Short thoughts that are cross-posted to X (Twitter), Bluesky, Mastodon, LinkedIn and Threads.
“The Failure Mode of Clever (is asshole)”
Applies to some OSS commenters I’ve seen…
Great take from John Scalzi (who also writes GREAT sci-fi books).
https://whatever.scalzi.com/2010/06/16/the-failure-state-of-clever/
Anil has a decent framework here for thinking if you’ll actually be happy in a job.
https://anildash.com/2026/01/12/will-that-job-crush-your-soul/
Great and nuanced take from creator of Redis.
If you’re still in the “these tools are useless” camp or “these tools are unethical so I won’t use them”: you’ve not understood how things have already changed.
I like this take on how to get promoted.
My experience has been that promotions come from finding and doing important work.
Being spoon-fed is fine for juniors but a negative signal for those seeking e.g. staff+ promotions.
https://andrew.grahamyooll.com/blog/Try-to-Take-My-Position/
I find myself referring too often to the “is it worth the time?” xkcd.
This works best when the person doing the automation is also the person saving the time.
It’s that time of year again to look at your calendar like Marie Kondo and ask:
“Does this (meeting) spark joy?”
If not: try to cancel or shorten it.
Would love it if people expressing strong opinions about open source declared what project(s) they’ve maintained and for how long. Would help weed out the uninformed.
Strongly agree with “The Move Faster Manifesto”. This matches my experiences at GitHub, Homebrew, Workbrew. You can also be fast and sustainable.
https://brianguthrie.com/p/the-move-faster-manifesto/
I agree with Sean here. The industry default seems to be “idealistic about engineering, cynical about management”. Things work better if you’re a little cynical about both.
https://www.seangoedecke.com/a-little-bit-cynical/
This analysis of Valve’s approach to hardware was really interesting. I have bought all their hardware and will likely buy all the new stuff and this helps explain why.
https://www.garbagecollected.dev/p/valve-the-reverse-apple
