What Good Execution Looks Like

The other day I was talking with one of my directs. We ended up discussing something we’ve both learned over the years. When execution works, the environment is quiet. Not slow. Not passive. Quiet. Execution happens. People work together. Nothing feels heavy. You sort of question if there’s management in all this or their very existence. That’s a good thing. […]

Managing Your Manager

Managers change more often than you realize, especially when a company is growing or downsizing. New roles, new org charts, new reporting lines. Other times, you’re shopping around and you find yourself interviewing your future boss and trying to read between the lines. Ultimately, you will have a new manager in one way or another. Sometimes you end up reporting […]

AI Broke Interviews

Interviewing has always been a big can of worms in the software industry. For years, big tech has gone with the LeetCode style questions mixed with a few behavioural and system design rounds. Before that, it was brainteasers. I still remember how you would move Mount Fuji era. Tech has never really had good interviewing, but the question remains: how […]

Most of What We Call Progress

Most of what we call progress in software is just motion. New tools, new frameworks, same problems. Maybe fancier logos. Our industry always has this collective thrill that a new fancy method, framework, process will make things infinitely better. Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps. I’ve watched that excitement enough times to recognize its cycles. Years ago, a colleague was setting up Apache […]

Managers Have Been Vibe Coding All Along

Everyone’s been talking about vibe coding lately. I’ve been doing it myself. Launched two projects. Okutaç and Caccepted. It’s the kind of work where you don’t analyze, architect, or overthink. You start simple. You come up with features. You poke at the product until it makes sense. You skip the logs, skip the diagrams, and rely on repetition and intuition […]