Doing nothing at work

Doing nothing at work
10 minutes by Sean Goedecke

Working at 80% capacity makes engineers more effective, not less. The biggest wins in tech come from rare, time-sensitive moments like unblocking a major deal or stopping an incident early, and you can only seize those if you are not already buried in routine tasks. Staying loose also means avoiding low-value work that quietly drains your time, such as unsanctioned requests or tasks likely to be cancelled. Save full intensity for the two or three moments a year when it truly matters.

Don’t let accessibility issues derail your next launch
sponsored by Level Access

Developers are testing for accessibility issues earlier—but when fixes don’t happen until the final hour, launches slip. Stop leaving your product roadmap up to chance, and start building accessibility into delivery. The Accessibility Resolution Playbook is your practical framework for shifting from reactive fixes to proactive prevention and protecting delivery timelines. Explore it now.

How do I build influence across functions and departments?
23 minutes by Andi Roberts

In large organisations, having a strong argument is rarely enough to get things done. Real influence comes from credibility built over time, a genuine understanding of what others care about, and choosing approaches like consultation and collaboration that create ownership rather than just compliance. Political awareness and a habit of generosity also matter far more than most leaders realise. The goal is not to get people to act, but to make them want to.

What most people miss about performance reviews
5 minutes by Yue Zhao

At senior levels, your reputation across the broader organization matters as much as your manager's support. Promotion decisions often happen in group settings where colleagues you rarely work with can raise objections you never saw coming. To avoid surprises, Yue suggests to gather feedback early, identify potential critics, and build relationships with influential advocates who can speak up for you when it counts.

Interviewing in the age of AI
16 minutes by Charles-Axel Dein

Allowing AI in technical interviews seems modern, but it undermines what interviews are for. AI masks the foundational skills that actually matter, like reasoning, system design intuition, and engineering judgment, while only revealing tool proficiency, which is easy to teach. Since AI models evolve monthly, building AI-resistant questions is a losing battle. Keep AI out of most interviews, invest in live exercises, and adapt take-homes with follow-up sessions to assess real thinking.

Exploring vs exploiting: The two modes of product discovery
10 minutes by Ant Murphy

Product discovery has two modes: exploring and exploiting. Ant argues most teams are good at exploiting, meaning they optimise known problems, but few make time to explore new opportunities. Exploration is harder to justify because it produces learning rather than measurable results, yet research shows companies that do both tend to survive longer. Tools like open-ended interviews, dogfooding, and observation help teams stay in an exploratory mindset.

industry

• What it feels like to work with Mythos
• No tech rule exemption for Apple, EU regulators say amid spat over Siri AI delay
• OpenAI files a draft S-1 to the SEC
• New U.S. college grads now have higher unemployment than the average worker
• S&P 500 rejects SpaceX, also blocking entry for OpenAI and Anthropic

security

• Detecting and removing dangerous secrets on dev workstations before Shai-Hulud does
• Well-architected best practices for software supply chain security
• The Smart TV in Your LivingRoom Is a Node in the AI Scraping Economy

And the most popular article from the last issue was:

• Find a way