Subject
12 entries
Leadership
Bookmarks
Cognitive Distortions That Undermine Clear Thinking
A guide to cognitive distortions that undermine clear thinking in leadership — the CBT/REBT catalog applied to high-performers under stress. Naming these patterns is the first step to catching yourself mid-distortion.
How to Evaluate a Product Roadmap, for Engineers
A guide for engineers on how to evaluate whether a product leader knows what they're doing — what signals in a roadmap indicate good product thinking vs. cargo-culted process. Useful for engineers interviewing or assessing a new team's product culture.
Build Your Career on Dirty Work
The Dirty Work Theory: work that most people avoid is underpriced, high-impact, and a reliable career accelerator. A practical career heuristic for finding leverage where competition is low.
The CTO Field Guide
The CTO Field Guide is a practical reference for technical leaders — covering hiring, architecture decisions, team structure, and engineering culture. Focused on the operational realities of the CTO role rather than the inspirational.
No Small Plans: Evidence-Based Executive Coaching
No Small Plans is a values-based executive coaching practice using Acceptance and Commitment Training (ACT) for founders and tech leaders. Targets post-exit founders, scaling executives, and leaders seeking deeper alignment between work and values.
What You Give Up When Moving Into Engineering Management
Stack Overflow blog post on what engineers actually give up when they move into management — technical depth, maker's schedule, direct contribution. Honest about the tradeoffs rather than cheerleading the transition.
What Got You Here Won't Get You There (Book Summary)
James Clear's summary of Marshall Goldsmith's book on the behavioral habits that prevent successful people from reaching the next level — the 20 bad habits executives have that are actually making them less effective. Surprising because the habits are things that worked earlier in their careers.
Engineering Manager Resources
Ryan Burgess's curated list of resources for engineering managers — articles, books, podcasts, and tools covering the transition from IC to manager, team building, and technical leadership. A well-maintained starting point for new and experienced EMs.
Solitude and Leadership
William Deresiewicz's 2010 West Point address arguing that solitude — time alone with your own thoughts — is the prerequisite for genuine leadership. A sharp critique of multitasking culture and the kind of 'excellent sheep' produced by elite institutions.
Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos Decision-Making
A Twitter thread by Julian Shapiro analyzing the decision-making technique shared by Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos — specifically the regret minimization framework and first-principles thinking. Condensed analysis of documented decision frameworks from two prominent founders.
Awesome CTO
A curated, opinionated resource list for Chief Technology Officers and engineering leaders, with emphasis on startup contexts. Covers hiring, technical vision, team dynamics, system design, and the transition from individual contributor to exec.
Making Yourself a CEO
Ben Horowitz argues that being a CEO is a learnable skill, not an innate trait — but learning it requires specifically training the muscle of getting honest feedback in an environment where nobody will volunteer it. The central skill is actively dismantling the feedback vacuum that forms around any CEO.