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Weekly Reflection #23 - Heartbeats and Handcuffs
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Each week, I share one insight. One piece of wisdom. One question to reflect on. (and a little Lagniappe) InsightTony Fadell tells a story in his book, Build, about his time at General Magic. The place was filled with brilliant people, but they had no shipping rhythm and no external pressures. Years passed and the work drifted, missing chances to prove it out with customers. He argues that the way to combat this is with "heartbeats and handcuffs". Heartbeats are an internal cadence. Self-imposed checkpoints and delivery dates. Handcuffs are external constraints. This could be Black Friday, if you are a retailer, or a conference important to your industry. I've felt the same pull on a project I care about. We kept folding "future" features into the current build. With AI tooling, this has just gotten worse because it's so easy to add "one more thing". Each addition seemed reasonable, but we kept delaying the part that mattered: getting it into anyone's hands. Recently, we committed to a cadence. Ship something usable. Expand on it. The change has been night and day, for the team and for the audience we built it for. Sometimes I just need a little reminder on how important it is to leverage both. WisdomLong-term consistency trumps short-term intensity.
Bruce Lee
ReflectionWhat "future feature" are you carrying that should ship now in some smaller form? Lagniappe
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Weekly Reflections Newsletter
Practical insights on platform engineering, developer experience, and building teams that ship. Each issue is written to be useful, actionable, and applicable. No filler, no promotions-only emails. Enter your email and sign up for free right now.
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