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Latest — 06 Mar 2026

Firing Minds to Hire Mobs

We stand on the shoulders of giants and then shut them up. We cite Aristotle in conference talks and train juniors breadth-first. We name-drop Seneca and hand new developers Copilot. We revere the lineage and reject the lesson, which has been the same lesson since Athens: go deep before you

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Most Mentoring Is Fake

What are you full of shit about? She asked me that every week. Not "what challenges are you facing." Not "what's on your mind." That. The first month I gave her clean reports. Professional, organized, everything's fine. She'd look at

Your Code Is the Least Interesting Thing You Produce

I've been writing code since 1985. Forty-one years. Somewhere around year thirty I realized the code was never the point.

Polyculture vs. DEI: Why They're Not the Same Thing

Hook: When I describe polyculture teams, some people hear "diversity hiring." They're solving different problems. Here's why polyculture matters even if you're already focused on DEI—and how to add it without abandoning your existing commitments. Let me address something directly. When

Retention Is Onboarding That Never Ends

Hook: You invested three months in onboarding your new hire. Then you forgot about them. Now they're leaving, and you're surprised. You shouldn't be. Companies treat onboarding like it has an end date. Day 90 arrives. The "new hire" label comes off.

The Onboarding That Actually Works

Hook: Your new hire's first week is reading documentation, attending HR sessions, and feeling lost. By month three, they're wondering if they made a mistake. Here's how to fix that. Most engineering onboarding is terrible. Week one: HR paperwork, IT setup, compliance training, reading

Why Your Job Posting Attracts the Wrong People

Hook: Your job posting says you want a "rockstar engineer who thrives in fast-paced environments." You're getting exactly what you asked for. That's the problem. Let's read a typical job posting: We're looking for a senior rockstar engineer to join

The Interview That Finds Archetypes

Your interviews test whether candidates can code. They don't test whether candidates will make your team better. Here's how to fix that. Standard tech interviews have a problem. They test algorithmic thinking on a whiteboard. They test whether candidates can invert a binary tree, reverse a

Hiring for Polyculture: Beyond the Senior Engineer Fetish

Hook: Your hiring strategy is "hire the best senior engineers we can afford." It's also why your team is dysfunctional. Here's a better way. Let's talk about the most common hiring mistake in tech. Company has growth. Company needs engineers. Recruiter says:

Fast Growers: When Ambition Becomes Self-Destruction

You're grinding harder than everyone. You're growing faster than everyone. You're also falling apart—but you won't admit it until it's too late. Let's talk about what happens when growth becomes a god. You measure yourself by velocity.