mastodon 4.7.3engineering director. coach. quantum particle. in search of adventure; it’s probably fine ✨
Author of The Engineering Leader, published by O'Reilly
Talking to @jyhsu@mstdn.social about the emails we need to send to promote DRI Your Career, my opening negotiating position was: I will do everything if you will send the cold emails.
Please note this is a very poor opening negotiating position 🙈
She sends them. Every time she does I am impressed all over again. It turns out her mindset is built on ideas like "is it a cold email if you've spoken before?" And then she says things like "oh they will be so happy to hear from us" 🤯
Is my mindset changing? Hard to say. I did manage to send a thank you note recently.
Meanwhile, I need to organise our GitHub board. Jean hates doing that 😆👩🏻💻
A mistake new managers make: trying to control things instead of building relationships.
Build the relationship where you're the first person people ping. Then you don't have to chase everything — it comes to you.
Less exhausting, too 👩🏻💻
Do you still miss being an IC?
(We do. 👀)
EM Survival Guide → next cohort Sept 21. https://driyourcareer.com/em-survival-guide
The expectation that women manage everyone's emotions? It bites you hard as a manager.
Because there are things you're actually responsible for that affect how people feel: clarity on goals, decision-making, knowing who to turn to, progress on something meaningful.
Focus on those. For most people that will be enough. Some people will still expect more - but that's on them, not on you 👩🏻💻
This stage of capitalism is so gross. Entry level jobs gone? Now you can learn the skills by paying for a subscription in order to do unpaid labour. https://www.extern.com/externships
The most useful takeaway from this post: the phrase "cognitive surrender." When we complain someone sent us "AI slop" we blame the machine - but the problem is someone put their name on it, and wasted our time.
Claude is doing all kinds of things for me, it's very useful. But the key to being effective with it is knowing what matters and what does not. Figuring out how to apportion your limited cognitive energy when the machine is by definition closer to infinite.
https://tech.yahoo.com/ai/articles/ai-eroding-critical-thinking-window-190510404.html
A conversation I have regularly in coaching, with a different answer every time: which challenge is worth taking, and which one will just wear you out?
I find it helps to think about it like strength training - what's the next weight you can lift? And what would help?
"Relieved, and then immediately guilty about the relief, and then annoyed at myself for feeling guilty about something that is, by any rational measure, a completely reasonable thing to do."
Honest piece on the ethics of AI code tools now that they're actually good. It's easy to opt out of something that doesn't work. It's a lot harder when your industry is making it a requirement and you still need to pay rent.
https://matduggan.com/i-sold-out-for-200-a-month-and-all-i-got-was-this-perfectly-generated-terraform/
"Don't ask someone to read or review what you haven't read or reviewed yourself." @skamille@mastodon.social on respectful AI use. This should be common sense... and yet it's not.
Your individual productivity should move things forward, not DDOS your coworkers 👩🏻💻
https://skamille.medium.com/guidelines-for-respectful-use-of-ai-affcc85d7072
Scaling up and out of the day to day made awareness too expensive to be useful. New post on rebuilding it: the AI skills that route, report, and tell me what's actually going on. https://cate.blog/2026/06/09/useful-ai-skills-for-engineering-leaders/
Gossiping with a friend about people who can't admit they're wrong. Then realised I needed to do the same - admit I was wrong, and make a new plan.
Future-Cate will thank me.
Me in DRI's "Navigating the AI Shift" course: "Think critically, don't just accept AI output."
Me using Claude Design: 😍🤩👩🏻💻👩🏻💻👩🏻💻👩🏻💻👩🏻💻🚢🚢🚢
@jyhsu@mstdn.social later: "Why are there numbers everywhere? What does this strike through mean?"
AKA very valid questions I should have asked myself.
I have been quite judgy about people uncritically accepting AI output, but turns out all I needed to fall into the same trap is using it in a space where I completely lack trust in my own judgement.
Thank goodness for Jean! This is why we are a team 😆 💕
I am still convinced Claude Design can improve cate.blog though... BRB!
I've been lucky: the right coach at the right time, and a job that paid for it. It was good for my career and good for my well being.
Paying that forward as one of 21 coaches offering free scholarships this round to engineering leaders from underrepresented groups in tech. 29 spots. Apply by 30 June 👩🏻💻
https://monkeysthumb.co.uk/coaching-for-engineering-leaders/scholarships/
Having so much fun developing again! Reminds me of why I fell for mobile dev:
People had started to hate their computers but still loved their phones. That felt like an opportunity to build applications people actually want, not ones corporations subject them to 👩🏻💻📱
Day 3 of the cate.blog design refresh.
Will to live: gone 🫠
Feelings about WordPress: extremely negative 🔥
Determination: somehow higher than ever 👩🏻💻
My friend asked if Claude could replace coaching. I started writing about that and ended up somewhere else entirely - on what it means to be seen and challenged by another human being.
New issue of What's My Job Again 👇
https://newsletter.whatsmyjob.club/archive/the-human-weight-of-it/
A story about one of my most impactful personal projects: @chiuki@sunny.garden and I ran a newsletter (before everyone had one) called "Technically Speaking" about public speaking in tech.
It started because we wanted to make something useful for our community - and they supported us from day one 💓 100 subscribers before we'd even launched. People sponsored it because they wanted it to exist. We got to push conferences toward codes of conduct and covering speaker travel.
What's a project you worked on that felt genuinely meaningful? 👩🏻💻✨"
It's my birthday next week 🎂 Here's what I'd tell 18-year-old me:
Skip chemistry, go straight to CS. Turns out I'm more 👩🏻💻 than 👩🏻🔬 - plus the market for chemists has been declining for over a decade. So even if things seem hard today, it could have been worse!
Oh, and economic history ≠ economics 📚🤦🏻♀️
My partner is quietly looking for his next iOS/macOS role — particular love for accessibility 💖
Ping me if you're hiring 👩🏻💻
(We live in Cork. Ireland - so remote / Ireland preferred, open to EU).
Audio book now available!
Exciting news, the audio book of The Engineering Leader is out! Available on Amazon or wherever you buy audio books.
Our next cohort of the EM Survival Guide starts September 21st and we have one full scholarship available - so if cost is an issue, please apply for it. 3 quick questions, it won't take you long.
Being an EM has got harder and more ambiguous, this course is designed to help you become the force multiplier your team needs.
(If you don't need a scholarship, there is one more week of early bird and we would love to have you join us)
