Journals & Field Notes
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The Spooky Action of Remote Teams
In Big Tech, we rely on 'entanglement' (shared culture/context). Without it, remote teams drift into decoherence.
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Signal-to-Noise in Performance Reviews
As a manager, you are a radio telescope. You have to tune out the 'thermal noise' of office politics to find the deep, quiet signal of essential work.
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The Redshift of Product Roadmaps
Why projects appear 'bluer' (closer/simpler) when you start and 'redshift' as they move into the future. How to calculate the 'Expansion Constant' of a roadmap.
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The Heisenberg Principle of KPIs
Goodhart’s Law through a physics lens: once you measure a metric, you change the behavior you were trying to capture.
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Gravitational Slingshots for Careers
How to recognize high-pressure 'heavy' projects and use them for momentum rather than letting them pull you into a crash.
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Friction vs. Inertia in Change Management
How to overcome the 'Static Friction' of 'We’ve always done it this way' in engineering organizations.
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Event Horizons in Communication
How to identify 'Information Event Horizons' in large organizations and build 'Hawking Radiation' channels to get the truth out.
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Escape Velocity for Startups
The 'Big Tech Weight' problem. You need a high thrust-to-weight ratio early on; don't build for a billion users when you have ten.
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The Entropy of Technical Debt
A look at why management must actively 'inject energy' through refactoring to reverse code entropy, preventing the system from reaching heat death.
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Dark Matter in the Org Chart
How to map the 'Dark Matter' of your team—the invisible influencers who get things done—and why losing them causes the galaxy to fly apart.