Ben Darfler

As a society, these skills seem to be atrophying. I appreciated the clear, concise, and direct formulation. How do you deal with people who strongly disagree with your views? lemire.me/blog/2026/09...

Simple, but not easy: "The job of an executive follows a very simple algorithm: 1. Figure out what needs to happen. 2. Figure out how to make it happen. 3. Make it happen." www.rubick.com/the-executiv...

A nice little 2x2 framework for when to go sync vs async with communication. www.asyncagile.org/method-stack...

I truly appreciate how Martin Fowler put this into words. The struggle of working with tools you dislike is real. There is a giant opportunity here for the model/harness that really nails the enjoyment factor. Interestingly, Meta's Muse is showing promise. martinfowler.com/articles/202...

"Organizations that consistently execute … intentionally create environments where people understand what matters, take ownership for outcomes, contribute their expertise and continuously improve how work gets done." www.chieflearningofficer.com/2026/08/18/c...

The leadership challenge today is championing new approaches and practices while making genuine space for the grief. leaddev.com/career-devel...

Interesting, I didn't realize there was a counter take to Team Topologies -https://www.krivitsky.com/post/whole-product-focus-team?hl=en-US

For the “most valuable stuff”, duration probably doesn’t matter … “Small stuff” with tighter confidence around duration can be very competitive … The perfect storm is “the most valuable stuff” with a high confidence of being able to deliver value incrementally. medium.com/hackernoon/4...

With so much AI use in single-player mode, teams are getting serious value out of these types of meetings. More recently, I've been thinking about what it looks like to replicate this at a team level to share out team-level 'aha' moments. larahogan.me/blog/ai-aha-...

The speed of your business is gated by the speed of your decision-making. dpereira.substack.com/p/the-art-of...

I love leaning on XP in this AI moment, even if we are still debating the implications. "[XP's] core insight was far more fundamental: correctness is established continuously during creation rather than inspected after the fact (Beck, 2004)." www.wandoosystems.com/articles/age...

A lot of product development lifecycle expectations are getting challenged right now. "Prototyping … can turn most complex problems into a series of simple problems, and the rate of prototyping today makes it a substantially more accessible strategy than in the past." lethain.com/decisions-no...

Reid Hoffman wrote this nearly a decade ago, and I picked it up again this week as the cost of experimentation is plummeting yet again, forcing us to rethink our approach to product development. www.linkedin.com/pulse/arent-...

Your business moves at the speed of your decisions. www.forbes.com/sites/adrian...

To drive action, you need to capture people's minds and hearts. magniapartners.com/thought/harn...

As AI transforms everything, I keep coming back to the Zone to Win as a framework to balance investments across AI and the core pre-AI business. blog.logrocket.com/product-mana...

I'm looking to get back into the "Homework for Life" habit. In the past, the daily reflection has both strengthened my storytelling and brought me joy reflecting on the small stories that surround us each day. livingthepresentmoment.com/homework-for...

I'm always collecting communication frameworks. medium.com/@priya.chane...

Spec driven development is more than using plan mode - brooker.co.za/blog/2026/04...

I can't recommend this article enough. This is the best example I've seen of both building empathy for how hard this AI moment is for 'pragmatic AI adopters' and also deliberately trying to work through it. commoncog.com/how-to-impro...

Craft can be applied to anything, including the humble chart. www.eugenewei.com/blog/2017/11...

Another take on the many ways to use AI. I appreciate the autonomy framing over others I've seen. Levels of Autonomy for AI Agents: operator, collaborator, consultant, approver, and observer. knightcolumbia.org/content/leve...

Another entry into our collective attempt to understand what AI is doing to software development. "think of “conductor” versus “orchestrator” as two ends of a spectrum of AI-assisted development, with many hybrid workflows in between." addyo.substack.com/p/conductors...

Thank you, Jade, for dropping the post I had in my head this week. I'm not on team 50 direct reports, but post ZIRP we are certainly pushing beyond the 6-8 that felt comfortable before. www.rubick.com/span-of-cont...

"Acceptance reduces resistance; resistance fuels persistence." The way to move above the line more often is to accept all the times when you can't. conscious.is/blog/stop-tr...

"The next twenty years of observability are not going to be about prettier dashboards. They are going to be about what your trace structure says to a non-human reader at three in the morning" www.lastweekinaws.com/blog/reading...

Some of the best teams I've been a part of have thrived because of the trust that was built through collaborative work. The more we dive into AI, the more I'm curious to see what collaborative practices emerge that we can pair with it. newsletter.kentbeck.com/p/trust-fact...

You need to think about both: "Push communication ensures clarity and direction from leadership, aligning teams with the overarching goals. … Conversely, pull communication empowers team members to proactively seek information, driving bottom-up innovation." johnfarrier.com/push-pull-co...

We are moving from one shots to collaborative workflows. "Explainability by design: Why AI needs to show its work in 2026" - Principle 1: Citations are the Currency of Trust - Principle 2: Designing for the Editor State - Principle 3: The Power of ‘I Don’t Know’ medium.com/design-bootc...

Orgs serious about software quality must invest in: - Documentation that captures intent - Knowledge sharing practices that transfer mental models - Code review processes that evaluate theoretical consistency - Mentorship programs that develop theory-building skills cekrem.github.io/posts/progra...

I appreciated the 7 practical suggestions that ground what can be a fluffy topic. packmind.com/generative-c...

I appreciated the set of patterns (very on brand for thoughtworks) • Knowledge Priming • Design-First Collaboration • Context Anchoring • Encoding Team Standards • Feedback Flywheel martinfowler.com/articles/red...

I appreciated the terms "attended" and "unattended" parallelism as well as this observation: "The engineer’s job … [is] splitting into two distinct halves … building the environment … [and] managing the work" www.ignorance.ai/p/the-emergi...

We are shifting from generating more code to verifying more code. john.regehr.org/writing/zero...

I love where this ends: "The next level is humans directing agents to manage and improve the harness rather than doing it by hand." martinfowler.com/articles/exp...

Nice framing for giving agents more programmatic feedback and needing less human feedback. banay.me/dont-waste-y...

Companies constantly overthink goals: "Goals are a communication tool. That’s it." mollyg.substack.com/p/six-rules-...

Read past the title and stay for the leaning on Deming in an attempt to see around the AI corner. apenwarr.ca/log/20260316

Running multiple Claude Codes feels like managing a daycare with the constant nags of questions and approvals. It's exhausting. I can't wait for async closed loop agents to fully mature. At least for the rote work and toil.

I'm collecting perspectives on a vibrant software engineering practice for the AI future. I appreciate the thinkers who are finding a middle way between the hype and the doom. - aicoding.leaflet.pub/3mbrvhyye4k2e

Another excellent strategy article from Jason Cohen longform.asmartbear.com/strategic-ch...

I appreciate the pattern style presentation of these communication tools: www.linkedin.com/pulse/commun...

So all of the sudden everyone is basically doing this now www.ronforbes.com/blog/build-y...

"Don’t start with product, features, ideas, or hypotheses. Start with a good understanding of target audiences’ tasks, experiences, and pain points. Be solution-agnostic early in your process. Avoid the feature factory and order taking." rbefored.com/shift-from-p...

GM: Charisma check. Mamdani: [rolls natural 20] GM: that’s a d6 how did you Mamdani: [direct to camera] Did you know you can check out board games at your local public library? 😊

the honeycomb connector is basically the only connector we have enabled company-wide on our claude team account! it’s very good!

Ever since coming across "Demanding and Supportive" a few months ago, I find myself thinking about it and referring back to it regularly. discoveryinaction.com.au/supportive-a...

honestly, this.

Regular refresher on the distinction between product output, customer outcomes, and business impacts.

I love when Buddhist content crosses over into leadership content. This maps nearly 1:1 with RAIN - Recognize, Accept, Investigate, Nurture prodigyedge.com/leadership-i...