Why Getting Paid Stole Your Drive and How to Get Into the Flow Again (Career Growth Accelerator)

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1. 

   E1290 · 18 Mar 2026 · 1 hr 6 min

   What's Brewing, Edition 1 - What Jonathan is Learning, Using, and Thinking

   If you're a software engineer right now, your feeds are probably overloaded with AI hot takes, tool announcements, and advice about how far behind you are. In today's episode, I take a different approach. Instead of prescribing what you should be doing, I open up about what I'm actually doing — from physical checklists and label makers to agentic workflows and 3D modeling with AI. This is a snapshot of one engineering manager's life in the spring of 2026, covering the small personal interventions, the books, the media, and the AI tooling that's shaping how I work and think right now.

2. 

   E1289 · 10 Mar 2026 · 21 min

   From Software Engineer to Agent Manager - How Work is Changing in A New Software Development Paradigm

   If you're a software engineer right now, you likely feel like your world is changing overnight. We are writing half or less the amount of code that we wrote even a year ago, which represents a seismic, groundbreaking shift in our industry. However, the rapid introduction of new tools can slide quickly from exciting to purely chaotic, leaving you feeling like you are falling behind. In today's episode, I explore how this changes the nature of our day-to-day work, and why the key to surviving this transition is shifting your mindset from a traditional "Software Engineer" to an "Agent Manager".

3. 

   E1288 · 3 Mar 2026 · 30 min

   AI Moves the Bottleneck - Are You Ready for What That Means For Your Career?

   AI is bringing massive changes to our industry, but it's not just about how fast you can write code or use agentic flows. In this episode, I explore how AI is fundamentally shifting the economic bottleneck of software development, and how you can use your systems-thinking engineering mindset to adapt and thrive in this new era.

4. 

   E1287 · 24 Feb 2026 · 35 min

   Listener Question - Abdul Asks About How to Balance Career Strategy Between Money, Meaning, and Skill Transitions

   Today, we are tackling the natural tension between the desire to make more money—getting a raise, finding financial stability—and the desire to have meaningful, purpose-driven work.

5. 

   E1286 · 18 Feb 2026 · 41 min

   AI-Era Employability and Job Security for Software Engineers - Mental Models for Finding a Competitive Advantage Without Selling Out

   I've been delaying this episode for a long time because the topic is genuinely difficult and, for many of us, scary. AI is threatening not just to our livelihood, but to our sense of self-worth as creators. In this episode, I don't offer false guarantees about job security. Instead, I frame the problem through the lens of microeconomics and rational incentives to help you understand how to remain employable. We discuss why you must separate your ego from your current skill set and how to position yourself not as a competitor to AI, but as a force multiplier.

6. 

   E1284 · 3 Feb 2026 · 26 min

   The Meta-Habit of High Performers: How Outer Loops Unlock Growth (Career Growth Accelerator)

   In today's episode, we are discussing one of the most common habits I see in high-performing managers and senior engineers. It isn't a single trick, a morning routine, or a specific productivity hack—it is a meta-habit. It is a specific way of thinking about how you spend your energy and time to avoid the burnout that comes from working hard without seeing commensurate gains,.

7. 

   E1283 · 28 Jan 2026 · 32 min

   Career Growth Accelerator - Promotion Roadblocks and Knocking it Out of the Park During Performance Review Season

   It is review season, and you might be finding yourself confused: you received high ratings and "exceeded expectations," yet the promotion you expected didn't happen. In this episode of the Career Growth Accelerator, I break down exactly why high performance doesn't always lead to promotion, helping you identify the structural roadblocks and strategic shifts necessary to move from senior individual contributor to staff, principal, or leadership roles,.

8. 

   E1282 · 20 Jan 2026 · 15 min

   Career Growth Roadmap - De-risking Your Career By Understanding Your Vulnerabilities

   Are your career choices truly yours, or are they being held hostage by hidden vulnerabilities? In this episode you'll perform a "career pre-mortem" to identify the people, situations, and financial burdens that currently exert leverage over your decision-making. We explore how to gain autonomy by de-risking these areas—like eliminating debt or shifting how you relate to job misalignments—so you can reclaim the agency needed to make principled moves that align with your true purpose.

9. 

   E1281 · 13 Jan 2026 · 29 min

   Career Growth Accelerator - Assessing Yourself - Using a Nine-Block to Map Your Skill, Potential, and Energy Investment

   Evaluating what you are uniquely good at is more than just making a list of your current skills; it requires looking at your past, your future potential, and what actually energises you. In this episode, I introduce a practical tool called the Nine-block to help you map out your skills across performance and potential, while adding critical dimensions of energy and risk to help you break through career stagnation.

10. 

    E1280 · 5 Jan 2026 · 29 min

    Career Growth Accelerator: Going from Autopilot to Purpose

    This episode marks the 11th anniversary of the show, and I want to celebrate by continuing our Career Growth Accelerator series. Today, we’re moving beyond the "autopilot" mode that many engineers find themselves in and learning how to define goals that are uniquely yours so you can find the specific challenges that will actually move the needle.