September 23, 2026
Estimated reading time: 7 minutes
Key takeaways:
- Kent Beck recently said “90% of my skills are worth $0, the other 10% worth 1000x.” Judgment beats speed now.
- Ask “can I own this at 2am,” not “did I finish the ticket.”
- Review AI code one level up: ask what assumptions it depends on, and what if they’re wrong?
If I could start my engineering career over again, I wouldn’t spend it chasing the same skills.
I still remember my first major production incident. It was many years ago and I was a senior engineer working on a search advertising product.
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September 23, 2026
