Friday Links 26-17

Friday Links 26-17

Two weeks of links again! Three podcast recommendations from me, if you got the time: Dadaism, Cow Resistance, and Desert Island with Si King. The post by Rands about being overwhelmed as a leader is also great. Quote of the Week Nothing travels faster than the speed of light with the possible exception of bad news, which obeys its own special laws. Mostly Harmless Douglas Adams Leadership Barely Treading Water - I can relate very much. “Say No” is a good start. ...

22 May 2026 · 3 min · Christof Damian
Friday Links 26-16

Friday Links 26-16

Some good podcasts this week, I liked the ones about aging programmers, bees, and GLP-1s. Also some scientific insights into super blocks. Quote of the Week You bring skills, your experience and your presence to a conversation with someone else who is far more experienced in their life and work than you are, even if they are not yet noticing it. Simplifying Coaching Claire Pedrick Engineering How it feels to be a software engineer when AI is changing our relationship with code [Podcast] - very insightful views from Nate. ...

8 May 2026 · 3 min · Christof Damian
Friday Links 26-15

Friday Links 26-15

Quite a few articles about AI costs getting out of control. For something different I recommend the podcast about the origins of Rose Bikes. Quote of the Week What they found instead was that “who is on a team matters less than how the team members interact, structure their work, and view their contributions” (Google 2015). In other words, it all comes down to team dynamics. Accelerate Nicole Forsgren PhD, Jez Humble, Gene Kim Engineering Do I belong in tech anymore? - I can relate to some of this. ...

1 May 2026 · 3 min · Christof Damian
Friday Links 26-14

Friday Links 26-14

A bit of a mixed bag today. Good reads are the Agents and the Era of Overproduction and AI reshaping values at Enode blog posts. Podcast-wise, give Driverless World and the Pedro Sánchez episode a listen. Quote of the Week “It’s like the free puppy,” I continue. “It’s not the upfront capital that kills you, it’s the operations and maintenance on the back end.” The Phoenix Project Gene Kim, Kevin Behr, George Spafford Leadership TBM 418: Campfires, Trails, and Quests - collection of how AI affects teams. ...

24 April 2026 · 3 min · Christof Damian
Friday Links 26-13

Friday Links 26-13

I caught up with my YouTube, two good videos from NotJustBikes about cars and oil being bad. I really liked all the links in leadership this week, all highly recommended. Quote of the Week Safe to fail — Organisations need to make it safe to execute a rollback without penalty to the developer. We’ve seen some organisations introduce failure KPIs that demand that all employees (from the CEO down) demonstrate failure at least once per year in order to receive their bonus. The argument is that if they do not demonstrate failure, they are either hiding or not taking enough risks. #Noprojects Evan Leybourn and Shane Hastie Leadership The Vasa - “Understanding why the Vasa sank also gets to something important about how organisations fail.” ...

17 April 2026 · 3 min · Christof Damian