Ctrl+Shift, as a blyg

This is the Blygger surface of Ctrl+Shift: every post as a versioned, quotable item document. Subscribe with the feed, resolve the manifest, or browse the archive index.

• A Post for Plumbing · item · v3 · 2026-11-13
• Substack, Posse, and the age of intellectual deindustrialization · item · v1 · 2026-06-28
• The Detox · item · v1 · 2026-04-16
• Scheduling something optional? Stop reaching for Fridays. · item · v1 · 2026-04-13
• Decide what not to learn · item · v1 · 2025-02-12
• Obvious often isn't. · item · v1 · 2025-01-16
• Prescribing the Big Pill · item · v1 · 2025-01-15
• How many times did you buy that? · item · v1 · 2025-01-14
• Every new system has its boundaries. Draw them or discover them later. · item · v1 · 2025-01-09
• Just getting started is honorable work · item · v1 · 2025-01-08
• Washboard abs, great hires, and market dominance · item · v1 · 2024-12-21
• Slow is smooth and smooth is fast · item · v1 · 2024-12-20
• Planning around working memory · item · v1 · 2024-12-19
• What context switching really is · item · v1 · 2024-12-17
• Mining memories for the future · item · v1 · 2024-12-12
• Productive Struggle · item · v1 · 2024-12-11
• Don't listen. Just watch. · item · v1 · 2024-12-07
• Reacting, responding, retreating, recoiling · item · v1 · 2024-12-05
• You are not Steve Jobs (and that is okay) · item · v1 · 2024-12-04
• Irreplaceable isn't the point. · item · v1 · 2024-12-03
• In praise of loose ends · item · v1 · 2024-11-27
• The skill that is not-doing · item · v1 · 2024-11-26
• A somewhat useful LLM framing: the sparring partner · item · v1 · 2024-11-23
• Scheduling breaks in the high season · item · v1 · 2024-11-22
• Strong opinions, weakly held · item · v1 · 2024-11-21
• Your days can't all be 100% · item · v1 · 2024-11-20
• It's about the links, not just the nodes · item · v1 · 2024-11-16
• Writing good tickets (and projects) is salesmanship · item · v1 · 2024-11-05
• The Opposite of Resistance · item · v1 · 2024-11-02
• Scales of Resistance · item · v1 · 2024-11-01
• When situationally compromised, delegate decisions · item · v1 · 2024-10-31
• Recognizing Resistance · item · v1 · 2024-10-30
• How should we hire less-experienced developers in the age of LLMs? · item · v1 · 2024-10-29
• Getting Ahead: Pathways to Comfortable Career Satisfaction for the Aspirational · item · v1 · 2024-10-25
• Experiments, not initiatives · item · v1 · 2024-10-25
• Should I break rank? · item · v1 · 2024-10-19
• Good tools are worth paying for · item · v1 · 2024-10-18
• Give Midjourney (or a stock photo site) your money · item · v1 · 2024-10-17
• The Day After · item · v1 · 2024-10-16
• The discomfort of high-leverage time · item · v1 · 2024-10-12
• A technical aside: Presentation summarizer · item · v1 · 2024-10-11
• High-value reviews from your newest team members · item · v1 · 2024-10-10
• Consultant's toolbox: solution-focused question sequences · item · v1 · 2024-10-05
• Get to reality by asking on a scale · item · v1 · 2024-10-04
• Fundamendalist SDLCs · item · v1 · 2024-10-03
• Don’t manage your business like it’s my garage · item · v1 · 2024-10-02
• Review your decisions, not your calendar · item · v1 · 2024-10-01
• What darkness lies between decisions? · item · v1 · 2024-09-28
• Perspectives for Postmortems · item · v1 · 2024-09-27
• Mistakes I've made (so you don't have to): grinding instead of raising · item · v1 · 2024-09-26
• Trailfinding · item · v1 · 2024-09-25
• Different folks, different learning styles · item · v1 · 2024-09-24
• What's happening between decisions? · item · v1 · 2024-09-21
• Confidence as a continuum, not a boolean · item · v1 · 2024-09-20
• Against Heroism · item · v1 · 2024-09-19
• Stagger your starts or stack them · item · v1 · 2024-09-18
• Useful metaphors: static and dynamic friction · item · v1 · 2024-09-17
• Aspire, but act your scale · item · v1 · 2024-09-14
• GTFO(utside) · item · v1 · 2024-09-13
• Name-dropping for great success! · item · v1 · 2024-09-12
• The real value of a consultant · item · v1 · 2024-09-11
• What do your incentives actually incentivize? · item · v1 · 2024-09-10
• So you've been laid off: a guide for mid-level and above software devs and leadership · item · v1 · 2024-09-07
• You really should floss your teeth every day, you know · item · v1 · 2024-09-06
• What's your business's unspoken, unwritten, unbreakable rule? · item · v1 · 2024-09-04
• How many eggs, how many baskets? · item · v1 · 2024-09-04
• The tyranny of default behaviors · item · v1 · 2024-08-31
• What are you listening for? · item · v1 · 2024-08-30
• Don't outsouce your decisions · item · v1 · 2024-08-29
• Defusing uninteresting blobs of work · item · v1 · 2024-08-28
• Interrogate your meetings' junk · item · v1 · 2024-08-27
• Same words, different meanings · item · v1 · 2024-08-23
• Dancing off the edge · item · v1 · 2024-08-23
• "It's just a band-aid" · item · v1 · 2024-08-22
• Scope, deadlines, and decisionmaking · item · v1 · 2024-08-20
• How to change your process to reliably reproduce your top performers · item · v1 · 2024-08-19
• Screw the principle of least privilege · item · v1 · 2024-08-15
• Don't decide who you need until you've determined what you need · item · v1 · 2023-05-05
• Have you described how to build the thing, or just why it's a great idea? · item · v1 · 2023-05-03
• Dream as who you want to be–but scope for who you are today · item · v1 · 2023-04-30
• So you've got a suggestion · item · v1 · 2023-04-29
• Figure out the reward before you start the work · item · v1 · 2023-04-27
• The supply and demand of getting shit done · item · v1 · 2023-04-19
• Jumping into a new system · item · v1 · 2023-04-19
• The obligatory GPT acknowledgment · item · v1 · 2023-04-18
• What you can, with what you have, where you are · item · v1 · 2022-09-28
• Borrow the anthropologist's lens · item · v1 · 2022-09-27
• But if you do miss twice… · item · v1 · 2022-09-23
• Everything is risk mitigation · item · v1 · 2022-09-17
• Strong agendas, lightly held · item · v1 · 2022-09-16
• Mission or 🌠Adventure🌠? · item · v1 · 2022-09-15
• Dancing around side-channels · item · v1 · 2022-09-14
• The life-changing magic of keeping your mouth shut · item · v1 · 2022-09-13
• The Element of Surprise · item · v1 · 2022-09-08
• Explicit ask vs. implicit/inference culture · item · v1 · 2022-09-07
• This always happens. · item · v1 · 2022-09-03
• It's conference season. · item · v1 · 2022-09-02
• Bring good questions. · item · v1 · 2022-09-01
• What kind of autonomy does your team actually want? · item · v1 · 2022-08-13
• So, you've got a bug · item · v1 · 2022-08-12
• Predictability as a precursor to trust · item · v1 · 2022-08-11
• How do you grade yourself? · item · v1 · 2022-08-10
• What goes into an intro meeting with someone at your new client? · item · v1 · 2022-08-09
• Grab 1:1s with everyone you can on your first week · item · v1 · 2022-08-06
• Consulting and Delivery · item · v1 · 2022-08-05
• Nudges, not Hail Marys · item · v1 · 2022-08-04
• Say "no" much earlier · item · v1 · 2022-08-03
• Default Do or Default Don't? · item · v1 · 2022-08-02
• Consultant's toolbox: seek out what's working, not just what's broken · item · v1 · 2022-07-30
• You probably need less process. · item · v1 · 2022-07-29
• Transfer and accept responsibility—responsibly · item · v1 · 2022-07-28
• Do work with (some) jerks · item · v1 · 2022-07-26
• Responsibility, accoutability, autonomy, and competence · item · v1 · 2022-07-26
• Keep a personal "consulting backlog" · item · v1 · 2022-07-23
• There isn't enough time. · item · v1 · 2022-07-22
• Optimize "good feels" for what matters · item · v1 · 2022-07-20
• Changing Intervals · item · v1 · 2022-07-19
• Technical tools: Calendar management · item · v1 · 2022-07-16
• Lifecycles of lifecycles; seasons of systems · item · v1 · 2022-07-15
• Don't burn out. · item · v1 · 2022-07-14
• Consultant's toolbox: include your confidence level with your estimates · item · v1 · 2022-07-13
• Meet your client where they are · item · v1 · 2022-07-12
• The sharpest feature · item · v1 · 2022-07-10
• Consultant's toolbox: language mirroring · item · v1 · 2022-07-09
• How many answers per day? · item · v1 · 2022-07-08
• Before the next "yes" · item · v1 · 2022-07-06
• Don't miss twice. · item · v1 · 2022-07-04
• Things you can outsource, but shouldn't · item · v1 · 2022-07-02
• Things you can't outsource · item · v1 · 2022-07-01
• Ways you can buy your time back · item · v1 · 2022-06-30
• Rituals big and small · item · v1 · 2022-06-29
• Decisions affecting others and facing their costs · item · v1 · 2022-06-28
• False economies · item · v1 · 2022-06-27
• Build it or buy it? · item · v1 · 2022-06-26
• What's your buffer look like? · item · v1 · 2022-06-25
• Sums over time · item · v1 · 2022-06-24
• Writing as thinking, not memorializing · item · v1 · 2022-06-22
• Dwelling in Possibility · item · v1 · 2022-06-22
• Do you know when to cut your losses? · item · v1 · 2022-06-21
• Don't estimate how long it will take. Instead, determine your appetite. · item · v1 · 2022-06-19
• Setting the pace; following the flow · item · v1 · 2022-06-18
• Don't (just) destroy all meetings · item · v1 · 2022-06-17
• Getting to the point · item · v1 · 2022-06-15
• What you still don't know about Bruno · item · v1 · 2022-06-15
• A bit of audience exploration · item · v1 · 2022-06-14
• The life-changing magic of baseline and stretch goals · item · v1 · 2022-06-13
• Attention, agency, and the direction of time · item · v1 · 2022-06-12
• The simple way or the right way? · item · v1 · 2022-06-10
• How did you decide to do that thing? · item · v1 · 2022-06-10
• Working wounded (/tired) · item · v1 · 2022-06-08
• How can I keep a good work-life balance when working from home? · item · v1 · 2021-09-10
• I couldn't not do it. · item · v1 · 2020-04-23
• Humble Beginnings are still Beginnings · item · v1 · 2020-02-05