There is one. Wait, two. No, three. Ok, four humans who directly inspired my writing. (Ok, five.) The list is not in order of importance, but by time: Robert Fulghum, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten (Fall 1988) Think what a better world it would be if we all—the whole world—had cookies and milk about three o’clock every afternoon and then lay down with our blankies for a nap. O

I’ve updated the Apple Charging Guide to account for all of the new hardware announced at the September Apple event. One of the recurring marketing blurbs from Apple was the claim “Up to 50% charge in around 15 minutes.” This line resonates because this strategy maps to how most humans construct their charging strategy: “Crap, I’ve got 5% charge and 15 minutes… am I screwed?” Apple: No, you’re fin

Robot writing has no voice. That’s why you find it annoying. Like it or not, your brain is currently one of the best organic pattern matchers in the known solar system, and that means you can detect patterns. Like breathing, you just do this. All the time. You are not being triggered by the endless em dashes; it’s not the trailing participial clauses, and the incessant adverb transitions. It’s tha

A consistent by-product of periods of intense building (software, a book , a team) — really anything where I am heads-down focusing on the craft — is that all the utilities and habits surrounding building said craft get scrutiny. Why? Because small imperfections or inefficiencies stand out when my brain is in build-it mode. Put simply, and as one example: Two keystrokes are vastly less than three

Having been robot-wrangling for a solid year now, I continue to feel like they give me superpowers. However, like all of us, I have a front-row seat to increasingly attractive garbage the robots are capable of generating at scale. I like to think that I am human enough to detect the slop, but the rate of change has me concerned. Months ago, I scribbled a clever plan to adapt the Creative Commons m

In our 101st episode, we kick off a new era of episode titles as your best engineer becomes the interim manager of their own team — delegation, one-on-ones, the three-year rule, a visit from Chili Palmer, the Cadillac of minivans salesman himself, and the only question that matters: do you actually want this job? Down the rabbit hole: Sometimes Your Job is to Stay the Hell Out of the Way , the wol

I’ve used Claude quite a bit for both the upcoming new book and the next edition of Managing Humans. I wrote the entire book, but, as I’ve done for years, I’ve used the robots for editing, research, and data wrangling. When Anthropic announced they were going to do “text and image” watermarking, my eyebrow was raised. When humans I trusted began to analyze the announcement, both eyebrows went up.

Remember Manager Readmes? The idea was that a manager would take the time to write up their leadership style, what they valued, and their principles. A fad that started in 2017, hit its peak in 2018, and then faded. 1 I wrote one in March 2018 and enjoyed the process, but while I published mine, I didn’t think the point was to share; the point was to write it. If I am in the Zone and you interrupt

If everything is going to plan and your operating system is in dark mode, then randsinrepose.com is now dark for you. If you are a light mode person, you can click on the Moon in the upper right of the navigation and experience dark mode stylings. Click again to return. Why now? Well, I was finishing the Blade Runner piece last week, and as I sat there figuring out the ending, dark mode popped bac

Appreciating typography is a study in paradox. The primary goal of well-designed typography is to help you read the words, not appreciate how the words are composed of letters and how each of those individual letters has been designed to convey a small bit of meaning. If you see the typography rather than read the words, the typography has failed in its job, right? You should be reading, not stari

The final measure of any financial negotiation is the feeling of whether or not you got a “deal”. That prior sentence… makes no sense. I wrote “measure,” and then six words later I wrote “feeling”. A feeling is never a measure, but yet, when you hand over your hard-earned money to buy a thing, you’ll feel better because you believe the value received is higher than the dollars paid. Too abstract.

Why do I write? I write because I like the mental state created by writing. It calms and quiets me, but that is not why I write. Why do I write? I write because I am curious and like to understand the world. Writing forces me to understand a thing, a person, a situation. I don’t think many humans do this, but I am addicted to it. But that is not why I write. Why do I write? I write because I like

One hundred episodes. For this occasion, years in the coming, Lyle and I talk about the thing itself — the nuts and bolts of the podcast, including how the robots now do an alarming amount of the work, what a hundred episodes taught us, and why we use the “The One About…” naming convention. 🎁: the show has a home at importantthing.show . Deep-link a favorite or just scroll through a hundred episod

In our 99th episode, Rands is back on the Pro Leisure Circuit — infinite time, a suspicious amount of Arc Raiders, and no wind in the sails — and we wrestle with what actually motivates a person when the engine of work goes quiet. The usual suspects: Arc Raiders , absorbing ten-hour days like it’s a job Rands Leadership Slack — 35,000 leaders, 7,000 a week Daring Fireball , John Gruber’s one-perso

Review season . You start your career thinking the review is the most important milestone of the year, but as an individual, you only see part of the picture. Everyone cares about the compensation (base salary, bonus, and stock). That’s the data they care about, but where did this pile of compensation come from? Who decided how big it is? And how is it allocated? It is a long, complicated, and lar

In our 98th episode, we list the things we’ve been building with our robots and figure out who we’re really yelling at when it all goes wrong. Mentioned, referenced, or obsessed over: Planetfall , the Infocom game that gave Floyd his name Rands Leadership Slack Managing Humans Railway Supabase Bear Ghostty Cory Doctorow on centaurs and reverse-centaurs Related Important Things episodes: EP 73: The

What’s it like to be you? Where did you get your name? What’s your story? What do you want to be when you grow up? What haven’t you done? What do you want to change? What are you most proud of? What achievement are you most proud of? Are you happy? What makes you happy? Are you having fun? What do you do for play? What is missing? What happened? Why are you lucky? What person/event changed you the

I will now explain why at least 50% of your team finds your current All Hands to be a waste of their time. They believe: This is information they can easily find elsewhere. This is about you, not them. This is boring. Now, I will describe how to build an All Hands that will exceed their expectations. Let’s define the All Hands: Everyone. Together. There’s an important organizational inflection poi

Welcome, new leader. We’re glad that you are here. Your arrival fills a critical vacancy in our team, and we can’t wait to see what you can do at this company. We’re going to say that we’re not in a hurry and you should take your time, but we’re in a hurry. Before you arrive, we’re going to tell you what we think needs to be fixed. You should listen to us, but the issue is that we probably don’t k

Coffee in hand, I sit down in the Cave. Any Tuesday during the work week, a sip, and I parse the calendar. 1:1 — he’s fine. Status meeting — listen. Staff meeting — read the notes from last week. Exec review — figure out the biggest fire, have a defensible opinion. Wait — Mark Team Review? Who is Mark? And what are we reviewing? Double-click on the meeting — unfamiliar names. No agenda. AND IT’S A