In a world where it's hard to keep up with so much content, I hope my curation helps you find high-signal content worth reading slowly and deeply. Under "Culture," you'll find content worth reading and sharing with others; you'll need others' help to pull it off. Under "Peopleware," you'll find content that can help you approach situations differently with new perspectives and frameworks.
 

This Week's Favorite

How I Created OpenClaw, the Breakthrough AI Agent (Video)
17 minutes read.

"chatbot give up, agents improvise" -- The legend, Peter Steinberger, maker of OpenClaw and maybe one of the most productive humans on the planet, goes over his journey with finding passion in building software again.

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Culture

SaaS Company Adding AI Features
1 minute read.

My humble effort to help you start the weekend with a smile.

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Your CEO Is Suffering From AI Psychosis
6 minutes read.

"There’s a specific kind of brain rot spreading through executive suites and VC circles right now. It looks like productivity. It sounds like innovation. It burns through tokens at a rate that would make your CFO cry. And it produces almost nothing of measurable value. [...] These platforms share a common design philosophy: make the operator feel like they’re commanding a fleet. Dashboards, org charts, agent hierarchies, budget controls, governance layers. It looks and feels like management. You get the dopamine hit of delegation without the inconvenience of measuring whether the delegates produced anything useful." -- Eventually, the only thing that matters is what your customers and users have to say about your company and product. Seek the truth with strong conviction for progress and transformation, and anchor yourself in measurable value, not just a proxy for it.

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A Mathematician Who Shared an Office With Claude Shannon at Bell Labs Gave One Lecture in 1986 That Explains Why Some People Win Nobel Prizes and Other Equally Smart People Spend Their Whole Lives Doing Forgettable Work.
4 minutes read.

"He said if you do not work on an important problem, it is unlikely you will do important work. [...] knowledge and productivity compound like interest. Someone who works 10 percent harder than you does not produce 10 percent more over a career. They produce twice as much. The gap doesn't add. It multiplies. And it compounds silently for years before anyone notices." -- Urgency and intensity are a moat. If you're known for it (with an Ownership mindset, which very often goes hand in hand with it, from my experience), you're very likely at the top of the game.

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Suffering Isn’t Leadership
3 minutes read.

"You should also tackle systemic pessimism if that’s your default lens on the world (or at least work). You have to grow your executive mindset. Pathological pessimism caps your innovation and energy. Sometimes, to make a change here, the best route is getting some coaching or even therapy. There’s no shame in that, and it can really take a load off your back." -- Pathological pessimism caps your innovation and energy. Bingo.

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Peopleware

Recognize Your Management Wins
4 minutes read.

"Brag document" is important for ICs and Managers. This is how you track the small wins that accumulate into learnings and insights that can trigger a bigger chase.

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Being Strategic: Learn How to Move Beyond Just Being a Manager/Director to Being an Executive and Leader
17 minutes read.

Joseph Gefroh wrote a series of three posts on becoming an executive and seeking leverage on a company level (aka strategic thinking): "It’s not about what’s next or even later, it’s about what could be, why it matters, and what has to be true to make it real. [...] Strategic thinking isn’t just about lookin forward or against a longer timeline, it’s an entirely different lens. You stop optimizing on what's in front of you and focus on shaping what’s possible, which is an entirely different game."

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And finally, inspiring tweets...

@BrianNorgard: Weird, outlier returns come from weird, outlier people.

@patrick_oshag: Understand the user, put yourself in their shoes, blow their mind. Do things you've never thought before. Do them by hand. Make them unscalable. Don't worry how much it costs. Just prove the model.



p.s. if you're interested in joining SWLW's Slack channel, simply reply to this email and let me know. If you're leading a team, consider writing your Manager README (it's free) or getting my e-book and interviews Leading Snowflakes: The New Engineering Manager's Handbook. You can also support me by becoming a SWLW Patron. Thank you ❤️



Keep reading, keep learning.
-- Oren Ellenbogen.