My pet peeve is when people say they want "technical" managers. It doesn't mean anything specific.
Do they want you coding? To have empathy for your team's workflows? To have enough fluency to call BS on estimates? Writing TDDs? 🤷♂️
So you think you've mastered performance management.
Adorable!
But you're running the playbook from your last job, and now you're wondering why nothing's working.
I've managed in four completely different environments, each with different rules.
You'll recognize yours.
Oh God. 😭 Deplorable engagement farmers.
Most leaders panic when the CEO starts poking around. They dodge the hard question: is engineering investment compounding, or are we quietly stalling out?
The Efficiency Era rejects fantasy-league stats, demanding that you make the system legible.
jamesjboyer.substack.com/p/metrics-th...
Some leaders are flailing so hard in the Efficiency Era that they're outsourcing the only part of the job that matters—the thinking.
AI sidesteps the learning process, accelerating organizational dysfunction and speed-running what used to take years to unravel.
open.substack.com/pub/jamesjbo...
Sounds familiar!! 😜
I'm convinced most good leaders are forged in dysfunction.
You see glaring needs, obvious gaps, and a whole lot of pretenders. You build your instincts in the chaos.
What happens when you land somewhere that isn't broken? The quiet can feel strangely unsettling.
open.substack.com/pub/jamesjbo...
Oof. It's really becoming apparent that if you don't have enough context or expertise to call bullshit on the LLM, that you shouldn't be blindly relying on it.
Similar to "vibe coding" or whatever. Only experienced engineers can tell it's generating garbage. No matter how good it looks.
A lot of the voices I used to follow on Twitter disappeared from the platform. That's what led me here! I'll settle for the lack of diversity for now. I think communities just need time to migrate over. All told, the switching cost wasn't that high for me.
No advice on a third party client. Sorry!
The best kind of stupid idiot, if you ask me. 😂
But be intentional! Play on purpose!
Recognize when you're making tradeoffs and own them. See the game for what it is and don't pretend that you're above it.
Hold your values close, even as you wade through the muck. The politics. The power plays.
So: Yes, the systems are broken. Yes, the incentives are misaligned. Yes, people get ahead for the wrong reasons and burn out for the right ones.
But if you want to lead with integrity, you still have to play.
...and when you get there, hopefully you're proud of how you did it.
The people you've helped along the way. The good you've done and all of the things you've put out into the world.
But also? It's ✨fucking hard✨.
And you'll find yourself being many different "idiots" on your way there.
Trying to lead the "right way" but also be successful. To make it to a position where you feel like you can actually make a difference.
I wrote this after reading @charity.wtf's piece here: charity.wtf/2025/07/09/t...
Specifically this part, which stuck in my brain for days and days: "The world needs, desperately, people with ethics and ideals who can win at business."
Couldn't. Agree. More.
So you've decided you want to lead with integrity! That's cute.
Oh, you're serious? Cool. Just know that it's expensive, lonely, and rarely gets you promoted.
Come meet the idiot archetypes we become while trying to survive in a system that doesn't care.
open.substack.com/pub/jamesjbo...
When "managing up" means "shut up". How broken leadership cultures turn thought partners into troublemakers, weakening your org from the inside out.
open.substack.com/pub/jamesjbo...
Also? I think being intentional about "I'm still trying to figure it out", and owning that, is totally fine too. But don't be aimlessly aimless.
Even folks I work with who say they "don't have goals" ultimately have *something* they want to do when we dig enough. It takes effort to uncover.
The biggest thing for me, especially lately, has been being more intentional. Knowing what I am optimizing for at this point in my career. That's what really hit me about Will's piece (you referenced it) when I first read it.
The only advice I give now is to be intentional.
TIL I too, am qualified to be a CTO coach 😂.
Ever seen a dev mash keys, copy-paste StackOverflow snippets, or let Cursor just do its thing and hope for the best? That's "programming by coincidence". Lately, I've realized some leaders operate the same way.
New piece: "Managing By Coincidence": open.substack.com/pub/jamesjbo...
Good leadership is rarely convenient. It's uncomfortable. Hard questions. Tough Calls.
But for years, we rewarded charisma, consensus, and coasting.
The Efficiency Era changed the script.
Part one of a new four-part series on what it demands—and what it exposes.
open.substack.com/pub/jamesjbo...
I'm workshopping an idea about this "autonomy porn" shit that infects my feed. Less often now than peak-ZIRP, but still often.
I can't reliably distinguish the engagement bait vs someone cosplaying thought leadership.
Failing is fine. Failing for 2 years without a pivot is incompetence.
This is a piece I wish I had written.
"The only thing that actually matters when it comes to engineering productivity is whether or not you are moving the business materially forward."
I've been circling this idea for years and few "engineering" folks seem to get it. This is the real 10x unlock.
"We're scaling, fam!"
That used to be a strategy. Just gesticulate wildly in the general direction of your open reqs and ship some more good vibes.
But ZIRP is over. AI is here. Budgets are tight. Everyone's asking for receipts.
Welcome to the Efficiency Era.
open.substack.com/pub/jamesjbo...
Especially later in your career, I think patience wanes. You don't want to fight the uphill battles as much anymore. You know what your standards are, you know your leadership style, and you recognize the clashes sooner.
Misalignment (values, standards, style, whatever it is) kills motivation.
New niblet post is up, on how long it does or should take to know if a job is right for you (or not).
charity.wtf/2025/06/08/o...
And how the bar should be higher for managers than ICs. An experienced engineer can usually tune out and turn in decent work; I'm not sure a manager can do the same.
Written communication skills for remote roles are so often overlooked. I'm convinced that if you aren't deliberately seeking signal during the interview process that you're rolling the dice.
Participate in an async mock code review. Add questions/comments to a mock project spec. Screen for this!
"He trusts us. He stays out of the technical stuff. We have total autonomy."
Cool. But also: yikes.
If your team would do the same work without you, you aren't a leader. You're a well-compensated mascot.
jamesjboyer.substack.com/p/on-being-l...
Coming from a place where we had people spread across India, Australia, and Europe, in addition to all US time zones, I tend to agree. It's impossible to find synchronous time that doesn't put somebody out.
+/-3 time zones max is a massive improvement. Still better: building teams in 1 time zone.
