Concepts

Andrew Bashford – Signs you're improving as a writer Bashford, 2026

• Writing advice is kind of similar to programming advice

The Mental Habits of Effective Leaders with Jennifer Garvey Berger Berger, 2018

• The Mental Habits of Effective Leaders Notes
  • About leadership
  • On being an adult
  • Whispers as signal
  • Simple habits for complex times
  • Seeing in systems
  • Asking better questions

YANSS 218: How anxiety hides in our unhealthy habits Brewer, 2021

• YANSS 218 Notes
  • Anxiety is what happens when you mix fear with future scenarios
  • Anxiety is the opposite of flow
  • Worrying is a rewarding behavior, be careful
  • Procrastination is related to negative feelings, not time
  • Trigger, behavior, result. AKA The habit loop
  • The local minimum in behavior
  • RAIN for self-awareness

The Mythical Man-Month Brooks, 1995

• Brooks's Law

Daniel Coyle – You can progress more in 6 minutes than you would in a month Coyle, 2026

• Mistakes are information and talent requires environment

You Must Learn to Play Politics DeWilde, 2023

• ABC of Politics

Storyworthy Dicks, 2018

• Storyworthy Notes - Chapter 2
  • Good stories contain change
  • Good stories are mundane
  • The Dinner Test
• Storyworthy Notes - Chapter 3
  • Homework for life
• Storyworthy Notes - Chapter 4
  • Flow of Consciousness practice Crash & Burn
• Storyworthy Notes - Chapter 5
  • First Last Best Worst
• Tools to craft stories
• Storyworthy Notes - Chapter 7
  • Every story takes 5 seconds to tell
• Storyworthy Notes - Chapter 8
  • On crafting story beginnings
• Storyworthy Notes - Chapter 9
  • How to keep your stories engaging

Slow Down, Finish Faster Di Croce, 2021

• Slow down to finish faster

Napkin Math Eskildsen, 2026

• Napkin math
  • Time
  • Latency
  • Throughput
  • Cost

Dichotomy of Control Fisher, 2016

• The Stoic Dichotomy of Control

Big Ball of Mud Foote & Yoder, 1997

• The big ball of mud

Yagni Fowler, 2015

• YAGNI

You Are Using the 5 Whys Wrong Horvath, 2021

• The iceberg model (levels of understanding)

A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy Irvine, 2009

• The Stoic Trichotomy of Control

Entity vs Value Object: the ultimate list of differences Khorikov, 2016

• DDD - Entities
• DDD - Value objects

National Book Foundation Medal acceptance speech Le Guin, 2014

• Ursula K. Le Guin - Inescapable Capitalism

The Power of Defaults Lehr, 2021

• The Power of Defaults Notes
  • Network effects
  • User costs
  • Thinking in layers

The Engineer/Manager Pendulum Majors, 2017

• Engineer/Manager pendulum

Observability Engineering Majors et al., 2026

• Observability Engineering Notes - 1
  • General notes
  • On deploying
• Observability Engineering Notes - 2

How To Be An Adult: Kegan's Theory of Adult Development Morad, 2020

• The Adult Development Theory
• Subject-Object shift

Casey Muratori – The Root of The Root of All Evil Muratori, 2026

• Donald Knuth - The root of all evil

The But & Therefore Rule Perell, n.d.

• But & Therefore for building narratives

The Islands and Bridges Strategy Perell, n.d.

• Islands and Bridges for writing

Write a Summary Box Perell, n.d.

• Summary box for writing

Look for Things That Don’t Make Sense Perell, n.d.

• Look for things that do not make sense

Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us Pink, 2009

• Motivation according to Daniel Pink's Drive

Service Reliability Math That Every Engineer Should Know Rickard, 2021

• Site reliability and 9's

Head in the Sand Sakr, 2019

• Omar Sakr - About the apocalypse

Laurie Santos: The Pursuit of Happiness Santos, 2022

• The second arrow is your fault

A Leader's Framework for Decision Making Snowden & Boone, 2007

• An overly simple definition of complexity according to systems theory
  • Simple
  • Complicated
  • Complex
  • Chaotic

Become an Effective Software Engineering Manager Stanier, 2020

• Effective Software Engineering Manager Notes - Chapter 1
  • How team snapshots help managers
• Effective Software Engineering Manager Notes - Chapter 2
  • A manager's tools of trade
  • Meaning of productivity to a manager
  • A manager's outcome
• Effective Software Engineering Manager Notes - Chapter 3
  • Thoughtful communication for managers
  • Meaning of delegation for managers
  • How to communicate well with your manager
• Effective Software Engineering Manager Notes - Chapter 4
  • How to conduct 1 on 1 meetings with your staff
  • About doing contracting with your staff
• Effective Software Engineering Manager Notes - Chapter 5
  • Staff motivators using Maslow as a basis
  • The zone of proximal development
  • The Cathedral and the Bazaar applied to management
• Effective Software Engineering Manager Notes - Chapter 9
  • Ways to expand your influence as a manager
  • Building your network within a company
  • Modes of conversation
  • Mentoring
  • Mentorship agreement
  • Mentorship matrix
  • Coaching
  • GROW model
• Effective Software Engineering Manager Notes - Chapter 10
  • Scrutiny is unavoidable
  • Wobbling in companies
  • Autonomy mastery and purpose
  • About demanding productivity
• Impostor syndrome
• Effective Software Engineering Manager Notes - Chapter 11
  • When there is too much attention on your project (The Eye of Sauron)
  • Post-project decompression
  • Productivity decreases as the company grows
  • Scope VS Resources VS Time
• Effective Software Engineering Manager Notes - Chapter 12
  • Information circulation within a company
• Effective Software Engineering Manager Notes - Chapter 13
  • Stoicism in the workplace
  • How to avoid work stress taking over
• Effective Software Engineering Manager Notes - Chapter 14
  • Nurturing a culture of talks within a company
  • Approaching problems with 5 whys
  • Architectural Decision Records (ADRs)
• About being an individual contributor versus being a manager
• Effective Software Engineering Manager Notes - Chapter 15
  • Dual career ladder
  • Career progression frameworks
• Effective Software Engineering Manager Notes - Chapter 16
  • Diversity and inclusion at tech companies
  • On remote work

Domain-Driven Design Distilled Vernon, 2016

• Domain-Driven Design Distilled Notes - Chapter 1
  • Good design vs Bad design
  • SCRUM focus on knowledge acquisition
• Strategic Design around Domain-Driven Design (DDD)
• Domain-Driven Design Distilled Notes - Chapter 2
  • Problem Space VS Solution Space
  • DDD - Bounded Contexts
  • DDD - Ubiquitous Language
  • DDD - Interaction with external bounded contexts
• DDD - Event Storming
• Domain-Driven Design Distilled Notes - Chapter 4
  • DDD - Context mapping
• Domain-Driven Design Distilled Notes - Chapter 3
  • DDD - Subdomains
• Domain-Driven Design Distilled Notes - Chapter 5
  • DDD - Aggregates
• Domain-Driven Design Distilled Notes - Chapter 6
  • DDD - Domain Events
  • DDD - Event Sourcing

This Is Water by David Foster Wallace (full transcript and audio) Wallace, 2005

• David Foster Wallace - This is water

Socratic method Socratic method, 2026

• The Socratic method

Without a reference

• Software development pragmatism
• Hidden complexity in software projects
• Tactic VS Strategy
• DDD - Invariants
• Further reflections about coaching
• The opposite of a profound truth
• Flow state
• Worrying about things outside your control is wasted energy
• The observer effect
• Notes on assessing projects
• Marie Curie - Fear
• Enshittification summary