The Tech Debt Spiral

Like a snowball rolling downhill, technology debt simply gets bigger.

Cutting corners and patching things up work for a while. But eventually the codebase becomes a mess. Features take longer to build, and bugs pile up. The team becomes nervous about making changes. This triggers leadership demands speed, trapping everyone in a difficult cycle to break.

Brian Chesky’s new playbook

Everyone Must Row in the Same Direction
Clarity beats compromise. Instead of negotiating how to run Airbnb, Brian made a clear call: unify under one roadmap, one set of priorities, and one way of working. Less micromanagement. More detail. Everyone moving together.
In the Details Is Where Leadership Lives
Brian rejects the stigma around micromanagement. He distinguishes it from “being in the details,” which he says is a sign of true leadership. Y... read more

Strategies evolve in action

No one starts with a perfect strategy. That's just not how it works.

You set a few goals, spot the obvious roadblocks and take your first steps. How about the rest you might ask? You figure it out along the way. Just keep an eye on the market and overall trends and adjust your strategy as needed. And yeah, unexpected problems will pop up. That's normal though. They aren't failures - just part of the process. Every setback teaches you something.

A plan points you in the right direction, but real clarity comes from doing the work. The teams that adapt, adjust, and keep moving - especially when things feel uncertain - are the ones that make real progress.

So don't wait for the “perfect” plan. Just start. You'll get there.

Build Thinkers, Not Just Features

To build great products you need to start asking great questions.

A simple question: “What problem are we solving?” will shift a team's mentality from execution to purpose.
And you can feel the exact moment when task-doers start to solve problems.

It's when they talk less about delivery and shipping features and ask more about business challenges, user pain points and the market. That's when they stop taking orders - and start shaping work.

Questions fuel curiosity and curiosity drives collaboration. Teams that ask deeply create better products.

Bob Moesta: How to find work you love

Stop Making Progress, Start Job Hunting
The moment career progress stops, job searching begins. Most people don't know how to find a better job because they don't know themselves. Moesta interviewed and coached over 1,000 people, discovering that without deep self-awareness, most land in roles worse than before.
Jobcation: A Reset for Your Career
After high-intensity roles - especially in startups - a “jobcation” can help. This is a low-effort jo... read more

Results First

Your first responsibility as a manager is to deliver results.
Not culture. Not vibes. Not endless check-ins. Results.
Too many new managers fall in love with the performance of management. They build dashboards, run meetings, create documentation, set up Slack channels. It feels like work. It looks like leadership. But it doesn't move the needle. Teams can be busy all week and still achieve nothing.
Being a manager isn't about activity. It's abou... read more

Chasing Less

You don't need to unlock that new revenue stream or build another new product that will "definitely be a hit".

A lot of leaders fall into the trap of chasing every opportunity, thinking they can manage it all. Then they delegate putting more on the team's plate. The team gets overwhelmed. Bottlenecks get created. The progress stalls.

Instead, focus. Success comes from deliberate, intentional decisions.

Let Go to Move Forward

Centralised decision-making will always create bottlenecks. Sooner or later, this will prevent your company from growing.

Traditional and rigid organisations value hierarchy, and leaders often think they need to control every decision.

But this slows innovation, delays time to market, and prevents teams from learning.

Create a culture of ownership at every level. Empower your team to make decisions within their areas of expertise. Trust fuels faster progress.

Starting Strong as a Leader

Joining a new company as a leader is tricky and sometimes it does feel like stepping into chaos.

There's so much for you to process – new people, culture, challenges, expectations, competing and unclear priorities and pressure to deliver results.

I like to slow it down. I don't try to fix everything on day one. I focus on the context, the big picture first, understand the team and what they need my help with. Once I get where we are going and why, I can focus on the culture and processes to get to the destination faster with stronger teams.

Know Your Team

It's crazy how many leaders don't know much about their team. They are not curious about their motivations or aspirations, not only professionally but also on a personal level.

Get to know your team. What are their hobbies? What are they exploring? How are their families? Where are they planning their next trip? What are they watching? What are they reading?

Make it a weekly session. It takes just half an hour but builds a much stronger connection. This is important. Stronger connection = more trust. More trust = better feedback, better communication, higher quality of work and more motivation.

Emily Kramer - The Death of Marketing Channels

📘 Most marketers are solving the wrong problem. You don't need a new channel. You need to know what makes you different. When you figure that out, the rest gets simple.
📘 The conversation tackles the myth of dying marketing channels and reframes the problem. The issue isn't that SEO or LinkedIn is “dead.” The issue is everyone's doing the same stuff, copying the same playbooks, pushing the same noise. Even worse - AI is now generating that same n... read more

High Standards

Push others. Push yourself harder.

That's the heartbeat of high standards. Not perfection. Not pressure. Just a shared refusal to let average become the norm.

Call it out when your peers slide. Remind them of what great looks like. Help your boss see where they've dropped the ball. Hold the mirror up. But don't stop there. Hold yourself to a sharper edge. Show them what it looks like to care - about the work, the craft, the outcome.

Start small. Set one standard. Stick to it. Then raise another. Don't change everything overnight. That's how you burn out or burn bridges. Instead, build it like a muscle. Layer by layer. Standard by standard.

High standards aren't loud. They're consistent. You live them, not shout them.

Patience wins. But only if you don't lower the bar while you wait.

Criticism Fuels Growth

Yes, It's hard to hear criticism.

When someone points out your flaws, your gut reaction is 'WTF?!' - or in business terms, 'defensiveness.'

Of course, you want to protect your ego. You want to explain yourself, prove them wrong, or even tell them to f* off. Tempting, isn't it?

But defensiveness kills growth. Pause. Breathe. Ask yourself: 'What can I learn from this - even though I hate it?' Growth starts the moment you listen instead of emotionally react.

Nothing to learn from it? That's also ok but still thank the person who gave you feedback.

I don't like running in the morning. Or rather, I don't like the idea of it. What I really want is to have breakfast first, drink my coffee and then, a couple of hours later, think about exercise. But once the run is done, it feels great - like I've earned that big breakfast.

This morning, I went for an easy, scenic 10km run. My legs were still sore from Thursday's hill session, so I didn't (and honestly couldn't) push too hard.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with my progress (112km) in January. I've built up mileage quickly, especially considering I was struggling to run 3km at the end of December.

The Trust Battery Effect

The concept of a Trust Battery is that it typically starts at 50% and then every interaction charges or drains the trust battery.

It's interesting how, once you pass a certain percentage - let's say 80% (mind you, it's a bit abstract) - on the other person's Trust Battery, a shift happens. Walls drop. And suddenly the next level of collaboration unlocks.

Love these moments.

Progress motivates action

Progress motivates action. It's not just the reward; it's the feeling of progress that drives commitment.

Two groups of customers were given punch cards awarding a free car wash once the cards were fully punched. One group was given a blank punch card with eight squares; the other was given a punch card with ten squares that came with two free punches. Both groups still had to purchase eight car washes to receive a free wash; however, the second group of customers - those that were given two free punches - had a staggering 82 percent higher completion rate.

Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products

It's Thursday, which means hill running day. I can feel the gradual improvement compared to my last two hill runs - I'm feeling much stronger. It's still tough, but I'm covering more distance and tackling more elevation.

Today I did 12km, 437m elevation. The first 9km, I didn't switch to walking - I ran all the hills, which is a huge improvement! Looking forward to an easy run on the flats this weekend though!

Engagement Isn't a Number

Most engagement surveys don't measure engagement.

They measure vibes.

The problem isn't the intent - it's the output. You run a survey. You get a 67.8% “engagement score.” Someone builds a deck. Charts go up, comments stay anonymous, nothing changes.

That number doesn't tell you who's struggling. It doesn't tell you why trust is low. It doesn't tell you where the rot is starting. It just tells you people clicked a box.

Real engagement isn't a metric. It's a conversation.

Ask them how they're feeling. Ask what's blocking them. Ask what's making their work better - or worse. Then shut up and listen. Not just in surveys. In 1:1s. In retros. In offhand comments. The signal's already there. You don't need a dashboard. You need ears.

Pie charts don't build trust. Conversations do.

A quick training session tonight: SkiErg, rowing machine, plus some shoulders and arms work.
Went all out on the SkiErg 500m, then rowed 500m too. Hit a PB on the SkiErg at 1:42.7!

Strangely enough, I'm actually looking forward to the hills session tomorrow!

The secret to a message that sticks

Success comes from repeating the right words, not just saying them once.