#246 – June 15, 2025
they create limits
Smart people don't chase goals; they create limits
8 minutes by Joan Westenberg
Joan argues that focusing on constraints rather than goals often produces more meaningful work and innovation. While goals provide win conditions that feel like progress, constraints establish boundaries that guide decision-making without locking in predictions. She suggests that many innovative thinkers succeeded not by pursuing explicit goals but by working creatively within constraints that shaped their possibilities.
Turn your scattered documentation into instant answers.
sponsored by Unblocked
Unblocked connects to your team’s code, discussions and docs, so it can explain both how your code works AND why it works that way. Now everyone gets helpful answers, without having to interrupt a teammate.
Getting better estimates is easier than you think
10 minutes by Mike Cohn
Agile estimation is often challenging due to human bias, overconfidence, and past experiences that influence team behavior. While teams are generally good at estimating familiar tasks, unfamiliar or high-stakes scenarios can distort accuracy. Mike explores common estimation pitfalls and highlights research showing that feedback and experience can improve accuracy over time.
Cognitive reappraisal: The art of seeing things differently
3 minutes by Anne-Laure Le Cunff
Cognitive reappraisal is a powerful emotional management technique that involves reinterpreting challenging situations to change their emotional impact, rather than suppressing feelings. Anne-Laure shares a three-step process for implementing cognitive reappraisal: zooming out to gain perspective, reframing the situation to find potential benefits, and using self-compassionate inner dialogue.
On how long it takes to know if a job is right for you
8 minutes by Charity Majors
Charity shares insights about job satisfaction, arguing that people typically form accurate impressions of workplace fit within the first week. She emphasizes that managers, unlike individual contributors, cannot effectively perform their roles without genuine alignment with company values, as representation and alignment are essential aspects of management.
Wardley Maps & Pace Layering for engineering leaders
19 minutes by Alex Ewerlöf
Wardley Maps provide a visual framework for understanding technology evolution from Genesis to Commodity, while Pace Layering helps categorize systems by their change velocity. When used together, these complementary approaches help technical leaders connect business objectives to technology decisions, justify resource allocation, and communicate strategy effectively across organizational boundaries.
Why we coach the system, not just the team
sponsored by Test Double
People over processes, right? If you’re trying to make lasting change, sometimes it helps to look at systems first. Why? If you focus on the systems creating blockers for the people on your team, you’re going to uncover ways to change behaviors not just processes. And that’s how you get to real impact.
And the most popular article from the last issue was: