A Pragmatic Definition for Accountability

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1. 

   E1311 · 21 Sep 2026 · 13 min

   Fundamentals Will Help You Survive the Constant Acceleration of Software Engineering

   Fundamentals get talked about constantly, but rarely defined. In this episode I dig into what a fundamental actually is — the building blocks, heuristics, and core characteristics that don't change — and why they matter more than ever in a profession where abstraction moves faster than almost anywhere else. If you feel like you can't keep up with every new framework, model, or tool release, the answer isn't to read faster. It's to step up a level.

2. 

   E1310 · 5 Sep 2026 · 16 min

   You Don't Learn Helplessness - You Learn Control

   A 1967 study gave us the concept of learned helplessness — but the same researchers later reversed it. Passivity is our default state; control is what we learn. In this episode, I unpack what that neuroscience means for how you face hard things in your career, and why the action you take doesn't have to match the size of your problem.

3. 

   E1308 · 21 Aug 2026 · 15 min

   Why Reducing Complexity Is A Sign of Seniority

   As you grow as an engineer, something counterintuitive happens: the systems you build get simpler, not more complex. In this episode, I explore why senior engineers tend to collapse abstractions, accept certain risks, and reduce the surface area they're responsible for — and what drives that shift underneath the surface. Understanding the reasons behind the trend is what lets you get there on purpose instead of waiting a decade to arrive there accidentally.

4. 

   E1306 · 22 Jul 2026 · 19 min

   Using Substition to Make Decisions Simpler

   The skills you've built for reading people, reviewing code, and making calls under uncertainty all rely on the same brain shortcut: substituting an easier question for a hard one. In this episode, Jonathan explores how to take that automatic mental trick and use it on purpose — shrinking weighty, paralysis-inducing decisions down to the small, low-stakes actions they're actually made of.

5. 

   E1305 · 10 Jul 2026 · 25 min

   Your Single Most Important Tool for Managing the Uneven Downsides of Risk

   The skills you build and the tools you master matter, but they aren't your most important asset when things go wrong — and something eventually will. In this episode, I work through why our careers and lives are governed more by avoiding catastrophic downside than by chasing upside, and why the single best tool for surviving a bad event isn't testing, insurance, or money — it's genuine trust with the people around you.

6. 

   E1304 · 24 Jun 2026 · 19 min

   Why Can't You Go Faster With AI? Focus on the Friction to Find Out

   The skills you spent years building are getting cheaper to replicate—but that's not where the friction lives. In this throwback episode, I unpack why agentic coding hasn't made your team faster, and why the answer is the oldest model in the book: the theory of constraints. If you're a manager or a senior engineer being asked "why can't this go faster," this one's for you.

7. 

   E1313 · 30 Sep 2026 · 17 min

   How History Can Inform a Dynamic Understanding of Technological Revolutions Mirroring this Moment In Software Engineering

   You're tired of hearing that you need to pick up AI, so today I'm not going to add to that pile. Instead, we'll look back at two moments in history that look a lot like this one: the arrival of Fortran in the 1950s, and the spread of autopilot in commercial aviation. Both show how new abstractions change the shape of our work without being purely good or purely bad.

8. 

   E1303 · 18 Jun 2026 · 31 min

   Software Engineering Principles That Still Hold Up in an Agentic World - Old Lessons Made New

   The skills problem isn't going anywhere — it's just wearing new clothes. In this episode, I unpack how the lessons we learned decades ago (limiting work in progress, the theory of constraints, test-driven development) are coming roaring back as the fundamentals that will carry you through the agentic shift. The bottleneck has moved, and knowing where it went changes how you should work.

9. 

   E1302 · 10 Jun 2026 · 28 min

   Principles Oriented Thinking as a Durable Skill in an AI First World

   The skills that survive every industry shakeup aren't the ones you can Google — they're softer, harder to name, and far more durable. In this episode, Jonathan explores principle-oriented thinking: the practice of stripping away the labels we attach to tools, roles, and even ourselves to see what something actually does at its core. It's the difference between handing your coding off to an agent and rethinking your entire workflow around what these new materials are truly capable of.

10. 

    E1301 · 3 Jun 2026 · 28 min

    What the Science Actually Says About Effective Feedback

    Feedback is one of the hardest skills in any career, and most of us have only experienced a handful of moments where it actually drove positive change. In this episode, Jonathan explores how to give and receive feedback that leads to real growth — starting with setting your ego aside, getting clear on your goal, and using behavior-based models like SBI and Netflix's Four A's. It's a durable skill that turns a contentious, dreaded conversation into a genuine pathway to career development.

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