Most leaders panic when the CEO starts poking around. They dodge the hard question: is engineering investment compounding, or are we quietly stalling out?

The Efficiency Era rejects fantasy-league stats, demanding that you make the system legible.
jamesjboyer.substack.com/p/metrics-th...

Some leaders are flailing so hard in the Efficiency Era that they're outsourcing the only part of the job that matters—the thinking.

AI sidesteps the learning process, accelerating organizational dysfunction and speed-running what used to take years to unravel.

open.substack.com/pub/jamesjbo...

I'm convinced most good leaders are forged in dysfunction.

You see glaring needs, obvious gaps, and a whole lot of pretenders. You build your instincts in the chaos.

What happens when you land somewhere that isn't broken? The quiet can feel strangely unsettling.

open.substack.com/pub/jamesjbo...

So you've decided you want to lead with integrity! That's cute.

Oh, you're serious? Cool. Just know that it's expensive, lonely, and rarely gets you promoted.

Come meet the idiot archetypes we become while trying to survive in a system that doesn't care.

open.substack.com/pub/jamesjbo...

When "managing up" means "shut up". How broken leadership cultures turn thought partners into troublemakers, weakening your org from the inside out.

open.substack.com/pub/jamesjbo...

Ever seen a dev mash keys, copy-paste StackOverflow snippets, or let Cursor just do its thing and hope for the best? That's "programming by coincidence". Lately, I've realized some leaders operate the same way.

New piece: "Managing By Coincidence": open.substack.com/pub/jamesjbo...

Good leadership is rarely convenient. It's uncomfortable. Hard questions. Tough Calls.

But for years, we rewarded charisma, consensus, and coasting.

The Efficiency Era changed the script.

Part one of a new four-part series on what it demands—and what it exposes.

open.substack.com/pub/jamesjbo...

"We're scaling, fam!"

That used to be a strategy. Just gesticulate wildly in the general direction of your open reqs and ship some more good vibes.

But ZIRP is over. AI is here. Budgets are tight. Everyone's asking for receipts.

Welcome to the Efficiency Era.

open.substack.com/pub/jamesjbo...

New niblet post is up, on how long it does or should take to know if a job is right for you (or not).

charity.wtf/2025/06/08/o...

And how the bar should be higher for managers than ICs. An experienced engineer can usually tune out and turn in decent work; I'm not sure a manager can do the same.

"He trusts us. He stays out of the technical stuff. We have total autonomy."

Cool. But also: yikes.

If your team would do the same work without you, you aren't a leader. You're a well-compensated mascot.

jamesjboyer.substack.com/p/on-being-l...