Leadership in Tech
Leadership in Tech
#278 – January 18, 2026
sometimes not solving a problem at all could be the best choice
Three ways to solve problems
2 minutes by Andreas Fragner
Gerald Weinberg defined a problem as the gap between how things are perceived and how they're desired. Andreas explains three ways to deal with problems: change the world, change how you see it, or change what you want. He argues that not solving a problem, or solving a simpler version, is often the best choice—especially in startups and product work where focus and tradeoffs matter.
Tests are dead. Meticulous AI is here.
sponsored by Meticulous
Meticulous automatically creates and maintains an exhaustive e2e UI test suite that covers every corner of your application – with no developer intervention required whatsoever. Dropbox, Lattice, Bilt Rewards and hundreds of organisations rely on Meticulous for their frontend testing. It is built from the Chromium level up with a deterministic scheduling engine – making it the only testing tool that eliminates flakes.
How to get good advice
10 minutes by Charles Cook
This post explains how to get better advice as a founder or leader. Charles shares a clear process for finding the right people, asking focused questions, and preparing well for conversations. Key ideas include talking to multiple experienced people, doing upfront work, focusing on diagnosing problems instead of copying solutions, and understanding the role of luck in others’ success.
Strategy & opportunistic hold-up
11 minutes by Roger Martin
Roger explains opportunistic hold-up—when people or institutions exploit the value others have created. Using examples from business, policy, and personal experience, he shows how success attracts self-interested actors. Roger outlines why this happens and offers practical ways for companies and individuals to protect what makes them valuable.
The way I run standup meetings
10 minutes by Marc G Gauthier
Marc presents an alternative to traditional daily standups focused on sharing interesting work rather than status reporting. Team meets for 15 minutes before lunch to discuss discoveries, feature progress, blockers, and other relevant updates. The goal is building empathy and creating opportunities for collaboration.
The quiet discipline of great engineering teams
6 minutes by Abdulfatai Popoola
Stability is invisible when it works but unforgettable when it fails. As engineering teams scale, maintaining system health becomes harder because visibility fades and instinct fails. Many organizations struggle with fundamentals not from lack of discipline, but because they never clearly defined what matters most.
And the most popular article from the last issue was: