Matheus Lima

"Be the pilot, not the turbulence."

Great parenting advice that's equally true for management.

This is a thought provoking, bite sized little piece that boils down to, "don't give feedback on EVERYTHING, because not everything matters! give feedback on things that have impact."

I think it's a *great* exercise for the feedback-giver to think through the impact they want their advice to have.

Would love your take on this one, @charity.wtf

Why Most Feedback Shouldn’t Exist Before giving feedback, ask yourself: is there measurable impact? Most manager feedback is just personal preference disguised as professional development. Stop policing personality.

How much of your feedback is actually about performance vs. personal preference?

If you can't point to specific impact, maybe the behavior that needs changing is yours.

terriblesoftware.org/2025/07/18/w...

What Doesn’t Change Why the faster tech evolves and AI advances, the more valuable computer science fundamentals become. Understanding principles beats chasing trends.

The faster tech changes, the more valuable the things that don't change become.

New post on why fundamentals matter more than ever:

terriblesoftware.org/2025/07/14/w...

Built a tiny zsh plugin that's been super helpful for me - converts natural language to shell commands.

Just 5KB, no dependencies. Would love feedback!

github.com/matheusml/zsh-ai

Why Engineers Hate Their Managers (And What to Do About It) Discover why engineers hate managers, the common management anti-patterns that destroy trust, and practical solutions from someone who’s been on both sides.

After 10+ years as an engineer, I became the thing I used to complain about: a manager.

Finally wrote about why this relationship is so broken (and how to fix it):

terriblesoftware.org/2025/06/24/w...

Good Engineer/Bad Engineer Why the best engineers aren’t always the smartest — and what separates engineers who ship from those who just code.

New post is out; I think you'll link this one!

terriblesoftware.org/2025/06/13/g...

When AI says, "You're absolutely right!", something bad usually follows

Duplication Is Not the Enemy We’re taught to eliminate duplication at all costs. But the wrong abstraction is far more expensive than a little copy-paste. Here’s why.

Fantastic explanation of the challenges of developing in a codebase over time

My fave line: “Every new requirement makes it slightly worse, but never quite bad enough to justify a complete rewrite.”

terriblesoftware.org/2025/05/28/d...

Thank you! 🙇

We’ve Been Here Before Technological advancements have empowered engineers to focus on creativity and strategy. AI will similarly elevate human insight, generating growth and innovation.

Last year I wrote about how AI won't replace programmers — just like COBOL, OOP, and Low Code didn't.

Got a lot of heat for it. "This time is different!" they said.

A year later, we're still here. Still shipping. Still needed.

terriblesoftware.org/2024/12/14/w...

My AI Skeptic Friends Are All Nuts My smartest friends have bananas arguments about LLM coding.

Really good post.

I don't necessarily agree with "but the craft" section, because if engineers stop loving what they do... they'll probably stop doing it.

But again, great post.

fly.io/blog/youre-a...

Duplication Is Not the Enemy We’re taught to eliminate duplication at all costs. But the wrong abstraction is far more expensive than a little copy-paste. Here’s why.

Hot take: Stop following DRY so religiously.

I've seen more codebases destroyed by premature abstraction than by duplication. Sometimes copy-paste is the right answer.

New post: terriblesoftware.org/2025/05/28/d...

Manage For Success, Not Comfort Great managers build effective engineering teams focused on results, not just team comfort. Success drives satisfaction—not the other way around.

Your engineers don't want you to make them "happy" — they want you to help them ship meaningful work.

terriblesoftware.org/2025/05/16/m...

Manage For Success, Not Comfort Great managers build effective engineering teams focused on results, not just team comfort. Success drives satisfaction—not the other way around.

Your engineers don't want you to make them "happy" — they want you to help them ship meaningful work.

terriblesoftware.org/2025/05/16/m...

The Hidden Cost of AI Coding AI coding tools boost productivity but may sacrifice the flow state and deep satisfaction developers experience when writing code by hand. What are we losing?

I just published "The Hidden Cost of AI Coding"

As AI coding tools make us more productive, are we sacrificing the joy that made us fall in love with programming?

terriblesoftware.org/2025/04/23/t...

That's awesome, thank you!

When I posted this, I didn't expect the amount of engagement it's been getting. People are really resonating with it.

A graph showing software development progress over time. Initial "vibe coding" creates rapid progress to ~80% (prototype), while the "long tail" slowly reaches production-ready state.

Vibe coding is fun, but don't be fooled: it can only get you so far.

I do not think it is accurate to say "much of the interest in LLM-written code comes from business owners whose main goal is to reduce worker power."

I think there are business owners who are looking for ways to move faster, who are deeply anxious about being outcompeted and left behind.

About Hi, I’m Matheus Lima, and I made a blog. Why? Honestly, because it’s cheaper than therapy and more fun than yelling at my IDE. The name Terrible Software? It’s a nod to all the times I’ve stared at…

Thank you 🙇🏻
You can see the most read posts here:

terriblesoftware.org/about/

Making AI Actually Work on Your Team Engineering leaders can no longer ignore AI. Learn practical steps to guide your team through AI adoption while maintaining quality and addressing legitimate concerns.

New post is out 🔥

"The real threat isn't AI—it's sticking to outdated ways while the industry evolves around you."

As engineering leaders, we can't afford to ignore AI anymore. Our teams are looking for guidance on how to use these tools effectively.

terriblesoftware.org/2025/04/07/m...

Your Strengths Are Your Weaknesses The qualities you value most in engineers are also creating your biggest problems. Here’s how to handle this paradox.

Strengths and weaknesses are two sides of the same coin.
As managers, our job isn't to "fix" people but to help them recognize when to dial traits up or down.

Just published:

terriblesoftware.org/2025/03/31/y...

I have a passive theory that the manner in which junior and senior devs leverage AI assistance for coding is fundamentally different: (1/?)

Something Is Rotten in the State of Cupertino Who decided these personalized Siri features should go in the WWDC keynote, with a promise they’d arrive in the coming year, when, at the time, they were in such an unfinished state they could not be demoed to the media even in a controlled environment? Three months later, who decided Apple should double down and advertise these features in a TV commercial, and promote them as a selling point of the iPhone 16 lineup?

★ Something Is Rotten in the State of Cupertino

Psychological safety is NOT about lack of disagreement.

Psychological safety REQUIRES:

* disagreement and debate
* setting standards for behavior and performance, and enforcing them
* telling people things they don't want to hear
* courage, from the bottom up
* humility, from the top down

Would love your take on this one, @charity.wtf 🙇

Why Your ‘Harmonious’ Team Is Actually Failing Teams often confuse psychological safety with everyone getting along perfectly. I see leaders bragging about teams where nobody ever raises their voice, where meetings wrap up with everyone nodding…

Controversial take: teams that never argue are often the most dysfunctional ones.

Here's why your team should be fighting more.

terriblesoftware.org/2025/03/12/w...

It's right there at the end, as a bonus!