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That funny feeling continues

So my funny week continues into a funny little weekend.  So, after the adventures that E had it was down to this weekend to have ourselves a little house warming celebration, nothing fancy, just a few guys from the Western parts of Norfolk for old times sake.  And well, I have to say the numbers in attendance were pretty slim which would not normally bother me much; if anything I generally prefer smaller numbers for it usually bears better conversation.  However, on this occasion over the 20 or some names that were invited we actually had 2 turn up, 1 apology for being otherwise engaged and 1 phone call asking what we were doing and then a resulting poo-poo.

This in itself was fine by me but seemed to really annoy JC.  Seems that he has a harder time than me in accepting that people can and do change with time; and sometimes you wont like the person that they turn into, but it is inevitable, for it is like, and we as humans never cease in redefining ourselves.

But really I think, E really summarised it well when she asked if certain characters still lived at home.  When I confirmed that they did, she concluded that it was rather obvious for they were more concerned about sitting around watching football and playing computer games than they were actually about socialising.  She concluded that they were more concerned about being boys (out of reach of mum’s roof) than they were about being a friend.  It would have been good to just find a nice quiet pub and have a social drink rather than starring at an idiot box.

But then they are who they are, and I knew what the weekend was going to be like as soon as only two people showed up.  And JC was either blissfully hopeful or plain naive to think that the weekend was going to be much different.  And as far as I’m concerned I’m just happy to spend some time with some old friends and have a laugh.  For without old friends in the world then what are we?

This page previously appeared on morganbye.net[^1][^2][^3]

[^1:] http://morganbye.net/that-funny-feeling-continues [^2:] http://morganbye.net/2009/09/that-funny-feeling-continues) [^3:] http://morganbye.net/blog/?p=40

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2025-03-30

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2025-03-23

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2025-01-14: Surgery day

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LEADERSHIP, SCALE, AND THE HUMAN ELEMENT

Principles & Perspectives

How do you define successful engineering leadership?

The Philosophy

Many view technical leadership as being the “smartest architect in the room.” I see it as the opposite. My job is to build a room where I don’t have to be the smartest person because the systems, culture, and communication are so robust that the team can out-innovate me.

The Strategy

  • Alignment: Does every engineer understand how their sprint task impacts the company’s bottom line?
  • Velocity vs. Stability: We aren’t just “shipping fast”; we are building a predictable, repeatable engine that doesn’t collapse under its own weight at the next order of magnitude.
  • The Human Growth Curve: Success is when the engineering team’s capability evolves faster than the product’s complexity. If the team feels stagnant, the tech stack will soon follow.

What is your approach to scaling technical organizations?

The Philosophy

Scaling isn’t just “hiring more people” - that’s often how you slow down. Scaling is about moving from Individual Heroics to Organizational Systems.

The Strategy

  • The 3-Continent Perspective: Having managed global teams, I focus on “High-Signal Communication.” As you grow, the cost of a meeting triples. I implement “Asynchronous-First” cultures that protect deep-work time while ensuring no one is blocked by a timezone.

  • Modular Autonomy: I advocate for breaking down monolithic teams into autonomous units with clear ownership. This reduces the “communication tax” and allows us to scale the headcount without scaling the bureaucracy.

  • Automation as Infrastructure: At petabyte scale, manual intervention is a failure. I treat the developer experience (CI/CD, observability, self-service infra) as a first-class product to keep the “path to production” frictionless.

How do you balance high-growth velocity with technical stability?

The Philosophy

Technical debt isn’t a “bad thing” to be avoided; it’s a set of historical decisions that no longer serve you. Like any loan, leverage can accelerate growth when investments payoff. But if velocity and returns are slowing you need a payment plan before the interest kills you.

The Strategy

  • The ROI Filter: I don’t refactor for the sake of “clean code.” I don’t refactor a micro-service with no users. I refactor when the pain on that debt - measured in bugs, downtime, or developer frustration - starts to exceed the cost of the fix.

  • Zero-Downtime Culture: Especially at scale, stability is a feature. I implement “Guardrail Engineering” where the system is designed to fail gracefully, ensuring that a Series B growth spike becomes a success story rather than a post-mortem.

  • The 70/20/10 Rule: I typically aim to dedicate 70% of resources to new features, 20% to infrastructure/debt, and 10% to R&D. This ensures we never stop innovating, but we never stop fortifying either.