My annual “spring is here” post, wherein I connect a 6-year old task I finally completed to our country’s history, my home, and the work ahead of us.

It was quite a roller coaster of a week. Remembering what a privilege certain moments are can help even out the ride.

It’s going to be especially important where your time, attention, and money goes over the next four years. These are a few areas I’m prioritizing.

I’ve semantically overloaded the word “leadership” to the point that I occasionally forget how far removed my definition is from the popular lexicon.

This is a reflection on my first resignation in late 2006, nearly 18 years ago, that I found today while looking for a document in my attic.

A hallmark of a healthy company is keeping incentives aligned with ownership. The only way to scale this is to focus on alignment, not control.

Working relationships between humans are far more durable & valuable than those between people and a legal entity. What’s a company, anyway?

If you start your career debasing yourself in drudgery for someone else’s profit, you won’t acquire the leadership & critical thinking skills you need and you’ll suffer for it.

It’s very difficult to talk about violence even among close friends over drinks, let alone on social media or other online venues. We need to anyway.

Patrick O’Keefe of the long-running show Community Signal asked me to join him in a discussion that ranged from private equity buying community software, community data ownership, and the stakeholder challenges of community software roadmaps.

Building on the Web these days often feels like a game where you see how much weight you can put in a boat before it sinks, but you get $1 for every pound you add instead of how many days it stays afloat.

Psychological safety is the most powerful productivity multiplier. Without it, no one can take ownership of their piece of the company and make it better.

Software building is a team activity, and QA is an indispensable stakeholder on a well-functioning team.

Have you ever noticed nearly all Web software is feudalistic? I share three important pieces from academics that capture the issue.

I’m thinking about how easy it is to get locked into a path. We tell ourselves lies about who we are every day and make choices based on those lies.

We usually ignore transition time. If your focus needs to transition, make space for that.

What would you say is the single best predictor for success for an engineering leader? They prioritize listening to the voices with more direct context and they are actively building their understanding of the problem set.

How does an executive bully operate in the workplace? Knowing the signs can help clarify your decisions and make the experience less traumatic.