Are you "political" enough?
Get some intro to office politics, learn from an engineer that participated in the METR study of AI impact on productivity and be aware of the downsides of "vibe coding"
This issue leaves me waiting for some follow-ups.
published a great interview with one of the developers participating in the METR study, that was aiming to measure productivity improvements achieved with AI coding tools. As you might already know, the study showed a 19% decrease in productivity when AI coding assistants were used. Abi interviewed one of the engineers who experienced a productivity increase. I would like to see a follow-up with one developer who experienced the slowdown. gives a great intro to office politics, which is kind of a cliffhanger. Looking forward to more content on pragmatically navigating this tricky but essential topic.Let’s see if those will come soon.
Now, reading time! 🤓👇
Hire people who give a shit. (4 min)
“Over time interviewing, I’ve found that I mainly screen for one key thing: giving a shit. To be more specific, there’s actually two things to screen for:
they give a shit about Scale, and
they give a shit about their work in general.”
Audience: Leaders
Value: Learn who (not) to hire
ToT Rating: ⭐⭐🌟
The Politics of Software (8 min)
“I’ve seen far more people tear up when playing Monopoly than Chutes and Ladders (née Snakes and Ladders in England). And by far the game I’ve seen the most crying or near fisticuffs is Risk.
The reason is simple. Chutes and Ladders has prescribed rules from which you can’t deviate. Whereas with Monopoly, the official rules allow for negotiation (e.g. “I’ll waive your rent this round if you waive mine the next time I land on your Boardwalk”). Risk, above all, is rife with negotiated alliances and backstabbing betrayals. In a way, Risk is all about the negotiations. In fact, it’s arguably a game you can’t win if you refuse to form, and occasionally break, alliances.
Workplaces and companies operate similarly.“
Audience: Engineering Leaders
Value: Intro to office politics
ToT Rating: ⭐⭐
Unpacking METR’s findings: Does AI slow developers down? (10 min)
“It's obvious that people should be using models for refactoring, test cases, documentation, and code commenting of existing code to make it more human-readable. These are tasks any model can do today—it's very straightforward, and any company should be using AI for this. But it's the code generation and producing novel functions where things get tricky. There's a reason METR is focusing on research, because it's at the frontier of what models cannot yet quite do, and it's a common failure mode for a lot of models.
What I’m trying to emphasize is that tasks are how people should be approaching this problem. The difference between whether AI speeds you up or slows you down isn’t necessarily about the codebase or the team, it's about what specific tasks you’re using the model for.“
Audience: Software Engineers
Value: Learn why AI is slowing down some developers
ToT Rating: ⭐⭐
Vibe coding is the fast fashion industry of software engineering (5 min)
Patricio Del Boca
“TL;DR: My take on AI for programming and "vibe coding" is that it will do to software engineering what fast fashion did to the clothing industry: flood the market with cheap, low-quality products and excessive waste.“
Audience: Software Engineers
Value: Learn the “bad” of vibe coding
ToT Rating: ⭐⭐
How to be an empathetic manager (without becoming a therapist) (7 min)
“If I believe my recipient is being a bit hyperbolic, I may push back gently to help them see the situation through a different frame.
This is not only kind, but necessary.
If your direct report has an aggrandized extreme view of the situation, this has a real cost. Due to their beliefs, they may act assuming they have a moral high ground for being right, when in fact they have an incorrect or incomplete mental model about the situation.”
Audience: Engineering Managers
Value: Learn how to handle “venting” of your reports
ToT Rating: ⭐
3 toxic engineering leader types (3 min)
The third type is The Proxy. This type doesn’t understand the work, and they don’t try to. They sit in meetings, nod a lot, and then repeat what you said to their boss like it was their idea. When it’s time to present to leadership, they speak for you. When there’s a problem, they vanish. You do the real work. They take the credit. Over time, this gets tiresome. Not because you need applause, but because you need a leader who has your back. The Proxy never does.
Audience: Software Engineers
Value: Learn to recognize toxic leaders
ToT Rating: ⭐
You only need 4 promotions: The step-by-step guide from Junior to Staff+ engineer (6 min)
“I’ve seen firsthand how picking the right architecture expands influence. For example, I redesigned the API for a service by simplifying the routes, following REST principles, and coordinating with downstream teams to unblock their development with mocks. That technical decision about the API helped three teams move in parallel. Technical clarity creates leverage.
Execution matters too. If you're the one who jumps in while others sit on problems for days, you are strategically unblocking people. Influence is earned by showing you are the one who moves things forward.
The last piece is visibility. If people don’t know what you’re doing, it didn’t happen. I’ve made that mistake before. Now, I intentionally share tips about AI, send out updates of discussions with other teams, and use email and Slack to make progress public. It’s not bragging. It’s building trust.”
Audience: Software Engineers
Value: Learn how to grow as an engineer
ToT Rating: ⭐
