Treat people like adults
My heuristic for staying honest with my team without going rogue
Better than Random
Written by a seasoned data leader, focused on data, analytics, AI/ML and engineering, I share practical strategies and lessons from the trenches to help you build systems and teams that outperform chance.
Live Last read · last published · next check
Latest posts
Shape Up for Data teams
Only if you are a shaper
The moving bar
When absolute progress becomes relative decline
Should you take the startup offer?
The Kelly criterion for your next career bet
Alpha clowns
How to deal with leaders that fall short
The FDE gold rush
How to tell a Palantir-style forward-deployed engineer from a repackaged sales role.
The 90/90 rule for the dashboard dumpster
A scream test for your reporting layer
An empty dance floor
Awkwardness kills data-driven decision making
There is always a reason
You have to find it
Marketing is a utility bill you cannot stop paying
Cutting marketing spend looks smart now, and dumb three years later
Wind of change
Washington wants a seat at the table
AI as a tool vs AI as the analyst
Implications for the data analyst role
The firmware veto
When the install base outvotes the parliament
The best engineering managers are former individual contributors
Empathy from experience beats corporate-robot feedback
I was wrong about the AI bubble
Sort of
The self-serve delusion
Until now?
Spec-driven development
Documentation first, SQL second
CDO stories #5
The person at the center of every conversation
Two flavors of Data orgs
The difference between IT and Engineering
What the hell happened here?
Agents then and now
How can I help?
For starters: don't be a prick