#262 – October 05, 2025
build healthy relationships
Stop avoiding politics
4 minutes by Matheus Lima
Most engineers hate workplace politics and see it as manipulation. But Matheus argues that politics is simply how humans coordinate in groups through relationships and influence. When good engineers avoid politics, bad decisions get made without their input. The best technical leaders are actually skilled at politics, calling it stakeholder management or building alignment. Good politics means building relationships, understanding incentives, and framing technical proposals in business terms to get better outcomes.
Code gen tools don’t fix your biggest time sink: missing context.
sponsored by Unblocked
Unblocked pulls together context from GitHub, Slack, Jira, and Confluence so engineers make faster, better decisions.The result: faster onboarding, fewer interruptions, and autonomous teams that stay focused.
Hiring only senior engineers is killing companies
8 minutes by Andrew Churchill
During a 3 months interview process Andrew analyzed 134 engineers and found that companies miss out on exceptional junior talent while competing for expensive senior hires. AI-native juniors can become productive faster than expected, using AI tools to understand codebases and learn technologies quickly. Smart companies like Shopify are hiring hundreds of interns who bring fresh energy and motivation. The key is updating hiring processes to test AI collaboration skills alongside fundamental problem-solving abilities.
A primer on strategy choice chartering
11 minutes by Roger Martin
Strategy Choice Chartering helps organizations turn strategy into action by having leaders delegate decisions properly. Roger shares three examples from his time as business school dean. He assigned program directors specific goals but let them choose how to achieve them. This approach requires leaders to explain their decisions, set clear boundaries, offer support, and stay open to changes. When done right, it builds decision-making skills throughout the organization.
The EM’s guide to AI adoption
10 minutes by Anton Zaides
Anton shares outcomes from a study of 400+ companies which found that successful AI adoption follows a 5-level pattern. Teams that succeed start with AI code editors for 3-5 alpha testers, then add background agents for automated commits. Next comes AI code reviews to handle routine checks while humans focus on architecture. Teams must measure real productivity gains, not just usage stats. Finally, they need ongoing processes to evaluate new tools as they emerge. If you want to test yourself and get the TLDR recommendations, take the 30-second quiz.
Things I believe
2 minutes by Lee Robinson
Modern software teams should prioritize shipping quickly over perfect strategy. Speed gives companies a major competitive advantage, especially for AI-focused teams that can move 10 times faster than traditional ones. Success comes from constantly listening to users, building solutions, and shipping products repeatedly. Small teams naturally move faster and achieve better results than large, complex organizations.
Survey: Tech challenges in the healthcare space
sponsored by Test Double
Are you a tech, product, marketing, or strategy leader in the healthcare space, or know one? Test Double is benchmarking challenges across healthcare providers, vendors, and tech companies. Participants will receive an insights report, and one participant will receive a $200 donation to the charity of their choice.
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