The Programmers’ Identity Crisis: how do we use our powers for ‘good’?

Reading Time: 3 minutesHi folks! I want to start doing an end-of-year giving tradition on my workshop website, so I’ve come up with a plan. If you use the code giving-2024 in the shop between today and December 31, you’ll get 10% off your purchase, and the entirety of your purchase (all the dollars; I won’t even take […]

Reading Time: 14 minutes In March I published a piece called How do we evaluate people for their technical leadership? It demonstrates (I hope) why production line metrics shouldn’t be copied and pasted onto knowledge work. Then, in a cunning move I ripped from email marketers, I reach the titular question at the very end of the piece and […]

Reading Time: 23 minutes This post from a week ago talked about three decision-making traps that technical leaders fall into like flies into a honey jar: These traps wreak havoc in individual decision making. So, naturally, we’ve ported the assumptions underlying these traps to many of the structures we use to make decisions in teams. Then,...

Reading Time: 15 minutes Tech’s favorite party trick is promoting programmers into leadership roles with zero coaching on how to make the transition, or even a briefing on what the role entails. The programmer accepts the promotion because…I mean, of course you’d accept a promotion. Then, they quickly find themselves in over their heads. In my...

Reading Time: 20 minutes “Let’s start with cars.” My students break out into groups of four, each quartet gathered around a collection of pink and green post-it notes. For the first few minutes, the room remains quiet while each student jots down a personal story about one way that cars have impacted their lives. As the students finish and […]