Mid Career
Inside a High-Severity Outage: A Late Night Sev-2 at Amazon
A detailed narrative of how we communicated about, worked on, and resolved a technical mess we created.
Latest
Organizations
13 Tech Career Misconceptions — Things I Wish I'd Learned Earlier
Misunderstandings about performance, promotions, influence, and leadership that most people only realize late in their careers.
People Managers
Heard of Design Patterns? How About Behavior Patterns.
Recognize patterns in management to be able to solve issues, and deliver results.
Mid Career
Writing and Speaking Clearly and Concisely - Upgrading Your Communication
Communicating takes practice and skill. Learn the ingredients to high-quality communication.
Late Career
Why You Should Give Feedback — And How to Deliver It Without the Awkward Crying
The why and how to write feedback for others.
Organizations
RTO is a lie, 3rd party misinformation, the source of my anecdotes, and how (not) to make decisions. An article of many topics!
Sometimes writing about one topic just isn't good enough.
Late Career
A Time When I Was Tricked Into Being Honest — Bringing Facts Into Work Discussions
Moving discussions from emotional interpretations to facts and metrics can move a group from conflict to problem-solving.
Late Career
Do Jerks Get Hired For Management Roles, or Does Management Create Jerks?
I assumed that certain rude personalities were promoted to leadership positions. Then I both found myself being promoted, and adopting some of those behaviors.
Late Career
The Art of Simplification: Why We (over) Build When We Should Simplify
Simplifying can add as much (or more) value as building new things. The value is frequently overlooked, which creates an unfortunate trend of spending too little effort simplifying.
Career Growth
The 150 Point Rule of Thumb. How to Strategically Approach Career Pivots.
We don't always begin our careers where we'd like them to end up. We're not stuck with jobs where we began them. I walk through paths to move your career in a new direction.
Early Career
The Six Steps to Saying No — Why Being a Team Player is Not Necessarily Great
Frequently, saying no is better than saying yes. Our teams can concentrate on the highest value work if we set clear boundaries.
Mid Career
Failure is Necessary for Achievement and Growth — Why Success is Dangerous for Learning
You can only succeed if you are willing to fail. You can only learn if you are willing to be terrible first.