Developer Tea exists to help driven developers connect to their ultimate purpose and excel at their work so that they can positively impact the people they influence.
With over 17 million downloads to date, Developer Tea is a short podcast hosted by Jonathan Cutrell, engineering leader with over 15 years of industry experience. We hope you'll take the topics from this podcast and continue the conversation, either online or in person with your peers. Email: developertea@gmail.com
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Announcing - Career Growth Accelerator, Episode Zero - Getting Out of Your Own Way (00:20:34)
This episode kicks off the Career Growth Accelerator series, focused on the specific hurdles faced by mid-to-senior level engineers, managers, and leaders who are looking to move to the next level. Before diving into specific strategies, I’m addressing the fundamental prerequisite for real growth: getting out of your own way. We often block our own progress because our ego conflates our self-worth with our career position, making it impossible to see the real problems or lessons we need to learn. In this episode, I share a vital mental exercise to help you disconnect your identity from your job title and begin diagnosing your career challenges honestly.Understand why protecting your ego is one of the most dangerous ways to control your career, leading you to discount valid reasons for stagnation or failure by focusing only on external factors.Discover the fundamental shift needed: disconnecting your self-worth from your career aspirations. Your position is merely a fact and has little bearing on your innate value or capacity to succeed more generally.Learn how to use a distancing thought experiment—viewing your situation as if it were an acquaintance’s story—to remove your ego from the diagnostic process and gain necessary clarity and perspective.Explore why effective growth advice, whether for promotion or post-mortem analysis, requires focusing almost exclusively on the diagnostic aspect ("What happened and why?") rather than building justifications based on your worthiness or past performance.📮 Ask a QuestionIf you enjoyed this episode and would like me to discuss a question that you have on the show, drop it over at: developertea.com.📮 Join the DiscordIf you want to be a part of a supportive community of engineers (non-engineers welcome!) working to improve their lives and careers, join us on the Developer Tea Discord community by visiting https://developertea.com/discord today!🧡 Leave a ReviewIf you're enjoying the show and want to support the content head over to iTunes and leave a review! It helps other developers discover the show and keep us focused on what matters to you.
Announcing: The Career Growth Accelerator Series (00:02:40)
Are you a mid-to-senior level engineer or leader who has hit a career roadblock or found yourself stagnated? I'm launching the new Career Growth Accelerator series, focused on the difficult, non-obvious hurdles that prevent you from moving to the next level.In this foundational Episode Zero, I cover the critical prerequisite for growth: Getting Out of Your Own Way. Our ego often protects our self-worth by blaming external factors for failures, making honest diagnosis impossible,.• Learn why protecting your ego is the most dangerous way to control your career.• Discover the fundamental shift: disconnecting your self-worth from your career aspirations to gain clarity.• I introduce a distancing thought experiment to help you diagnose the real problems blocking your path.• Start focusing on the diagnostic aspect—What happened and why?—to build real momentum.Subscribe now so you don't miss out on this series!
Problem Definition As A Path for Career Growth (00:14:36)
When you hit a career roadblock, the methods that worked for you before often stop working. Today, I’m diving into why that happens, and why the first and most critical step in progressing past stagnation isn't doubling down on skills, but clearly defining the problem standing in your way.Problem Definition As A Path for Career GrowthMy goal on the show is to help driven developers like you find clarity, perspective, and purpose in their careers. This episode is for everyone trying to grow, especially if you have hit some kind of roadblock. Most career progression, especially early on, happens somewhat automatically through natural experience, domain expertise, and skill accumulation,. However, as you progress, you will hit missing rungs or roadblocks—things preventing you from progressing in promotions, positions, or specific projects.When blocked, most people rely on the same things they did before, such as gaining experience, reading blogs, or building side projects, using a "scattershot approach" to try and guess what their managers want,. Unfortunately, relying on activity that previously got you ahead will not necessarily work later in your career,. As you climb the career ladder, the number of positions available decreases (the pyramid shape), meaning that even being highly qualified may not lead to the next role if it simply doesn't exist,.If you haven't defined the problem, you have no way of knowing whether the actions you are taking will help you progress where you want to go. Instead of continuing the never-ending cycle of self-improvement, you need to step outside your own context and try to see the problem from an external viewpoint, like a consultant. Recognizing the core problem—like a lack of available roles—allows you to shift your focus away from only improving your skill set and toward solving that specific organizational problem, perhaps by expanding the necessary scope for the role to open up,. Redefining the problem may mean shifting your goal from getting a promotion to convincing someone to let you perform the activities associated with that higher role, which is a different process entirely. In almost every circumstance where you are blocked, there is a problem that you need to work on defining better; this is the first step towards moving past the roadblock,.Explore why the natural career progression that works early on—driven by experience and skill accumulation—slows down and fails when you hit later-stage roadblocks,,.Discover why relying on a "scattershot approach" of extra activity, like reading blogs or building side projects, is often ineffective when facing a structural block in your career path,,.Understand that if a desired role doesn't exist within the company structure, becoming more skilled or qualified won't solve the organizational problem,.Learn how redefining your career problem—for instance, shifting from needing a promotion to needing permission to do high-level tasks—can open up entirely new pathways for growth.Challenge your self-improvement cycle by stepping outside your own context and defining your career roadblock as if you were an external consultant,.📮 Ask a QuestionIf you enjoyed this episode and would like me to discuss a question that you have on the show, drop it over at: developertea.com.📮 Join the DiscordIf you want to be a part of a supportive community of engineers (non-engineers welcome!) working to improve their lives and careers, join us on the Developer Tea Discord community by visiting https://developertea.com/discord today! I'm also in the community, and you can message me directly there.🧡 Leave a ReviewIf you're enjoying the show and want to support the content head over to iTunes and leave a review! It helps other developers discover the show and keeps us focused on what matters to you.
You Know The Hard Thing You Need to Do Next - Here's Why It's Worth Doing Now (00:13:01)
We often look for ways to reduce the load on our brains, seeking shortcuts and optimizations to get ahead. Sometimes this works, reinforcing the belief that we can hack our way around every problem. However, this episode addresses the truth that many fundamental aspects of your career require something difficult, messy, slow, or inefficient, demanding deep thought and repeated failure.This episode details the difficult truths about facing the most essential challenges in your career:Understand the Hard Path: Recognize that many aspects of your career, skill set, relationships, and hobbies require something difficult, messy, slow, or inefficient, demanding deep thought and repeated failure.Identify Your Primary Obstacles: Pinpoint the hard things you are procrastinating on, such as developing essential domain knowledge, deepening relationships with crucial co-workers or your manager, or getting the necessary "reps" of difficult building and practice.The Path to Mastery: Realize that becoming a great engineer (e.g., a great Python developer) is achieved not by reading books or finding perfect tools, but by building things over and over. This practice includes receiving feedback from peers and applying what you learn under challenge.The Pain of Decision: Explore why it is difficult to even decide to do a hard thing. By committing to the challenging path, you are choosing to cut off your optionality and giving up the hope of finding an easier, lower-investment alternative.Sustaining Commitment: Understand that initial motivation or an energetic feeling will not carry you through the obstacle when the development process becomes awkward, slow, or frustrating. Staying committed requires reinforcing your core underlying reason for doing the hard work.The Reward: Recognize that if you successfully address the hard thing you know needs doing, everything else in your life and career becomes easier.🙏 Today's Episode is Brought To you by: Wix StudioDevs, if you think website builders mean limited control—think again. With Wix Studio’s developer-first ecosystem you can spend less time on tedious tasks and more on the functionalities that matters most: ● Develop online in a VS Code-based IDE or locally via GitHub. ● Extend and replace a suite of powerful business solutions. ● And ship faster with Wix Studio’s AI code assistant. All of that, wrapped up in auto-maintained infrastructure for total peace of mind. Work in a developer-first ecosystem. Go to wixstudio.com.📮 Ask a QuestionIf you enjoyed this episode and would like me to discuss a question that you have on the show, drop it over at: developertea.com.📮 Join the DiscordIf you want to be a part of a supportive community of engineers (non-engineers welcome!) working to improve their lives and careers, join us on the Developer Tea Discord community by visiting https://developertea.com/discord today! There are other engineers there going through similar things in their careers, and I am also in there, where you can message me directly.🧡 Leave a ReviewIf you're enjoying the show and want to support the content head over to iTunes and leave a review! It helps other developers discover the show and keep us focused on what matters to you.
Career Fundamentals - Avoid Career Traps by Focusing on Primary Paths of Improvement (00:15:30)
If you're looking to accelerate your career growth, this episode gives you what may feel like hard truths about the path forward. So many engineers fall into traps of overthinking, chasing minor optimizations (like 5% or 10% productivity boosts), or playing the games of politics and networking. While these sideline activities aren't necessarily useless, I want to help you focus on the "big engines" and "primary considerations"—the things that will make the monumental difference in your career building strategy.• I explain why arguments based on nuance—such as trying to convince your manager that your work is valuable despite low throughput, or doing "glue work"—are often based on flawed strategies that cause your career to suffer and not grow easily.• I use an allegory (discussing the primary path of treatment for low testosterone) to illustrate that many engineers are trying to fix a fundamental, mainline career problem with a sideline, nuanced solution, instead of focusing on the gold standard primary path.• I debunk the skill collection fallacy: the misconception that broadening your skill set (learning more languages, frameworks, or techniques) provides the same level of career benefit as it did early on.• Discover the fundamental path to growth: I advise you to set down new languages and skill sets and instead become a craftsman of a limited set of tools, fully understanding the domain, business problems, and how value flows through the organization.• Learn why the most important factor that substitutes for very few other things is engaging in the deliberate practice of solving a sheer volume of problems encountered and solved over and over.• I detail how to avoid the comfort zone: while solving problems is vital, you must ensure those problems progress with you by increasing complexity, scope, responsibility, or sheer volume of work, otherwise, your potential for growth will become limited and you will stall out.• I caution that a lack of challenge (feeling no discomfort ever) can lead to boredom, disengagement, and eventual burnout, because your brain adapts, reducing the flow state you experience. I suggest finding ways to introduce discomfort that pushes you.• Understand that the primary course of treatment for a failing or stalled career is simple: become incredibly good at your core set of responsibilities, making things like networking, resume writing, and managing relationships easier as a result.📮 Ask a QuestionIf you enjoyed this episode and would like me to discuss a question that you have on the show, drop it over at: developertea.com.📮 Join theIf you want to be a part of a supportive community of engineers (non-engineers welcome!) working to improve their lives and careers, join us on the Developer Tea Discord community by visiting https://developertea.com/discord today!🧡 Leave a ReviewIf you're enjoying the show and want to support the content head over to iTunes and leave a review! It helps other developers discover the show and keep us focused on what matters to you.
Getting to Senior - Taking Ownership Without Leading Projects (00:15:56)
If you're an engineer looking to move into a senior role, you have likely heard that you need to demonstrate "ownership". Unfortunately, this crucial term is often poorly defined and leads to a major misconception: that ownership means being assigned a full project or a Tech Lead role. I want to dispel that myth and explain why ownership is actually a necessary behavior and mindset shift, applicable in almost every action you take, regardless of whether you’re leading a project.Understand why ownership is a critical aspect of moving along your career track, especially for engineers moving from the associate or mid-level engineer role up to senior.Uncover the misconception that ownership requires a specific scope of responsibility, such as owning a project or a deliverable.Discover the crucial phrase that defines the ownership mindset: "What now?" or "What next?" which should guide you through every situation you encounter.Learn why true ownership is not about inherently knowing every technical detail or executing every step, but about being willing to take responsibility and accountability for figuring out what happens next.Explore how a senior engineer's ownership behavior means translating identified problems (like those found in a retro) into action or decisions, thereby ensuring things continue moving forward and don't stall out.I explain that engineers show ownership by choosing to opt in to be held accountable for outcomes, rather than waiting for a manager to intervene or ask for a status update.📮 Ask a QuestionIf you enjoyed this episode and would like me to discuss a question that you have on the show, drop it over at: developertea.com.📮 Join the DiscordIf you want to be a part of a supportive community of engineers (non-engineers welcome!) working to improve their lives and careers, join us on the Developer Tea Discord community by visiting https://developertea.com/discord today!🧡 Leave a ReviewIf you're enjoying the show and want to support the content head over to iTunes and leave a review! It helps other developers discover the show and keep us focused on what matters to you.
Part Two - Bryan McCann, CTO of You.com, on AI, Engineering, Art, and Everything In Between (00:36:16)
Hey everyone, welcome to today's episode of Developer Tea. This is the second part of my interview with Bryan McCann, the CTO at you.com. If you haven't listened to Part One, I'd encourage you to go back, as it provides crucial context for our continued discussion. In this episode, we dive into how you can think about relating to and integrating the massive changes that AI is bringing to your job, whether you are a software engineer, manager, director, or product professional. Bryan and I discuss his interests beyond research, including art and organizational design.Explore the two primary paths for developers in the long run: specializing as managers of AI tools (like a product manager with engineering insight) or striving to be better than AI at building better versions of AI itself (the "neurosurgeon" type).Understand why refining your intuitions about what should be built becomes increasingly crucial as automation makes execution easier.Examine how conceptual biases often become the bottleneck when interacting with powerful AI tools, such as focusing on very narrow tasks for a broad tool.Learn how to approach AI failures: treat a failed output as an opportunity to dig in and figure out why, perhaps by asking the AI to write a better prompt or identifying a fundamental missing capability that could become a great startup idea.Conceptualize AI as the earliest versions of magic, where the manipulation of symbols (like embeddings) allows us to extend our influence into the world in a flexible and powerful way.Discover principles of organizational design by studying how neural networks learn, focusing on strong information flow, skip connections, and aligning with the objective.Consider the idea that the next phase of human development might involve emulating AI’s learning mechanisms (rather than expecting AI to become more human-like) to unlock the next phase of humanity and continue our search for meaning.Hear Bryan’s final piece of advice for listeners: focus on learning and working on things you are passionate about that will have the highest possible impact.📮 Ask a QuestionIf you enjoyed this episode and would like me to discuss a question that you have on the show, drop it over at: developertea.com..📮 Join the DiscordIf you want to be a part of a supportive community of engineers (non-engineers welcome!) working to improve their lives and careers, join us on the Developer Tea Discord community by visiting https://developertea.com/discord today!.🧡 Leave a ReviewIf you're enjoying the show and want to support the content head over to iTunes and leave a review! It helps other developers discover the show and keep us focused on what matters to you.
Part One - Bryan McCann, CTO of You.com, on AI, Engineering, Art, and Everything In Between (00:34:40)
Hey everyone and welcome to today's episode of Developer Tea. It's been quite a while since I've had a guest on the show. Today, I'm joined by Bryan McCann, CTO at you.com. We dive into a wide-ranging discussion, exploring the philosophical origins of his career—from studying meaning and language to working in very early AI research. This discussion is less advice-heavy and more focused on kind of theory and discussion. I hope this is insightful for you and helpful as you crystallize your own philosophies on these subjects.Explore the philosophical journey that led Bryan McCann from being a philosophy major interested in meaning to pioneering early AI research. Bryan views his current work as an extension of those original philosophical questions.Discover how Bryan shifted from hitting a dead end in "armchair philosophy" to using computational tools to study language and try to make machines that could create meaning.Understand why Bryan believes that meaning, in the sense he originally sought it, is an innately human thing, tied to purpose and the narratives we use to shape our sense of reality.Discuss the profound realization that AI breakthroughs might be akin to discovering electricity, suggesting we are tapping into a fundamental framework of meaning or connection that has always existed.Examine the concept of super intelligence and the "flywheel effect," where AI accelerates research and development, building better versions of itself and potentially surpassing the classic anthropomorphic vision of machine intelligence.Explore Bryan’s other interests, including organizations, people, and art, which he sees as continuing the uniquely human search for meaning.Consider the idea that humanity's constant need to differentiate itself from machines may simply be a mechanism for survival, enabling our continued dominance.📮 Ask a QuestionIf you enjoyed this episode and would like me to discuss a question that you have on the show, drop it over at: developertea.com..📮 Join the DiscordIf you want to be a part of a supportive community of engineers (non-engineers welcome!) working to improve their lives and careers, join us on the Developer Tea Discord community by visiting https://developertea.com/discord today!.🧡 Leave a ReviewIf you're enjoying the show and want to support the content head over to iTunes and leave a review! It helps other developers discover the show and keep us focused on what matters to you.
Going to War with Burnout - Less Hours Isn't Your Only Option (00:18:09)
I'm tackling a massive challenge today: burnout. While the standard advice usually involves working less, I want to show you a practical dimension of burnout you have more control over, focusing on increasing your agency and autonomy to manage chronic workplace stress more effectively. Burnout is classified by the ICD-11 as a syndrome resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.This episode includes practical advice for understanding and addressing burnout by shifting focus from reducing work volume to increasing control and resources.Understand the three dimensions of burnout as classified by the ICD-11: feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion, increased mental distance/negativity toward the job, and reduced professional efficacy.Discover why the amount of time you work is not a direct input to burnout, meaning working less is often impractical and may not solve the underlying issue.Learn the core philosophy for addressing burnout: In order to control stress, provide control (meaning agency and autonomy).Explore why stress is directly correlated to the ratio of demands placed on you versus the resources (including decision-making power, training, and tooling) you have to meet those demands.I’ll give you practical ways to approach your manager to secure necessary resources, training, or mentoring to improve your professional efficacy and reduce job negativity.📮 Ask a QuestionIf you enjoyed this episode and would like me to discuss a question that you have on the show, drop it over at: developertea.com.📮 Join the DiscordIf you want to be a part of a supportive community of engineers (non-engineers welcome!) working to improve their lives and careers, join us on the Developer Tea Discord community by visiting https://developertea.com/discord today!🧡 Leave a ReviewIf you're enjoying the show and want to support the content head over to iTunes and leave a review! It helps other developers discover the show and keep us focused on what matters to you.
The Good and Bad of Choosing Measurements - Traps and Opportunities of Measuring What Matters (00:15:01)
In this episode, I dive into the management mantra that "what is measured is managed" and explain why this simple assertion often leads to a complex trap. We discuss why the act of measuring team productivity is never neutral—it's an intervention that immediately changes behavior, often resulting in unintended consequences like gaming the metrics. We'll explore how to collaborate with your team to find measurements that truly drive desired behaviors.Understand why the phrase "what is measured is managed" means that measuring something triggers management of that thing, in varying degrees.Learn why the act of measuring something is an intervention, especially when done with the intent of turning it into a target (e.g., increasing PRs or decreasing bugs), and how this action is shown to change behaviors around the thing being measured.Discover how measurement can lead to unintended consequences, such as when tracking velocity via story points causes team members to inflate or deflate their estimates, making the measurement itself less meaningful.Explore why giving ownership of metrics to the people acting to improve them makes sense, and how you can collaborate with your team to determine what kinds of measurements should be taken.Recognize that if you want something to survive—such as paying down tech debt—you must feed it with time, resources, and attention, ensuring your actions line up with what you claim to care about.Understand that since your calendar and dashboards will get crowded if you measure everything, the exercise of choosing metrics is as much about accepting that you have to choose what you will actively manage and invest in.📮 Ask a QuestionIf you enjoyed this episode and would like me to discuss a question that you have on the show, drop it over at: developertea.com.📮 Join the DiscordIf you want to be a part of a supportive community of engineers (non-engineers welcome!) working to improve their lives and careers, join us on the Developer Tea Discord community by visiting https://developertea.com/discord today!🧡 Leave a ReviewIf you're enjoying the show and want to support the content head over to iTunes and leave a review! It helps other developers discover the show and keep us focused on what matters to you.
Engage in Deliberate Practice to Level Up Your Engineering Leadership Skills (00:18:08)
I want to dive into the concept of Deliberate Practice, which sets the greatest apart in fields ranging from sports to writing to engineering. I’ll explain why it’s much more than just repetition or experience, and why applying it to your career can lead to rapid improvement. Most importantly, I will provide concrete ways you can apply deliberate practice to level up your engineering and leadership skills, especially in areas that are traditionally difficult to practice, such as communication and strategic decision-making.Differentiate Practice from Deliberate Practice: Understand that while repetition is part of practice, deliberate practice specifically involves engaging in a very narrow set of activities with the intentional goal of improvement, requiring very quick feedback for continuous incorporation.Identify Opportunities for Rapid Improvement: Learn why deliberate practice is much more effective at achieving rapid improvement than simply engaging in repetition.Apply DP to Leadership Skills: Discover how to incorporate deliberate practice into roles like engineering manager, tech lead, or IC (Individual Contributor) leader, where the activity of practice is often harder to pinpoint.Leverage Existing Work for Practice: I suggest a mindset shift where you begin looking at existing responsibilities, such as one-on-ones, as opportunities for practice. For example, you can focus on improving your clarity when providing constructive criticism and ask for specific feedback on that aspect.Generate Novel Value Through Practice: Explore how engaging in deliberate practice activities—like recording a video to communicate a technical concept or creating documentation—serves the primary goal of practice, while almost certainly creating unexpected value for your team (often net neutral or positive).Use Backwards Training for Strategy: Find out how to practice strategic decision-making and forecasting by using "backwards training". This involves reviewing past decisions or work scopes, creating your own rationale or estimate, and then calibrating it against the known reality.Simulate Difficult Conversations: Consider leveraging Large Language Models (LLMs) to engage in deliberate practice around language-heavy skills, such as modelling sensitive or difficult topics, or practicing receiving harsh feedback.📮 Ask a QuestionIf you enjoyed this episode and would like me to discuss a question that you have on the show, drop it over at: developertea.com.📮 Join the DiscordIf you want to be a part of a supportive community of engineers (non-engineers welcome!) working to improve their lives and careers, join us on the Developer Tea Discord community by visiting https://developertea.com/discord today!🧡 Leave a ReviewIf you're enjoying the show and want to support the content head over to iTunes and leave a review! It helps other developers discover the show and keep us focused on what matters to you.
Shift Your Locus of Control to Take Charge of Your Engineering Career (00:20:45)
This episode explores the concept of Locus of Control and why developing a more internal locus of control is beneficial for your career and life. You'll learn the difference between internal and external perspectives, why one is more useful than the other, and practical exercises to shift your mindset to believe you have more influence over the outcomes you care about.Understand Locus of Control: Discover what psychologists mean by locus of control—whether you believe outcomes are determined by your own actions (internal) or by external forces like luck and chance (external).Adopt a More Useful Mindset: Learn why an internal locus of control, while not a perfect reflection of reality, is a more useful and effective mindset for your career, as it prevents you from missing opportunities to influence outcomes.Recognise Your Influence: Find encouragement in the idea that you almost certainly have more influence and control over situations in your life and career than you currently believe.Shift Your Perspective with Practical Exercises: Engage in two research-based exercises to help you recalibrate your default beliefs and intentionally develop a more internal locus of control.Leverage Your Strengths: See how focusing on your strengths can create a positive feedback loop, reinforcing the belief that your efforts directly impact outcomes and helping you build a stronger sense of agency.📮 Ask a QuestionIf you enjoyed this episode and would like me to discuss a question that you have on the show, drop it over at: developertea.com.📮 Join the DiscordIf you want to be a part of a supportive community of engineers (non-engineers welcome!) working to improve their lives and careers, join us on the Developer Tea Discord community by visiting https://developertea.com/discord today!🧡 Leave a ReviewIf you're enjoying the show and want to support the content head over to iTunes and leave a review! It helps other developers discover the show and keep us focused on what matters to you.
Resumé Driven Development - Your Career is In Your Hands (00:12:27)
In this episode we'll discuss why "Résumé Driven Development" is a powerful mental model for building a thriving career. Instead of seeing your résumé as just a job-hunting tool, you'll learn to use it as a guide for setting measurable, impactful goals that benefit you, your manager, and your company.Focus on Impact, Not Just Tasks: Discover why a great résumé is built on proof of impact, not just a list of completed projects. The best way to improve your career is to focus on achieving measurable goals that demonstrate real value.Have the Goals Conversation: Learn how to initiate a critical conversation with your manager to define measurable goals for your role. If your manager can only provide project deadlines, take the initiative to propose your own impact-oriented goals.Connect Goals to Business Value: Understand the importance of linking your work to business metrics. While there's a risk that a project might not meet its business goals, you can also measure impact through clever technical solutions or process improvements, like reducing team cycle time.Take Control of Your Career: Realise that your career success is ultimately dependent on your own actions. By proactively setting and tracking goals, you take control and can clearly tell the story of the value you bring to the table.📮 Ask a QuestionIf you enjoyed this episode and would like me to discuss a question that you have on the show, drop it over at: developertea.com.📮 Join the DiscordIf you want to be a part of a supportive community of engineers (non-engineers welcome!) working to improve their lives and careers, join us on the Developer Tea Discord community by visiting https://developertea.com/discord today!🧡 Leave a ReviewIf you're enjoying the show and want to support the content head over to iTunes and leave a review! It helps other developers discover the show and keep us focused on what matters to you.
Forced and Unforced Errors (00:15:31)
In this episode, we introduce a simple yet powerful mental model from the world of sports: forced vs. unforced errors. By understanding this concept, you can shift your focus from things outside your control to the simple, foundational behaviours that truly define a successful career.Understand the Difference: Learn the distinction between forced errors—mistakes caused by chance, situation, or randomness that are hard to prevent—and unforced errors, which are avoidable blunders resulting from a lack of attention or care.Focus on What You Control: Discover why the most successful engineers prioritise reducing their unforced errors. While most people worry about hard-to-predict "forced errors," top performers concentrate on the fundamentals they can directly influence.Identify Your Unforced Errors: Recognise common unforced errors in your career, such as not testing your work, being late for meetings, erratic communication, or posting unprofessional content online. These simple mistakes can significantly impact your career over time.Conduct a Self-Audit: Learn the value of regularly performing a "self-audit" to identify and correct the simple, common-sense things you may be failing at. By improving in these areas, you can dramatically increase your reliability and competitiveness.🙏 Today's Episode is Brought To you by: Wix StudioDevs, if you think website builders mean limited control—think again. With Wix Studio’s developer-first ecosystem you can spend less time on tedious tasks and more on the functionalities that matters most:Develop online in a VS Code-based IDE or locally via GitHub.Extend and replace a suite of powerful business solutions.And ship faster with Wix Studio’s AI code assistant. All of that, wrapped up in auto-maintained infrastructure for total peace of mind. Work in a developer-first ecosystem. Go to wixstudio.com📮 Ask a QuestionIf you enjoyed this episode and would like me to discuss a question that you have on the show, drop it over at: developertea.com.📮 Join the DiscordIf you want to be a part of a supportive community of engineers (non-engineers welcome!) working to improve their lives and careers, join us on the Developer Tea Discord community by visiting https://developertea.com/discord today!🧡 Leave a ReviewIf you're enjoying the show and want to support the content head over to iTunes and leave a review! It helps other developers discover the show and keep us focused on what matters to you.
View Your Productivity Through the Lens of Values and Priorities (00:13:39)
In this episode, we introduce two fundamental thought experiments to help you uncover your true priorities and core values. By exploring scenarios of scarcity and abundance, you'll learn to align your daily actions with what truly matters, leading to a more satisfied career and life.Uncover Your Priorities: Engage in a "5% exercise" where you imagine only being able to complete a tiny fraction of your to-do list. This thought experiment leverages a scarcity mindset to reveal your genuine priorities, helping you distinguish between what you perceive as important and what truly is.Discover Your Values: Participate in an "abundance exercise" by imagining all your obligations are met and you have complete autonomy. What you choose to do next in this state reflects your core values and helps you move beyond aspirational or culturally normative answers.Go Deeper: Learn to challenge superficial answers when identifying your values, pushing beyond the obvious to find unique and potentially surprising insights that genuinely guide your decision-making.Unify for Satisfaction: Explore the profound insight that the most likely path to a satisfied career and life comes from unifying your priorities and values, thereby avoiding actions that don't align with what truly matters to you.📮 Ask a QuestionIf you enjoyed this episode and would like me to discuss a question that you have on the show, drop it over at: developertea.com.📮 Join the DiscordIf you want to be a part of a supportive community of engineers (non-engineers welcome!) working to improve their lives and careers, join us on the Developer Tea Discord community by visiting https://developertea.com/discord today!🧡 Leave a ReviewIf you're enjoying the show and want to support the content head over to iTunes and leave a review! It helps other developers discover the show and keep us focused on what matters to you.
This One Skill Signifies Seniority For Software Engineers (00:14:28)
This episode explains what is arguably the best career advice you'll hear this week: the one skill that signifies seniority in software engineers is the ability to synthesise and optimise for multiple factors at once. Instead of focusing on a single factor, such as performance or maintainability, senior engineers identify and weigh the various trade-offs involved in any decision.Discover the key skill that distinguishes a senior engineer: It's the ability to synthesise multiple, competing factors—like performance, maintainability, cost, and time to market—rather than focusing on just one.Learn why single-factor thinking can hold you back: Junior engineers often optimise for what they know best or what is easiest to measure, which can harm the overall solution, the team, and their professional reputation.Understand how to demonstrate seniority in interviews and at work: You can show your maturity and wisdom by identifying the crucial trade-offs for any given problem, asking what factors need to be balanced, and exploring options that might satisfy multiple goals at once.Explore how to find better solutions by thinking in trade-offs: The goal isn't just to make sacrifices; often, the mark of a great senior engineer is finding a third option that effectively balances or optimises for multiple important factors simultaneously.Start practising this skill today: Challenge yourself to identify what you are giving up with any decision and consider factors you don't normally prioritise. Ask "What am I saying no to?" to develop this crucial skill.📮 Ask a QuestionIf you enjoyed this episode and would like me to discuss a question that you have on the show, drop it over at: developertea.com.📮 Join the DiscordIf you want to be a part of a supportive community of engineers (non-engineers welcome!) working to improve their lives and careers, join us on the Developer Tea Discord community by visiting https://developertea.com/discord today!🧡 Leave a ReviewIf you're enjoying the show and want to support the content head over to iTunes and leave a review! It helps other developers discover the show and keep us focused on what matters to you.
Backup Plans and Risk Reward Curves (00:13:50)
This episode focuses on the critical importance of having a backup plan, not just for technical redundancies but especially for situations involving human error, which are highly prevalent in one's career. The core argument hinges on understanding risk and reward curves, highlighting the disproportionate impact of failures compared to incremental successes.Understanding Risk and Reward Curves:Successes are often incremental. Delivering a project on time typically leads to opportunities for more projects, good performance reviews, and modest pay increases (e.g., 5-7%). These are positive, but linear or slightly bumpy gains.Failures, especially uncaught ones, have a much longer negative tail. The potential for loss from a significant mistake or a disastrous project significantly outweighs the potential for gain from a success.A bad performance review, for example, can affect future reviews, decrease promotion likelihood, and follow you for a much longer period than a good one.Uncaught failures can place individuals in a pool for budget cuts or layoffs, leading to catastrophic curves where negative effects compound much faster, resembling a logarithmic function. One or two significant negative events could wipe out all accumulated incremental gains.The Criticality of Backup Plans:Backup plans are essential to avoid these catastrophic negative curves and major "wipeout scenarios".This preparedness applies to project failures, personal career contingencies (e.g., getting laid off), and even events beyond direct control.It's crucial to prepare for theoretically possible catastrophic events, not just those that have historically occurred. Even "Black Swan" events or things you're not prepared for can cause major issues.Thinking like this (e.g., similar to life insurance, which you only need once if at all) encourages hedging efforts with basic backup plans, such as redundancy.Benefits of Preparedness:The more you prepare for contingencies, the more likely you can deal with the majority of failures, preventing the catastrophic curve.Having backup plans can create a "flywheel effect", where your ability to respond to negative events actually increases the speed of stacking up further positive outcomes.Being proactive in your career (e.g., interviewing even when you're happy in your current role) builds resiliency.Actionable Advice:Focus on what could go wrong: Try to figure out how things could fail and what catastrophic events are possible, even if they haven't happened yet.Identify vulnerabilities: Locate areas where a catastrophe could lead to a steep drop-off in your career trajectory.Implement a basic backup plan: The recommendation is to put just one in place this week for something that could catastrophically impact your career. This provides a sense of relief and ensures readiness if needed. Taking this first step is likely to encourage creating more backup plans for professional situations.📮 Ask a QuestionIf you enjoyed this episode and would like me to discuss a question that you have on the show, drop it over at: developertea.com.📮 Join the DiscordIf you want to be a part of a supportive community of engineers (non-engineers welcome!) working to improve their lives and careers, join us on the Developer Tea Discord community by visiting https://developertea.com/discord today!🧡 Leave a ReviewIf you're enjoying the show and want to support the content head over to iTunes and leave a review! It helps other developers discover the show and keep us focused on what matters to you.
Second Order Consequences and Forcing Functions (00:23:45)
Todays episode delves into understanding and leveraging second and third-order consequences – the ripple effects that occur after an initial action – and introduces forcing functions, which are an inverted way of thinking about these consequences, designed to drive desired outcomes by first determining "what must be true" for them to occur. The episode also connects these concepts to the importance of effective goal setting, explaining how well-defined goals provide clarity, focus, and a strategic framework for decision-making and career advancement.Grasp Second and Third-Order Consequences: Learn to identify the downstream effects of initial actions. For instance, setting a target for test coverage (first action) might lead to people adding tests that don't genuinely test anything but merely inflate the metric (second-order consequence), potentially resulting in disillusionment with testing or continued incidents despite high coverage (third-order consequence). Conversely, giving someone ownership or autonomy (first action) can lead to them proactively filling out details and owning ambiguity (second-order consequence), which may result in higher quality work, freeing up managerial time, and setting the individual up for promotion (third-order consequence).Utilise Forcing Functions for Desired Outcomes: Understand forcing functions as an inverted approach to consequences, where you begin with a desired outcome and then identify the upstream requirements or desirable effects that must be true for that outcome to be achieved. This method helps to focus efforts on one to three key areas for improvement, rather than trying to enhance everything simultaneously.Implement Effective Forcing Functions: Discover how various elements can act as deliberate or accidental forcing functions:A prioritised backlog acts as a forcing function for essential discussions, decision-making, gathering sufficient information for prioritisation, and ensuring knowledgeable individuals are involved in the process.Presentations, demos, or all-hands meetings serve as powerful social forcing functions, as the desire to avoid the discomfort of not having progress to show incentivises action and preparation.Sprint planning is a forcing function that necessitates a clear understanding of priorities and team capacity for the upcoming sprint.Quality metrics or Service Level Agreements (SLAs), such as a P95 response time, act as forcing functions by requiring other system components to be correctly aligned to meet the target.The choice of technology or tech stack can be a significant forcing function for hiring, unintentionally selecting for specific types of engineers (e.g., Java for enterprise experience, TypeScript for full-stack, functional languages for functional programming experience).Workplace restrictions, like requiring night availability, can be accidental forcing functions, potentially selecting against individuals with community involvement, family commitments, or social lives.Successful hiring and recruiting is a strong forcing function for many positive aspects of a company, indicating technical success, high retention, competitive salaries, and a high standard for talent across the organisation.Harness Goals for Clarity and Focus: Recognise that a well-positioned goal is paramount for finding clarity, perspective, and purpose in your career. Goals provide a framework to make decisions about what to do, ensuring your time is spent on what matters to you rather than just on tasks handed to you, thereby enabling personal career growth.Set Relevant and Directionally Correct Goals: Emphasise the relevance of your goals; even if they are specific, measurable, actionable, and time-bound (SMART), they are ineffective if they are not relevant to your desired career path. Aim for goals that are directionally correct, moving you generally towards a long-term outcome (e.g., leading a project if your long-term aspiration is to lead teams), rather than being paralysed by the pursuit of a "perfect" goal.Leverage Manager Feedback for Goal Setting: If you are unsure how to set goals, consider what your boss would look for in your performance in six months. Proactively engage your manager by initiating conversations about career growth and goal setting, framing it as an opportunity for mutual success and seeking their input on what constitutes a "home run" for your role.Set Sustainable and Challenging Goals: Avoid goals that are too abstract (lacking clear actions) or that significantly over- or underestimate your capacity, as both can lead to disengagement. Instead, strive for challenging but sustainable goals that require focus and making difficult choices (e.g., saying "no" to other things) but do not lead to burnout.Be Mindful of Your Choices: Deliberately choose your forcing functions and become aware of those you are accidentally opting into. Consistently consider the downstream effects (second and third-order consequences) of your actions today, and set goals that imply a desired future state rather than dictating the exact methods. Consistency in this mindful approach to goal setting and understanding consequences is key to long-term career success.📮 Ask a QuestionIf you enjoyed this episode and would like me to discuss a question that you have on the show, drop it over at: developertea.com.📮 Join the DiscordIf you want to be a part of a supportive community of engineers (non-engineers welcome!) working to improve their lives and careers, join us on the Developer Tea Discord community by visiting https://developertea.com/discord today!🧡 Leave a ReviewIf you're enjoying the show and want to support the content head over to iTunes and leave a review! It helps other developers discover the show and keep us focused on what matters to you.
Don't Try to Solve Hyperobject Problems Once (00:15:46)
This episode delves into the philosophical concept of hyperobjects – problems so vast and complex they lack clear boundaries and cannot be "solved" once and for all. It explores why attempting to permanently fix issues like technical debt, user experience, or performance management is often ineffective. Instead, it offers a new perspective: how to interact with and manage these intractable problems by focusing on specific outcomes and accepting their ongoing nature.Understand hyperobjects as problems that extend beyond clear boundaries and time, such as technical debt or performance management, which cannot be truly "solved".Discover why a "one-time fix" approach is an anti-pattern for hyperobjects, as their dynamic nature means solutions must also be continuous.Learn to shift your mindset from "solving" to "interacting" with these large, persistent problems, focusing on managing their effects rather than trying to contain them.Explore the importance of focusing on specific, achievable outcomes and taking "snapshots" of the problem's current state, acknowledging that the hyperobject itself will continue to evolve.Recognise that language and conceptualisation play a crucial role in framing and addressing these intractable challenges within your work and organisation.📮 Ask a QuestionIf you enjoyed this episode and would like me to discuss a question that you have on the show, drop it over at: developertea.com..📮 Join the DiscordIf you want to be a part of a supportive community of engineers (non-engineers welcome!) working to improve their lives and careers, join us on the Developer Tea Discord community by visiting https://developertea.com/discord today! It's totally free, and always will be, for people who listen to this show.🧡 Leave a ReviewIf you're enjoying the show and want to support the content head over to iTunes and leave a review! It helps other developers discover the show and keep us focused on what matters to you.
Behavior Change 101: Trigger, Incentive, and Ability (00:20:16)
This episode delves into a powerful model for encouraging behaviour change, applicable to both managing others and self-improvement, by focusing on three critical factors: Trigger, Incentive, and Ability. It challenges common, ineffective management approaches and provides insights into fostering new habits and desired actions by making the 'right' thing the 'easy' thing.Uncover why naive management approaches, such as mandating rules or blaming individuals, are ineffective at solving underlying behavioural problems or creating new, lasting habits.Learn about the Trigger, Incentive, and Ability model, a set of principles that can be applied to encourage specific actions in others or to facilitate self-betterment and incorporate new behaviours into your own life.Understand that Incentives are the critical factor in deciding what actions to pursue, driven by the question, "what's in it for me?". It's crucial for incentives to be clear and understood; an unclear incentive is effectively no incentive at all. Beneficial incentives tend to be more effective from a scientific standpoint.Discover the importance of a clear Trigger, which is the cross point or moment at which a decision to act is made. Assuming triggers will be self-generated is often a flawed management practice, especially when encouraging new behaviours.Explore how Ability goes beyond just skill, encompassing clarity on how to do something and the reduction of friction and variability in the desired behaviour. The goal is to reduce cognitive overload and make the desired action the easiest option, thereby facilitating habit formation.Realise the interconnection between Ability and Incentive, as a lack of clarity in how to perform a task (Ability) can make the incentive unclear because the reward for completion becomes uncertain.Learn that the investment in encouraging behaviour change should focus on creating a better trigger, a better (and clearer) incentive, and higher ability (lower friction, higher skill) to ensure people engage in the desired behaviour.📮 Ask a QuestionIf you enjoyed this episode and would like me to discuss a question that you have on the show, drop it over at: developertea.com.📮 Join the DiscordIf you want to be a part of a supportive community of engineers (non-engineers welcome!) working to improve their lives and careers, join us on the Developer Tea Discord community by visiting https://developertea.com/discord today!🧡 Leave a ReviewIf you're enjoying the show and want to support the content head over to iTunes and leave a review! It helps other developers discover the show and keep us focused on what matters to you.
Goal of the Goal - Using Goals As A Prioritization Clarifying Tool (00:26:13)
This episode delves into the crucial role of well-positioned goals in a developer's career. It asserts that goals provide clarity, perspective, and purpose, particularly focusing on clarity as a primary benefit. The discussion challenges common struggles with goal setting, including the often-overlooked importance of relevance (the 'R' in SMART goals), suggesting that an irrelevant goal, no matter how specific or measurable, is ultimately ineffective. The core message highlights that the purpose of a goal is to serve as a clarifying and prioritising tool, enabling you to make decisions about what to do and focus your efforts, rather than simply doing work that is handed to you. You will learn to start small and focus on desired outcomes or what you want to be true, accepting that a goal only needs to be "directionally correct" rather than perfect. The episode also provides a practical heuristic: to set goals by considering how your boss will evaluate your performance in the future. It emphasises the importance of setting goals that are challenging but sustainable, avoiding common pitfalls like overly abstract, too easy, or demoralisingly difficult goals, to prevent disengagement and burnout. Ultimately, consistent goal setting and reflection are presented as key drivers for long-term career success.Understand the fundamental importance of goals in providing clarity, perspective, and purpose in your career, especially for driven developers.Recognise that relevance is the most critical factor in goal setting; a goal's specificity or measurability is meaningless if it is not the right goal for you.Grasp that the primary function of a goal is to help you make decisions about what to do, acting as a clarifying, prioritising, and focusing tool for your efforts.Challenge the mindset that your goal as a software engineer is merely to complete assigned work; without personal goals, your career changes and skill development will be difficult.Learn to start small when setting goals and focus on desired outcomes or what you genuinely want to be true in your career.Embrace the concept of a "directionally correct" goal, understanding that a goal does not need to be perfect to guide you effectively towards a larger, long-term outcome.Utilise reflection after meeting a goal to assess whether it moved you closer to your long-term objectives, providing valuable steering for future goals.Employ a practical heuristic for goal setting: imagine how your boss would evaluate your performance in six months or a year, and set goals around those anticipated factors.Be proactive in discussing career growth and goal setting with your manager, framing it as an opportunity for them to direct your efforts towards organisational wins.Identify and avoid common pitfalls in goal setting, such as goals that are too abstract (not tractable), too easy (causing disengagement), or too difficult (leading to demoralisation).Strive for goals that offer a challenging but sustainable chance of success (e.g., around a 60% probability), requiring focus and the ability to say no, without leading to burnout.Understand that consistency in setting and pursuing goals is what ultimately defines long-term success, rather than the perfection of any single goal.📮 Ask a QuestionIf you enjoyed this episode and would like me to discuss a question that you have on the show, drop it over at: developertea.com.📮 Join the DiscordIf you want to be a part of a supportive community of engineers (non-engineers welcome!) working to improve their lives and careers, join us on the Developer Tea Discord community by visiting https://developertea.com/discord today!🧡 Leave a ReviewIf you're enjoying the show and want to support the content head over to iTunes and leave a review! It helps other developers discover the show and keep us focused on what matters to you.For further reading (external sources):SMART Goals: The episode mentions the SMART framework (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-bound) as a good set of checks for goals. You can find more information about SMART goals on their Wikipedia page. (Please note: This link provides information from outside of the provided sources and you may want to independently verify that information.)The discussion on goal success probability (e.g., 60% chance of success) alludes to studies on optimal challenge levels for engagement and achievement. You may find further research on goal-setting theory and motivational psychology to explore these concepts in more detail. (Please note: This information is not explicitly from the provided sources and you may want to independently verify it.)
Your Capacity for Growth Is Dependent on This Factor - Cognitive Load Theory (00:23:49)
Today we explore Cognitive Load Theory. This concept can profoundly influence how you structure your workday, manage teams, and approach learning in your career. The episode highlights that much of professional work, particularly in knowledge-based roles like software engineering, is fundamentally about learning. You will discover that there is an optimal amount of information processing for effective learning, and both overloading and underloading your cognitive capacity can be detrimental. A key insight is that cognitive load does not discriminate; all external factors, whether work-related or personal (e.g., tiredness, a messy desk), consume your finite cognitive capacity, leaving less "headroom" for optimal performance. Furthermore, cognitive load is not static but varies daily, impacted by an individual's diverse life experiences. The episode also delves into how skill development effectively lowers the cognitive load required for specific tasks, allowing individuals to achieve more with less mental effort or take on new challenges. It underscores the importance of self-awareness in recognising signals of overload or underload, and for managers, it emphasises fostering empathy by understanding how external life factors can impact a team member's cognitive capacity.Understand the pervasive nature of learning in professional careers, particularly for developers, where acquiring new information and making connections is a constant.Grasp the core principle of Cognitive Load Theory: there is an ideal level of information processing that maximises your learning ability. Both excessive (overload) and insufficient (underload) cognitive demands can negatively impact this learning rate.Recognise that your cognitive load does not differentiate between sources. This means that personal factors such as being tired, anticipating events, or even having a cluttered workspace contribute to your overall cognitive load, reducing your capacity for work-related tasks.Appreciate that an individual's cognitive load is not a fixed value; it fluctuates daily due to various life experiences.For managers, learn to proactively discuss cognitive load with your team members to help them operate at an appropriate engagement level. A simple way to initiate this conversation is by asking about their energy and positivity levels.Discover that while reducing non-value-producing cognitive load provides more mental overhead, it also carries the risk of underloading, which can lead to disengagement and reduced performance. The challenge lies in finding the optimal balance.Learn how developing skills and gaining experience reduces the cognitive load required to perform a task. This means you become more efficient and can accomplish the same outcomes with less mental effort, freeing up capacity for new learning or additional responsibilities.Consider career growth through the lens of cognitive load: it involves either increasing efficiency (doing more of the same with less load) or expanding your repertoire by taking on new types of cognitive load in parallel.Understand why managing your personal life is intrinsically linked to your career success (and vice versa), as cognitive load universally affects your capacity to learn and handle challenges.Build empathy by understanding that a person's capacity to perform difficult tasks can be significantly moderated by their current cognitive load, which may be influenced by challenging personal circumstances.Recognise task saturation as the point of cognitive overload where performance declines rapidly, as observed in flight training. Repeated exposure to this point, however, can lead to skill development that lowers the cognitive load for those specific tasks over time.Understand that multitasking often increases cognitive load due to switching costs, making it less efficient than sequential task completion.🙏 Today's Episode is Brought To you by: Wix StudioDevs, if you think website builders mean limited control—think again. With Wix Studio’s developer-first ecosystem you can spend less time on tedious tasks and more on the functionalities that matters most:Develop online in a VS Code-based IDE or locally via GitHub.Extend and replace a suite of powerful business solutions.And ship faster with Wix Studio’s AI code assistant.All of that, wrapped up in auto-maintained infrastructure for total peace of mind. Work in a developer-first ecosystem. Go to wixstudio.com.📮 Ask a QuestionIf you enjoyed this episode and would like me to discuss a question that you have on the show, drop it over at: developertea.com.📮 Join the DiscordIf you want to be a part of a supportive community of engineers (non-engineers welcome!) working to improve their lives and careers, join us on the Developer Tea Discord community by visiting https://developertea.com/discord today!🧡 Leave a ReviewIf you're enjoying the show and want to support the content head over to iTunes and leave a review! It helps other developers discover the show and keep us focused on what matters to you.For further reading (external sources):To learn more about the academic background of Cognitive Load Theory, you may find additional information on its Wikipedia page. (Please note: This link provides information from outside of the provided sources and you may want to independently verify that information.)The concept of "task saturation" discussed in the episode, particularly in the context of flight training, relates to a point of cognitive overload. More on this can be explored on its Wikipedia page. (Please note: This link provides information from outside of the provided sources and you may want to independently verify that information.)
Investigating Your Invisible Systems (00:16:20)
This episode focuses again on the fundamental principle that your systems are perfectly designed for the outcomes you are experiencing, regardless of whether those systems were intentionally or accidentally created.Here are the key takeaways from the episode:Uncover how your systems, whether intentionally or accidentally designed, are perfectly configured for the outcomes you experience. The implication of design means choices have been made in setting up a system, but your intent is less important than the actual outcomes produced.Learn why your intent is less important than the actual outcomes when evaluating your systems. If your intent was the sole factor, everyone would achieve their desired results. Instead, systems should be judged by the outcomes they generate.Discover the concept of "accidental design," where unseen factors influence system behaviour. This can be inspired by Goodhart's law, where a measure becomes a target and changes behaviour, or by environmental factors, such as how your workspace impacts your thinking and heart rate.Explore how "invisible systems" – the unexamined rules and assumptions that govern your daily life – profoundly influence your actions and results. These are forces changing your behaviour that you likely haven't evaluated, such as automatically accepting all meeting invites.Understand that human behaviour, including your own, can be an outcome of your systems. This perspective offers the highest leverage opportunity for change, as modifying the underlying system is more effective than relying on temporary motivation or addressing knowledge gaps in isolation.Realise that system boundaries are often arbitrary, and a system's design must account for all factors influencing its outcomes. For example, a quality assurance system cannot be considered good if it fails due to a "talent" issue; the talent pool and hiring procedures are part of the overall system affecting the outcome. Ignoring such factors because they fall outside perceived boundaries of responsibility can lead to irreducible or expensive risks.You are encouraged to investigate the invisible parts of your systems and write down the assumed rules that govern your life, even if you haven't evaluated their truth or helpfulness.📮 Ask a QuestionIf you enjoyed this episode and would like me to discuss a question that you have on the show, drop it over at: developertea.com.📮 Join the DiscordIf you want to be a part of a supportive community of engineers (non-engineers welcome!) working to improve their lives and careers, join us on the Developer Tea Discord community by visiting https://developertea.com/discord today!🧡 Leave a ReviewIf you're enjoying the show and want to support the content head over to iTunes and leave a review! It helps other developers discover the show and keep us focused on what matters to you.
Perfection Is Fragile, and You Should Avoid It (00:20:03)
This episode discusses why perfection is a dangerous and fragile goal, explaining how striving for 100% leads to unsustainable outlier states. It highlights how setting perfection as a bar can cause commitments to break and plans to fail due to a lack of slack, and offers strategies like building redundancy and planning with slack to achieve goals more effectively without relying on perfection.Uncover why perfection is a dangerous and fragile goal, as it often requires exorbitant, unsustainable effort and creates outlier states that are unlikely to be maintained, referencing the "Wedies effect" where things tend to regress to the mean.Learn how planning for 100% utilisation or setting perfection as a commitment can lead to fragility, causing plans to fail when unexpected changes occur or leading to giving up altogether once a "perfect" streak is broken.Discover practical strategies to avoid fragile perfectionism, such as planning with slack to accommodate change and building redundancy into your systems and personal commitments for more robust outcomes.Explore why actively avoiding requirements or expectations of perfection is crucial, as investing in it can be an exponential or even asymptotic step, leading to an unsustainable and fragile state.Note: sorry about the plane noise in the background. I decided to publish it, since it's imperfect (and that's kind of making the point!).📮 Ask a QuestionIf you enjoyed this episode and would like me to discuss a question that you have on the show, drop it over at: developertea.com.📮 Join the DiscordIf you want to be a part of a supportive community of engineers (non-engineers welcome!) working to improve their lives and careers, join us on the Developer Tea Discord community by visiting https://developertea.com/discord today!🧡 Leave a ReviewIf you're enjoying the show and want to support the content head over to iTunes and leave a review! It helps other developers discover the show and keep us focused on what matters to you.
Your System is Perfectly Designed for Your Current Outcomes (00:18:14)
This episode introduces the potentially controversial principle that your system is perfectly designed for its current outcomes, urging listeners to embrace greater responsibility for systemic issues. It explores how to redefine system boundaries to holistically integrate all influencing factors, like talent and organisational processes, ensuring that interventions are effective and targeted.Uncover the principle that your system is perfectly designed for the results you are getting, prompting a re-evaluation of what constitutes a "good" system when outcomes are undesirable.Learn why arbitrary system boundaries often lead to critical factors, such as talent, being excluded, and how to consider a system's full scope regardless of traditional lines of responsibility.Discover how incorporating talent and other seemingly external factors into your system design can lead to more efficient and effective solutions, rather than simply patching symptoms.Explore the distinction between judging decisions by their outcomes (resulting) and designing systems that proactively reduce uncertainty and improve the likelihood of success.Understand that system thinking extends beyond technical architecture to encompass processes, policies, culture, and interpersonal dynamics, which collectively influence organisational outcomes.📮 Ask a QuestionIf you enjoyed this episode and would like me to discuss a question that you have on the show, drop it over at: developertea.com..📮 Join the DiscordIf you want to be a part of a supportive community of engineers (non-engineers welcome!) working to improve their lives and careers, join us on the Developer Tea Discord community by visiting https://developertea.com/discord today!.🧡 Leave a ReviewIf you're enjoying the show and want to support the content head over to iTunes and leave a review! It helps other developers discover the show and keep us focused on what matters to you.
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