Swizec Teller https://swizec.com/ A geek with a hat Sat, 08 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://validator.w3.org/feed/docs/rss2.html https://github.com/jpmonette/feed en-us Β© 2026 Swizec Teller <![CDATA[Beware the spaceships]]> https://swizec.com/blog/beware-the-spaceships https://swizec.com/blog/beware-the-spaceships Sat, 08 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT I'm in the middle of migrating our design system and it's fun to see how much AI can do. Just last night I stayed up until 1am to ship another big portion.

Wait why am I coding at 1am if AI's doing all the work? 🀨

It's the spaceship problem. You start with the ending then work your way back to something useful. This kinda sucks.

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]]> hi@swizec.com (Swizec Teller) <![CDATA[Agents change the math on big bang migrations]]> https://swizec.com/blog/agents-change-the-math-on-big-bang-migrations https://swizec.com/blog/agents-change-the-math-on-big-bang-migrations Sat, 01 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT At scale you're always mid-migration but you never do a big-bang rewrite, right? I think that's changing 🀨

You see the secret of our industry is that "you never rewrite your software" but we're all always rewriting our software. When the business changes every 6 months, what else are you gonna do?

https://twitter.com/Swizec/status/1924875257669943383

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]]> hi@swizec.com (Swizec Teller) <![CDATA[How to be useful as a software architect]]> https://swizec.com/blog/how-to-be-useful-as-a-software-architect https://swizec.com/blog/how-to-be-useful-as-a-software-architect Sat, 25 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT Ever worked with a useful software architect? Yeah me neither. But I sure have tried to be one.

Software architects have a weird role: Think about the code tomorrow. Today's code is what it is, how do we make it good tomorrow? Without slowing down, losing business, or falling off a cliff.

The worst architects write lots of docs nobody reads, make proclamations of The One True Way, and fall out of touch. Many effective architects put on the Software Janitor hat and burn out in 2 years.

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]]> hi@swizec.com (Swizec Teller) <![CDATA[swizec.com is now on TimberJS, a new React framework]]> https://swizec.com/blog/swizec-com-is-now-on-timber-js-a-new-react-framework https://swizec.com/blog/swizec-com-is-now-on-timber-js-a-new-react-framework Tue, 21 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT Can you believe I've been writing on swizec.com for 20 years? The blog started back when "have a website" was social media 🀯

Before that it was a webcomic site. Those posts do not survive but I recently found the sketches in my mom's basement and brought them to San Francisco. Little memento of a different path :)

I got swizec.com in 2005 and started hosting websites on the linux machine in my bedroom, which was also my only computer and everyone's web router. Fun times. Gentoo was my distro of choice and yes compiling from stage0 on a 1GHz overclocked Athlon takes forever.

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]]> hi@swizec.com (Swizec Teller) <![CDATA[The one thing every experienced engineer gets wrong]]> https://swizec.com/blog/the-one-thing-every-experienced-engineer-gets-wrong https://swizec.com/blog/the-one-thing-every-experienced-engineer-gets-wrong Sat, 11 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT In the last few months every engineer I hired stumbled in exactly the same way: Project management. They learned quickly, but that first big project has become a rite of passage.

We're talking about strong engineers great at writing code and thinking through problems. Everyone with at least 5 years of experience. I would trust them to design and own almost any system.

We like to give engineers lots of agency and autonomy.

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]]> hi@swizec.com (Swizec Teller) <![CDATA[Theory of constraints, AI, and code review]]> https://swizec.com/blog/theory-of-constraints-ai-and-code-review https://swizec.com/blog/theory-of-constraints-ai-and-code-review Mon, 06 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT No matter how much code you create, it's zero value until you ship. Writing code, building features, moving tickets, they're all vanity metrics. None of it matters until users can do something they couldn't do before.

With AI you can produce more code faster than ever before. And it doesn't matter. I bet you're still shipping at about the same speed as before aren't you?

We can see this in the data! You can feel it by looking around. Everyone talks about using AI, burning tokens, and doing work, but you rarely see people talk about getting more done at a company level.

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]]> hi@swizec.com (Swizec Teller) <![CDATA[Using vibes to rewrite my blog]]> https://swizec.com/blog/using-vibes-to-rewrite-my-blog https://swizec.com/blog/using-vibes-to-rewrite-my-blog Sat, 27 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT The death of engineering has been greatly exaggerated. You still need to know what you're doing.

Paternity leave and vibe coding have finally created enough time and mental space to rewrite my blog. This has been on my mind for years! Gatsby, the tech behind swizec.com, has not scaled to the size of website I've got.

My dude, it takes 45min+ to deploy a new article and my mind fills with dread every time I gotta go in there to fix bugs. As such we've been on a steady bit-rot decline for years πŸ˜”

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]]> hi@swizec.com (Swizec Teller) <![CDATA[You get what you hire]]> https://swizec.com/blog/you-get-what-you-hire https://swizec.com/blog/you-get-what-you-hire Tue, 23 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT Hiring engineers is like deciding what kind of system you'll have. This seems obvious but surprised me to see first-hand.

If you hire a distributed systems person, you'll get a distributed system. A React dude will build you a frontend app. Pythonista gets you a traditional server-client app, maybe with HTMX for the fancy bits. Database wizard and all the interesting stuff happens in the database, CSS and fonts wizard and you'll solve everything with custom kerning rules and modern CSS you didn't even know existed.

They all have good arguments. Yes of course the problem fits a typical single-page-app, obviously this one requires deep database triggers and fancy indexes, and yeah of course doing it all in CSS is best.

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]]> hi@swizec.com (Swizec Teller) <![CDATA[Code is the easy part, or how we refactored half the business to fix a janky script]]> https://swizec.com/blog/code-is-the-easy-part-or-how-we-refactored-half-the-business-to-fix-a-janky-script https://swizec.com/blog/code-is-the-easy-part-or-how-we-refactored-half-the-business-to-fix-a-janky-script Wed, 17 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT This is a war story. The kind that puts timezones to shame. I think timezones are pretty easy, honestly. They're just the first time many of us deal with arbitrary capricious business rules.

Classic startup engineering story: Someone had built a leaky rowboat. It worked! Then we started flying the rowboat as a Cessna. What we needed was an aircraft carrier.

I love this shit 😈

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]]> hi@swizec.com (Swizec Teller) <![CDATA[Good software gets out of the way]]> https://swizec.com/blog/good-software-gets-out-of-the-way https://swizec.com/blog/good-software-gets-out-of-the-way Thu, 04 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT Good software is invisible and most metrics are wrong. You want less engagement because you got the job done.

We talked with Kent C Dodds on his podcast about workflow design, watching people work, and building software for people who need to get a job done. Focus on user outcomes.

Check it out here, it was a great conversation. Kent asks wonderful questions.

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]]> hi@swizec.com (Swizec Teller) <![CDATA[Relentlessly focus on the outcomes]]> https://swizec.com/blog/relentlessly-focus-on-the-outcomes https://swizec.com/blog/relentlessly-focus-on-the-outcomes Tue, 26 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT AI has turned work into a slot machine. Pull the lever and oooh it almost worked! Just one more pull, this time for sure

Suddenly it's 3 hours later and you've spent half the day chasing a rabbit hole that definitely was not today's priority. You had an idea, it looked easy, AI can do this ... it could not. Not without your guidance and attention.

How's the real work coming? πŸ˜…

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]]> hi@swizec.com (Swizec Teller) <![CDATA[Engineering levels aren't about skill anymore]]> https://swizec.com/blog/engineering-levels-arent-about-skill-anymore https://swizec.com/blog/engineering-levels-arent-about-skill-anymore Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT Traditional engineering levels were about skill progression. I think this has changed. Everyone now is a mini staff engineer.

Had an interesting conversation with Clara Shih and Chip Huyen yesterday about engineer hiring, early career especially. Will share the podcast when it's out.

The conversation helped me realize that hiring has changed and I didn't even notice. Been using a whole new philosophy and never verbalized it.

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]]> hi@swizec.com (Swizec Teller) <![CDATA[Just fix their PR]]> https://swizec.com/blog/just-fix-their-pr https://swizec.com/blog/just-fix-their-pr Wed, 13 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT You know what's better than a code review comment? A fix.

Lately we've been dealing with an absolute onslaught of pull requests. Feels like half my days go to reviewing code, half to management, and half to writing code. Yes that's too many halfs.

See I wasn't even exaggerating (thought I was). 53% of my contributions are code review 🫠

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]]> hi@swizec.com (Swizec Teller) <![CDATA["But if AI does it all, what's *my* job?"]]> https://swizec.com/blog/but-if-ai-does-it-all-whats-my-job https://swizec.com/blog/but-if-ai-does-it-all-whats-my-job Sat, 09 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT With all the AI stuff one day you feel useless, another day you feel top of the world with an army of agents building big things that used to take weeks.

And then your brain melts trying to keep track of it all. You own too many domains, are always on-call, and if anyone wants anything you are the person to ask.

Because who else? You built it, you own it, you run it, you never told anyone else how it works. You barely looked at it yourself.

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]]> hi@swizec.com (Swizec Teller) <![CDATA[What you need to make an agent]]> https://swizec.com/blog/what-you-need-to-make-an-agent https://swizec.com/blog/what-you-need-to-make-an-agent Tue, 05 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT I've been digging into agents for internal tooling and processes. Looking for how to scale without drowning in manual work. Here's what I found.

The best paper you should read is From Language to Action: A Review of Large Language Models as Autonomous Agents and Tool Users, here linked with my notes. As always I recommend you Just Read The Paper, but it's 38 pages and most of you won't.

Here's what you need:

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]]> hi@swizec.com (Swizec Teller) <![CDATA[Quick note on evals and putting AI in your resume]]> https://swizec.com/blog/quick-note-on-evals-and-putting-ai-in-your-resume https://swizec.com/blog/quick-note-on-evals-and-putting-ai-in-your-resume Fri, 01 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT Funfact: When candidates put AI on their resume, the key thing I try to find out is whether they used evals. How did you measure making improvements?

This filters out 80% of engineers.

When you work with AI and try to make something useful, you'll quickly find it's a bit ~~random~~ stochastic. You make a change and it works. Then you try again and it doesn't.

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]]> hi@swizec.com (Swizec Teller) <![CDATA[AI now writes 97% of my code. Here's what I learned]]> https://swizec.com/blog/ai-now-writes-97-of-my-code-heres-what-i-learned https://swizec.com/blog/ai-now-writes-97-of-my-code-heres-what-i-learned Sat, 25 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT This week I was shocked to learn that AI now writes 97% of my production code. The stats come from Cursor and they're not incentivized to lowball, but honestly looking at recent weeks ... yeah that's about right.

Now, I'm more of a manager these days than a heads down code grinding IC, but I own production features with big stakes and real money attached. We're an almost billion dollar company and some users pay 6-figures in a single order.

This is not a toy indie hacking project with a few dozen users.

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]]> hi@swizec.com (Swizec Teller) <![CDATA[Just Read the Paper]]> https://swizec.com/blog/just-read-the-paper https://swizec.com/blog/just-read-the-paper Mon, 20 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT Read more papers. That's my biggest lesson from college and it took a few decades to sink in: Papers are your best source of distilled knowledge.

Back in college we had this gnarly information and queuing theory class. I kept banging my head against that exam for 2 years and couldn't pass.

Then I said fuck it, ignored all the textbooks and the lesson notes and the professor, and read Claude Shannon's original paper. My friend, A Mathematical Theory of Communication is one of the best papers I have ever read.

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]]> hi@swizec.com (Swizec Teller) <![CDATA[Watch people work]]> https://swizec.com/blog/watch-people-work https://swizec.com/blog/watch-people-work Tue, 14 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT [name|Friend], we talk a lot about outcomes over outputs and how engineers are supposed to get us over the water, not blindly build a bridge because someone asked for a bridge. But how do you do that in practice?

Watch people work!

We tried this on my team and it has been wonderful.

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]]> hi@swizec.com (Swizec Teller) <![CDATA[Frustration Driven Development]]> https://swizec.com/blog/frustration-driven-development https://swizec.com/blog/frustration-driven-development Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT Frustration is your greatest engineering asset. What do you do the 5th time someone asks for the same damn thing yet again?

Good engineers do the thing and move on. Great engineers get annoyed, say a few curse words, and make the problem go away forever. Your job is not doing the work, your job is removing work.

Remove unnecessary steps, smooth out workflows, give people tools to self-serve. The best engineering task is no task.

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]]> hi@swizec.com (Swizec Teller) <![CDATA[Software engineer interviews for the age of AI]]> https://swizec.com/blog/software-engineer-interviews-for-the-age-of-ai https://swizec.com/blog/software-engineer-interviews-for-the-age-of-ai Wed, 25 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT Yesterday I told a candidate "Using AI in our coding interview is encouraged" and his eyes sparkled. This was an experienced dude tired of leetcode bullshit.

Maybe AI will replace engineers, I don't know. Self-driving cars were just around the corner for 50 years. Now they exist in small pockets. Self-driving software engineers started ~2 years ago and my bet says AI will replace us some time in 2075. Until then we've got shit to do and engineers to hire.

You need great engineers because knowledge expands fractally. Demos are easy, production is hard. AI generates lots of plausible code, but a person, you, has to sign their phone number and pager duty on the system. Do you trust what your AI wrote? Enough to own the system? πŸ˜‰

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]]> hi@swizec.com (Swizec Teller) <![CDATA[The best engineers just get shit done, sometimes with AI]]> https://swizec.com/blog/the-best-engineers-just-get-shit-done-sometimes-with-ai https://swizec.com/blog/the-best-engineers-just-get-shit-done-sometimes-with-ai Thu, 19 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT The best engineers I know never talk about their AI setup. The worst engineers I know only talk about their AI setup.

The folks you hear talking about their agent orchestration frameworks and skills.md this and agent.md that are like the vim shortcuts and emacs org-mode nerds of old: not doing the work.

As an author, I'm a big fan of productive procrastination.

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]]> hi@swizec.com (Swizec Teller) <![CDATA[Taming chaos is a learnable skill]]> https://swizec.com/blog/taming-chaos-is-a-learnable-skill https://swizec.com/blog/taming-chaos-is-a-learnable-skill Wed, 11 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT How you approach software engineering makes it harder or easier to handle interruptions and other chaos. Writing a behavioral interview made me realize this is a learnable skill!

Our team builds a lot of internal tools these days, which means we're exposed to daily operations. Reality is a mess. We find all the weirdest business rules, strange exceptions, and weird fires that we didn't even cause. Like that time we had to quickly build a feature to reroute logistics around ... a UPS airplane crash shutting down an airport πŸ™ƒ

Success means dealing with all this while also building towards long-term solutions. You can add a one-off exception today, but when there's 40 one-off exceptions maybe you need a system?

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]]> hi@swizec.com (Swizec Teller) <![CDATA[Put scope on your resume]]> https://swizec.com/blog/put-scope-on-your-resume https://swizec.com/blog/put-scope-on-your-resume Wed, 04 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT Your resume titles don't matter. Just tell me what did you do.

I'm back in hiring mode and going through lots of resumes these days. A thread on HackerNews yesterday sniped me into explaining the most important part of what I look for. You might find it helpful.

PS: you can read and share this online

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]]> hi@swizec.com (Swizec Teller) <![CDATA[Probably the realest thing I ever wrote]]> https://swizec.com/blog/probably-the-realest-thing-i-ever-wrote https://swizec.com/blog/probably-the-realest-thing-i-ever-wrote Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT This week I’ve been recording the audiobook for Scaling Fast. Working with a professional producer is great! Lots of little tips and tricks to make sure we get the perfect audio experience for you.

This means I’ve been re-reading my book. It’s funny how much of the advice is easy to know but hard to do in the moment. You’re feeling the stress, your bruised ego, and hearing all the loud voices around you.

You don’t want to be the adult in the room. But you gotta :)

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]]> hi@swizec.com (Swizec Teller) <![CDATA[Users buy your service, not your code]]> https://swizec.com/blog/users-buy-your-service-not-your-code https://swizec.com/blog/users-buy-your-service-not-your-code Wed, 18 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT You might enjoy this podcast episode. Sylvain and I talked about owning production in a world where AI writes the code.

https://youtu.be/tdcCLv1ZXSw

Also on spotify and apple podcasts. Pretty neat, I've never been on Spotify before :D

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]]> hi@swizec.com (Swizec Teller) <![CDATA[GeLLMan amnesia]]> https://swizec.com/blog/ge-ll-man-amnesia https://swizec.com/blog/ge-ll-man-amnesia Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT When people talk about all the jobs AI will soon automate away pay close attention. It's always somebody else's job.

The CEO who doesn't need engineers because AI can vibe code it all. The engineers who don't need a CEO because the AI makes better strategy faster. The programmer who doesn't need an architect, the architect who doesn't need a programmer. The product owner who can explore their own features, the developer who can have AI write the perfect product requirements.

And let's not forget all the marketers, lawyers, business analysts, doctors, and other knowledge-based professions that we'll never need to consult ever again.

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]]> hi@swizec.com (Swizec Teller) <![CDATA[The 3 curves that make a scalable business]]> https://swizec.com/blog/the-3-curves-that-make-a-scalable-business https://swizec.com/blog/the-3-curves-that-make-a-scalable-business Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT Engineers make big money by building scalable long-term assets. But what does that even mean?

Your job is all about these 3 curves that make a scalable business.

You want users and revenue to grow exponentially. Bugs per day to grow linearly. Support work to grow logarithmically. Your goal is to make this happen.

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]]> hi@swizec.com (Swizec Teller) <![CDATA[In praise of the stacked pull request]]> https://swizec.com/blog/in-praise-of-the-stacked-pull-request https://swizec.com/blog/in-praise-of-the-stacked-pull-request Wed, 04 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT How fast you do code review is how fast you do everything. Your PR queue is the leading indicator of team velocity.

And yes it feels like a chore when you're not working together. But there's strong support in empirical literature that code review decreases defects and improves code quality. It's also a SOC2 requirement that all production code was seen by at least 2 people.

I am personally not yet convinced on AI code reviewers. Low signal to noise and they lack taste.

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]]> hi@swizec.com (Swizec Teller) <![CDATA[How you migrate is everything]]> https://swizec.com/blog/how-you-migrate-is-everything https://swizec.com/blog/how-you-migrate-is-everything Sat, 31 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT Production systems are always mid-migration. Managing this mess is the job.

Your code becomes legacy software when it works. You build something to solve a problem, then the problem changes. Or best practices evolve. Or you hire team members with more experience. Or the world changes. Or you have more people touching the same code and your beautiful architectural vision didn't translate.

You look at your system and feel a tinge of disgust. What were we thinking? It barely works!

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]]> hi@swizec.com (Swizec Teller) <![CDATA[The future of software engineering is SRE]]> https://swizec.com/blog/the-future-of-software-engineering-is-sre https://swizec.com/blog/the-future-of-software-engineering-is-sre Sat, 24 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT When code gets cheap operational excellence wins. Anyone can build a greenfield demo, but it takes engineering to run a service.

You may be wondering: With all the hype about agentic coding, will we even need software engineers anymore? Yes! We'll need more.

https://twitter.com/Swizec/status/2011141998426931250

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]]> hi@swizec.com (Swizec Teller) <![CDATA[A tough job market is the best time to start something]]> https://swizec.com/blog/a-tough-job-market-is-the-best-time-to-start-something https://swizec.com/blog/a-tough-job-market-is-the-best-time-to-start-something Sat, 17 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT Here's how to navigate a tough job market from someone dumb enough to have done it before. Me.

I started my career in 2007/08. Yep right before the financial crash. Didn't matter, Slovenia's market for developers was very early back then. The whole "tech scene" could fit in a room.

I started web development in 2002. Yep right after the dotcom crash. ~~People~~ Teachers told me the web was over and a waste of time. But I was a high school freshman and didn't care. You mean I can write code and show people what I built!? They don't even have to come visit!? THIS IS AMAZING 🀯

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]]> hi@swizec.com (Swizec Teller) <![CDATA[Place good startup bets]]> https://swizec.com/blog/place-good-startup-bets https://swizec.com/blog/place-good-startup-bets Wed, 14 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT My biggest career miss was saying No to Shopify two years before IPO. Back when Tobi was still the last interview. That was cool.

The money would've been nice, living in Ottawa would've sucked. But I regret all the things I didn't learn. Shopify is now famous for their engineering and that was a great opportunity in retrospect. But young Swiz needed to learn things the hard way. From first principles, banging his head against the wall.

That's how it goes.

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]]> hi@swizec.com (Swizec Teller) <![CDATA[Small projects, clear scope]]> https://swizec.com/blog/small-projects-clear-scope https://swizec.com/blog/small-projects-clear-scope Sat, 10 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT Minutes of planning save you days of programming. It is shocking how little planning it takes to make a big difference.

We're trying a new thing at work called "Hey what if we defined what done looks like before we jump in the code?". Revolutionary I know πŸ˜†

Truth is we've tried planning before and it didn't stick.

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]]> hi@swizec.com (Swizec Teller) <![CDATA[A better way to end-to-end test your webapp]]> https://swizec.com/blog/a-better-way-to-end-to-end-test-your-webapp https://swizec.com/blog/a-better-way-to-end-to-end-test-your-webapp Tue, 06 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT What's the problem with end-to-end tests? They're flaky to run and annoying to write. But the best way to test your application.

Unit tests miss the crucial part where most bugs happen – the interfaces. Integration tests work great on the server, but they're clunky on the client. Too many API calls.

A good end-to-end test sees everything. You don't need many to cover large swathes of your ecosystem. But let me guess: You're not using these. Too flaky to run, too annoying to write.

Continue reading β†’

]]> hi@swizec.com (Swizec Teller) <![CDATA[2025 Year in Review]]> https://swizec.com/blog/2025-year-in-review https://swizec.com/blog/2025-year-in-review Fri, 02 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT Last week I asked if you're playing games you want to win. What does it mean to you personally to achieve the goals you're pursuing? What are your new years resolutions even for? Who are they for?

There's no point in chasing goals just because they're there or because someone else said you should. What do your goals do for you?

Sometimes goals give you something to aim for. A measuring stick or trailing indicator to know how you're doing.

Continue reading β†’

]]> hi@swizec.com (Swizec Teller) <![CDATA[Are you playing games you want to win?]]> https://swizec.com/blog/are-you-playing-games-you-want-to-win https://swizec.com/blog/are-you-playing-games-you-want-to-win Thu, 25 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMT As we enter the funny week-without-time between Christmas and New Year, it's a great time to reflect. Here's a framework I like to use.

I start with an Aspirational Vision: "If you were reading this twenty five years from today, and reflecting on the events of those twenty five years, what has to have happened in your [insert area] for you to feel successful?"

The areas are:

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]]> hi@swizec.com (Swizec Teller) <![CDATA[How good engineering unlocks fast scaling]]> https://swizec.com/blog/how-good-engineering-unlocks-fast-scaling https://swizec.com/blog/how-good-engineering-unlocks-fast-scaling Tue, 09 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMT The key to 10x results is to remove 9x of the work. That's where software engineers shine.

You're building systems and tools to help companies grow without drowning in work. This fuels your equity, career capital, and reputation.

Use your frustration as a guide.

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]]> hi@swizec.com (Swizec Teller) <![CDATA[Scaling Fast – my new book on software engineering through the hockeystick]]> https://swizec.com/blog/scaling-fast-my-new-book-on-software-engineering-through-the-hockeystick https://swizec.com/blog/scaling-fast-my-new-book-on-software-engineering-through-the-hockeystick Mon, 08 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMT Hockeystick moments are the biggest opportunity of your career. My new book Scaling Fast is your guide.

Rapid growth is exciting and a little scary. Everything changes! From how you work as a team to what it means to write code. Your decisions can build momentum or suffocate your growth with bad code and a team that can't ship.

I wrote Scaling Fast: Software Engineering Through the Hockeystick as your guide and after almost 3 years of writing, research, and editing it's now available in paperback and ebook wherever books are sold πŸ₯³

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]]> hi@swizec.com (Swizec Teller) <![CDATA[What makes your resume stand out]]> https://swizec.com/blog/what-makes-your-resume-stand-out https://swizec.com/blog/what-makes-your-resume-stand-out Sat, 22 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMT Hiring managers look for 2 things in a resume. Or at least the managers I know do.

That's all your engineering resume has to answer.

The best candidates have high slope. Quick progression of engineering titles or scope. Going from less to more impactful work, having more and more ownership and responsibility, building bigger systems, delivering more value.

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]]> hi@swizec.com (Swizec Teller) <![CDATA[How to lead a project]]> https://swizec.com/blog/how-to-lead-a-project https://swizec.com/blog/how-to-lead-a-project Wed, 19 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMT You were asked to lead or own a project. Now what? Here are a few practical steps to help you succeed.

Align everyone on the goal, show progress, get feedback, adjust in real time.

Cheers,
~Swizec

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]]> hi@swizec.com (Swizec Teller) <![CDATA[*People* detangle a ball of mud]]> https://swizec.com/blog/people-detangle-a-ball-of-mud https://swizec.com/blog/people-detangle-a-ball-of-mud Sat, 15 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMT Ball of mud is the world's most popular software architecture. The one we all use at work while we debate gang of four and fancy patterns on the internet.

But a ball of mud is awful to work with. Sneeze in one part of the codebase, break features you didn't even know existed. Slows you down, causes bugs, makes you want to rage quit the industry.

So what do you do? How do you fix a rapidly deteriorating codebase?

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]]> hi@swizec.com (Swizec Teller) <![CDATA[AI fills my day with busywork]]> https://swizec.com/blog/ai-fills-my-day-with-busywork https://swizec.com/blog/ai-fills-my-day-with-busywork Tue, 11 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMT Remember when AI was gonna take our jobs? I've never felt busier. The more I get done, the more there is to do.

It's hard to explain. 3 analogies come to mind.

Do you know how fizzy drinks explode out of a shaken can? Or how a very cold bottle of beer freezes solid when you tap the bottom?

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]]> hi@swizec.com (Swizec Teller) <![CDATA[The unreasonable effectiveness of stack ranking]]> https://swizec.com/blog/the-unreasonable-effectiveness-of-stack-ranking https://swizec.com/blog/the-unreasonable-effectiveness-of-stack-ranking Tue, 04 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMT Stakeholders are silly people. TRAGEDY OF TRAGEDIES THE BUTTON IS 3px WRONG! Huh it kinda sucks that people get stuck in this checkout flow sometimes OMG I CLICKED A BUTTON AND THE PAGE DID SOMETHING FUNNY btw sometimes I can't do my work for like 2 hours but then it's fine.

How do you cut through the noise and work on what matters? Stack ranking.

We tried this with two groups of stakeholders last week and it was super effective. Even got people thanking me these were the most effective check-in meetings they've had.

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]]> hi@swizec.com (Swizec Teller) <![CDATA[Chesterton's true lesson]]> https://swizec.com/blog/chestertons-true-lesson https://swizec.com/blog/chestertons-true-lesson Wed, 29 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMT You've heard of Chesterton's fence yes? When you see bad code DONT DELETE! It might serve a purpose you don't realize.

But there's a deeper lesson most engineers miss: Once you understand why the code is there do delete. It might serve a purpose that's no longer necessary!

Engineering is about simplification. Your time polishing an unnecessary step of the process is wasted. Delete the damn step.

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]]> hi@swizec.com (Swizec Teller) <![CDATA[The job behind the job [of a high level IC]]]> https://swizec.com/blog/the-job-behind-the-job-of-a-high-level-ic https://swizec.com/blog/the-job-behind-the-job-of-a-high-level-ic Sat, 25 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMT Advancing big goals while you stay on top of operational day-to-day fires is the job. This is hard. Here are a few tips I've found helpful.

How many ad-hoc fires you have depends on who you work with. Different teams have a different buxton index. Marketing likes things fast and short-term, while core product features may be measured in quarters or even years.

Operations has both. New fires every day while asking for long-term solutions that make those fires never happen again.

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]]> hi@swizec.com (Swizec Teller) <![CDATA[Make sure it works first]]> https://swizec.com/blog/make-sure-it-works-first https://swizec.com/blog/make-sure-it-works-first Tue, 21 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMT We love elegant systems and code. They feel good. But elegance is not the question. First you gotta make sure it works and solves the problem on time and under budget. Because anyone can make a bridge that stands, but it takes an engineer to build a bridge that barely stands.

We talked about this and other insights from my upcoming book with Bas Steins on his podcast. I think you'll enjoy the conversation.

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]]> hi@swizec.com (Swizec Teller) <![CDATA[Feedback is a strange thing]]> https://swizec.com/blog/feedback-is-a-strange-thing https://swizec.com/blog/feedback-is-a-strange-thing Thu, 16 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMT Does it ever feel like you get random feedback? Positive one week, negative the next, but you're always doing the same things the same way? Regression to the mean, baby!

Things go great, you get praise. Things go poorly, you get critique. Next time things go the opposite way! Praise leads to poor performance, critique leads to good. Eventually all you get is shit because it's the only feedback that makes a difference.

Kahneman observed this with air force training and the story has been repeated ad nauseam for decades. On average, you perform at your average. Your behavior responds to feedback slooooowly.

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]]> hi@swizec.com (Swizec Teller) <![CDATA[React, HTMX, and TanStack/Start]]> https://swizec.com/blog/react-htmx-and-tan-stack-start https://swizec.com/blog/react-htmx-and-tan-stack-start Mon, 06 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMT More and more UI frameworks are ditching JSON as the transfer protocol and going back to server-rendered markup injected into your app. React has Server Components, HTMX and Hotwire embrace hyper-text, Remix is launching an iframes-based approach at their conf later this month, and TanStack is going for an SPA-on-top-of-SSR approach that I really like.

I talked about this at Commit Your Code in Dallas. Using incremental rewrites as the excuse. With live demos 🀘

https://youtu.be/_naEagSzjUU

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]]> hi@swizec.com (Swizec Teller) <![CDATA[The grind won't get you there]]> https://swizec.com/blog/the-grind-wont-get-you-there https://swizec.com/blog/the-grind-wont-get-you-there Sat, 04 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMT I saw a great quote about The Quiet Ones yesterday: β€ŒBy the time they ask for recognition, they're already gone. The ask isn't a request. It's a test you've already failed.

The best engineers go for the cracks in the system. They find what isn't working and fix it. Take on the conversations nobody's having. Ask the questions people aren't asking. Build features that customers need but don't think to request. Create frameworks where others copypaste. Make tools where others schlep.

These folks are hard to promote and difficult to notice. They keep the system running and don't fit a particular mold or set of OKRs.

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]]> hi@swizec.com (Swizec Teller)