Leadership Without the Handbrake The worst kind of tech leadership doesn’t look evil. It looks helpful. It’s the tech lead reviewing every line of code. The principal engineer answering every question, solving problems before they’re fully formed. The manager saying “you own it” but needing a copy of every decision. The team lead jumping into every discussion — even when they don’t need to. It’s leadership with the handbrake half on - and it kills autonomy. ...
Most teams don’t fail because the people are bad. They fail because the system they’re in makes doing the right thing harder than it should be. You’ve seen it before. Talented engineers grinding away, frustrated by endless blockers. Architecture that’s more cage than canvas. Leadership that says “go fast” but needs a meeting for every change. That’s not a team problem. That’s an org design problem. The API Memo That Changed the Internet In the early 2000s, Jeff Bezos sent a now-famous internal memo to every team at Amazon: ...