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Weekly Reflection #5 - Do Fewer Things More Meaningfully
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Each week, I share one insight. One piece of wisdom. One question to reflect on. (and a little Lagniappe) InsightThe pressure to ship faster has never been higher. AI tooling, shorter cycles, rising delivery expectations: everything seems to be accelerating. If you aren’t careful, you can easily slip into what Cal Newport calls Pseudo-Productivity, or what I like to call busyness theatre, the illusion of being productive without actually making meaningful progress. Counterintuitively, the antidote to this is to slow down to do more meaningful work. As Newport outlines in his book, Slow Productivity, the key principles are: - Do fewer things. - Work at a natural pace. - Obsess over quality. On Book Overflow, we covered this topic in our discussion of Slow Productivity. WisdomThere is no hurry, and in a way, there is no future. It is all here—so take it easy, take your time, and get acquainted with it.
— Alan Watts
ReflectionIf you could only obsess over the quality of one thing in 2026, what would it be? 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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