Posts
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Everything is Text...
I’ve been writing code with LLMs for nearly two years. I’ve tried all sorts of tools, pushed tools through every workflow. But the breakthrough wasn’t a new app or model or even a better prompt — it was the humble markdown file. Plain, portable markdown text. With LLMs, the game is in how you get your context to the model. And the more you treat as text, the more you unlock.
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You Are a Prism
In his seminal High Output Management, Andy Grove captures a key management role: filtering information. Managers do this in two directions. As a manager, you take in organizational context and distill it down to the key pieces your team needs to be successful. Similarly, you take all the information your team is creating and distill it for leadership, your manager, and your peers. You filter information, sharpen it, and pass it along.
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Start with Your Feet and Look to the Horizon
Having mentored and managed numerous Engineering Managers, I’ve often seen them navigating new, sometimes overwhelming, leadership challenges. Whether they’re onboarding onto an unfamiliar team, building a new team from scratch, or leading through significant changes like a shift in scope or a key team member leaving, the uncertainty can be daunting.
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Push vs Pull Learning
As a software engineer, you’re always in learning mode—whether it’s a new tech stack, a fresh codebase, or an unfamiliar domain. When someone on my team is onboarding to something new, they often ask me, “What’s the best way to get up to speed?” The answer varies, but I find it helpful to discuss two key approaches to learning: push learning and pull learning.
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A Portfolio of Work
At any level of engineering, you are responsible for some work. Early in your career, it’s a ticket, a task. The work is narrow but likely deep. As you grow in your engineering leadership career, your purview becomes broader. And at some point, you’re no longer responsible for one thing. You become responsible for a collection of work. We call this a portfolio of work. Your portfolio of work and how you manage it constitute the impact you can make. And the further along you get in your career, the more nuance exists in how you can manage it.