Engineer to executive translation layer

Engineer to executive translation layer
21 minutes by Anna Shipman

Engineering proposals often get rejected or ignored because engineers and executives think differently. Engineers focus on technical details while executives think about company-wide business outcomes. To get your ideas approved, Anna suggests to translate technical benefits into business language.

Make AI coding reliable across teams and repos
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Prioritize relatively
2 minutes by Andrew Bosworth

People often debate new ideas by focusing on whether they're good or exciting. Andrew says this approach is unproductive because many ideas are good. The better question is whether an idea is more valuable than current work. This forces explicit trade-offs and prevents good ideas from being dismissed as bad when they're simply not the best use of time right now.

Reflection is a crucial leadership skill
7 minutes by Kevin Goldsmith

Senior leaders often fall into pattern matching from past situations without examining their decisions deeply. This autopilot approach stops growth and creates blind spots that hurt teams. Regular reflection through structured practices like quarterly reviews and weekly check-ins keeps leaders sharp and intentional rather than just busy.

Start your meetings at 5 minutes past
1 minute by Philip O'Toole

Philip found that scheduling meetings to start five minutes past the hour works better than trying to end early. People naturally respect the new start time and arrive settled and less stressed. This simple change gives everyone a short break between back-to-back meetings and has spread throughout the organization organically.

Your tools are your culture
8 minutes by Jari Mattlar

Jari shares his experience replacing Jira with Linear and Slack with Float which led to better culture. Tools shape behaviour more than leadership initiatives. Jira created bureaucracy and distrust with complex workflows. Slack caused constant interruptions and anxiety with its always-on presence model.

And the most popular article from the last issue was:

• Creating your own opportunities