In a thriving work environment, we treat our colleagues like the CEO and treat the CEO like a colleague. In this post, I describe three essential behavioural patterns for maintaining an egalitarian relationship with bosses.

People advocating for the Boris Cherny agentic engineering workflow are ignoring the true bottlenecks in software delivery, executives with a counterview and the fundamental reasons why people choose to be software engineers.

The belief that agentic engineering diminishes the importance of deep work ignores diverse perspectives about software development, the AI backlash and the true costs of generative AI.

There’s a pernicious belief that agentic engineering diminishes the importance of deep work and that engineers and knowledge workers must now embrace a distracted, interrupted and context-switched workflow. How well grounded is this theory?

Why internal podcasts are a bigger bet than they look – and what to expect if you decide to launch one.

Leadership isn’t only about driving business results. It’s also about shaping group identities that people thrive in, and wish to belong to.

AI-generated content is often devoid of character and authenticity. By delegating communication and content generation to LLMs, you’re signalling a lack of care, conviction and connection to your audience and consumers. To stand out in a crowd of AI-slop, consider being militantly human.

By delegating our cognitive struggles to AI, we dull our intellect, atrophy our hard-earned skills, and settle for mediocre outcomes.

I’m over long drawn, short message conversations on instant messaging, that neither connect people, nor address the depth and nuance the topics of discussion deserve.

I undertook a short, generative AI detox. It helped me reinforce that while LLMs aren’t indispensable, I don’t mind using them for boring work. I am, however, going to militantly avoid generative AI in activities that I consider to be my superpowers.

No company needs a “head of culture” until they need one.

To counter the addictive effect of LLMs, I’m embarking on a one-week generative AI detox.

Don’t trust the clammy scam artists who tell you AI is moving too fast for you to think straight about this technology. LLMs may well be cool, but most gains are coming from fine-tuning and post-training. Feel free to slow down and make well-considered moves for yourself and your business.

I’m a nature photographer who earns his living from tech. Sometimes I win. Often, I lose. Photography has taught be to be even-keeled in the face of disappointment.

I delivered a keynote to the latest cohort of Thoughtworks University. This post has the audio recording of the talk and a clean transcript.

Feedback that strengthens someone’s confidence can be a powerful motivator. Sadly, we don’t share such feedback enough.

If culture is the moving average of behaviour over time, then a change in corporate culture is inevitable. To retain their cultural distinctiveness, though, corporations must identify what truly makes them special – i.e. their immutable core.

Well-meaning executives often implicitly ask for overwork, without acknowledging that the upside for the hustle has disappeared for the average employee. To reenergise and motivate their workforces, executives must do more than just appeal to tradition. Employees must see a proportional upside.

Some teams exist to deliver value. Others enforce control. Some others, sit right in the middle. What kind of team are you?

When culture is a fuzzy concept, it’s open to interpretation. People unwittingly wield their interpretations like shields or swords. Well-documented cultures, on the other hand, are open to scrutiny yet transparent and easier to govern and co-own.