, might stop tomorrow. All things considered, though, it would be stranger if it did than if it didn’t. I don’t want to have that hesitation, anyway. [...] This is where I get on the train—we’re so wildly early."
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22 minutes read.
What an incredible read, an optimistic read, from someone working for Google's DeepMind, experiencing the progress in the AI space firsthand, thinking that "it's too late!" just to see another step function improvement. It becomes clear we're only beginning, or as Zhengdong Wang writes it: "The biggest mistake people make when they make the case for AI is that they say it’s different this time. It’s not different this time because it’s always been different. There hasn’t been any constant normal trend ever, and all we’ve ever done is be optimistic that we’ll muddle through. Nothing is truly inevitable, certainly not progress. And progress, too, might stop tomorrow. All things considered, though, it would be stranger if it did than if it didn’t. I don’t want to have that hesitation, anyway. [...] This is where I get on the train—we’re so wildly early."
Read it later via Instapaper.
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Culture
How to Use AI Agents
1 minutes read.
My humble effort to help you start the weekend with a smile.
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1 minutes read.
My humble effort to help you start the weekend with a smile.
Read it later via Instapaper.
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The Quarterback Paradox
5 minutes read.
This post by Noam Wakrat will make you pause and think about how you spot talent (through hiring processes and brand creation) and promote them. Is it about the talent or about your environment? I think it's mostly about finding the talent, and less about the environment, in relative terms. The environment, at best, will set the upper limit of the talent (block them). The talent will, at minimum, raise the lower limit of the environment (raise everyone, or "raise the floor"). Strong talent goes beyond expectations and, in the right environment, will help the organization raise its ceiling. In most organizations, they'll let him go, their boss will tell them to "calm down and fit in," or the talent will leave because they will feel exhausted trying to raise the floor. It's still tough to find the right talent because smart people say the right things, but rarely do anything about it. So our interviews are broken because we are poorly trained at asking the right questions, and we don't have the right equipment (see within their operating system under pressure) to understand the true nature hidden within someone. All we are left with is evidence of the present and the past, and a set of sentences packed with great intentions. Talent ignores constraints and does so in ways that, most of the time, create more credibility and trust than they reduce. In Noam's post, I'd assume that most organizations gave them time not because they were smart about it and "saw greatness coming," but instead they were afraid, so they continued with their current superstar until they had to take a bet.
Read it later via Instapaper.
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5 minutes read.
This post by Noam Wakrat will make you pause and think about how you spot talent (through hiring processes and brand creation) and promote them. Is it about the talent or about your environment? I think it's mostly about finding the talent, and less about the environment, in relative terms. The environment, at best, will set the upper limit of the talent (block them). The talent will, at minimum, raise the lower limit of the environment (raise everyone, or "raise the floor"). Strong talent goes beyond expectations and, in the right environment, will help the organization raise its ceiling. In most organizations, they'll let him go, their boss will tell them to "calm down and fit in," or the talent will leave because they will feel exhausted trying to raise the floor. It's still tough to find the right talent because smart people say the right things, but rarely do anything about it. So our interviews are broken because we are poorly trained at asking the right questions, and we don't have the right equipment (see within their operating system under pressure) to understand the true nature hidden within someone. All we are left with is evidence of the present and the past, and a set of sentences packed with great intentions. Talent ignores constraints and does so in ways that, most of the time, create more credibility and trust than they reduce. In Noam's post, I'd assume that most organizations gave them time not because they were smart about it and "saw greatness coming," but instead they were afraid, so they continued with their current superstar until they had to take a bet.
Read it later via Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
Keith Rabois on How to Delegate Effectively (Video)
5 minutes read.
Keith Rabois covers two helpful frameworks to consider when delegating work (and why it's critical as a leader). The first framework is Andy Grove's "Task-relevant Maturity", and the second is Peter Thiel's "conviction x consequence". Worth practicing both to explore your preferences and maybe adjust them to your needs.
Read it later via Instapaper.
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5 minutes read.
Keith Rabois covers two helpful frameworks to consider when delegating work (and why it's critical as a leader). The first framework is Andy Grove's "Task-relevant Maturity", and the second is Peter Thiel's "conviction x consequence". Worth practicing both to explore your preferences and maybe adjust them to your needs.
Read it later via Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
Good Conversations Have Lots of Doorknobs
4 minutes read.
"Givers think that conversations unfold as a series of invitations; takers think conversations unfold as a series of declarations. When giver meets giver or taker meets taker, all is well. When giver meets taker, however, giver gives, taker takes, and giver gets resentful (“Why won’t he ask me a single question?”) while taker has a lovely time (“She must really think I’m interesting!”) or gets annoyed (“My job is so boring, why does she keep asking me about it?”). [...] Neither givers nor takers have it 100% correct, and their conflicts often come from both sides’ insistence that the other side must convert or die. Rather than mounting a Inquisition on our interlocutors, we ought to focus on perfecting our own technique. And the way to do that, I think, is by adding a bunch of doorknobs." -- Thinking about our nature in the way we conduct conversations is fascinating. It helped me think about how I behave and where I struggle (or help). Intentionally leaving "doorknobs" or "hooks" for the other side to participate is where the magic happens.
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4 minutes read.
"Givers think that conversations unfold as a series of invitations; takers think conversations unfold as a series of declarations. When giver meets giver or taker meets taker, all is well. When giver meets taker, however, giver gives, taker takes, and giver gets resentful (“Why won’t he ask me a single question?”) while taker has a lovely time (“She must really think I’m interesting!”) or gets annoyed (“My job is so boring, why does she keep asking me about it?”). [...] Neither givers nor takers have it 100% correct, and their conflicts often come from both sides’ insistence that the other side must convert or die. Rather than mounting a Inquisition on our interlocutors, we ought to focus on perfecting our own technique. And the way to do that, I think, is by adding a bunch of doorknobs." -- Thinking about our nature in the way we conduct conversations is fascinating. It helped me think about how I behave and where I struggle (or help). Intentionally leaving "doorknobs" or "hooks" for the other side to participate is where the magic happens.
Read it later via Instapaper.
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Peopleware
Promoting AI Agents
3 minutes read.
It's incredible (not surprising, yet extremely difficult) how much adoption is a function of the user experience and not only the quality of the code: "But with these autonomous agents, the experience is very different. It's more like working on a team and less like working with an overly-zealous pair programmer who can't stop stealing the keyboard to complete the code you were in the middle of writing. With a team of agents, they're doing their work autonomously, and I just review the final outcome, offer guidance when asked, and marvel at how this is possible at all. [...] Yet pure vibe coding remains an aspirational dream for professional work for me, for now. Supervised collaboration, though, is here today. I've worked alongside agents to fix small bugs, finish substantial features, and get several drafts on major new initiatives. The paradigm shift finally feels real."
Read it later via Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
3 minutes read.
It's incredible (not surprising, yet extremely difficult) how much adoption is a function of the user experience and not only the quality of the code: "But with these autonomous agents, the experience is very different. It's more like working on a team and less like working with an overly-zealous pair programmer who can't stop stealing the keyboard to complete the code you were in the middle of writing. With a team of agents, they're doing their work autonomously, and I just review the final outcome, offer guidance when asked, and marvel at how this is possible at all. [...] Yet pure vibe coding remains an aspirational dream for professional work for me, for now. Supervised collaboration, though, is here today. I've worked alongside agents to fix small bugs, finish substantial features, and get several drafts on major new initiatives. The paradigm shift finally feels real."
Read it later via Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
The Modern AI PM in the Age of Agents
6 minutes read.
This is the next evolution I see both Engineering Managers and Software Engineers will encounter, to reduce the time from insight (how to solve a business pain) to impact (value in production): "The best PMs I know have always been good at this, but it used to be one skill among many. Now it's THE skill. Can you take an ambiguous customer pain point and shape it into something clear enough that an agent or team of agents can act on it? Can you identify the constraints that actually matter? Can you articulate what success looks like? The spec isn't a document anymore. It's a well-formed problem with clear boundaries." -- just as important is how to articulate the context (and test criteria) in a succinct way that you can reuse across the product lifecycle and iterate on it as you learn more: "Understanding the problem. User empathy. Judgment. Taste."
Read it later via Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
6 minutes read.
This is the next evolution I see both Engineering Managers and Software Engineers will encounter, to reduce the time from insight (how to solve a business pain) to impact (value in production): "The best PMs I know have always been good at this, but it used to be one skill among many. Now it's THE skill. Can you take an ambiguous customer pain point and shape it into something clear enough that an agent or team of agents can act on it? Can you identify the constraints that actually matter? Can you articulate what success looks like? The spec isn't a document anymore. It's a well-formed problem with clear boundaries." -- just as important is how to articulate the context (and test criteria) in a succinct way that you can reuse across the product lifecycle and iterate on it as you learn more: "Understanding the problem. User empathy. Judgment. Taste."
Read it later via Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.
Inspiring Tweets
@bhalligan: “The best founders earn the right to listen by first having a point of view.” -- Nikesh Arora, CEO, Palo Alto Networks
- 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.