Kevin Goldsmith

Anyone using this? Interested to hear how useful it is for you. Mozilla.ai releases universal interface to LLMs | InfoWorld share.google/pD8LMsPDGNxc...

A technical strategy isn’t a roadmap; it’s how you align your team to face the future together.

In this episode of It Depends, I discuss what makes a good strategy, how to document it effectively, and how to keep it alive as your company evolves.

pod.link/1724860326/e...

The best technology decisions are not about what is new. They are about what is right for you, right now.

Every wave of tech promises transformation. Few deliver.
My latest newsletter, "Making Technology Choices That Last," is about leading with intent instead of impulse.

open.substack.com/pub/kevingol...

YouTube video by Kevin Goldsmith From Friction to Function

I've also posted a recording of my last rehearsal of the talk (slides and audio, but no video of me) if you want to compare and contrast youtu.be/oXk4OK8iBxo?...

From friction to function: Strengthening the product-engineering alliance Learn practical strategies to turn product-engineering friction into alignment through better prioritization, communication, and shared decision-making.

The recording from my LeadDev NYC talk "From friction to function: Strengthening the product-engineering alliance" is now live! leaddev.com/communicatio...

Taoist software review

Just having some innocent fun with Claude.

Making Technology Choices That Last - It Depends Podcast Avoiding shiny object syndrome, encouraging curiosity, and building a system for smart adoption   Every few years, a new wave of technology arrives promising to change everything. Right now, it’s gene...

Every wave of tech promises transformation.

In the latest It Depends episode, I share how leaders can make thoughtful technology choices that last: balancing curiosity with caution, and learning before leaping.

Making Technology Choices That Last
itdependspod.com/episodes/mak...

www.seangoedecke.com/clarity/

"Structure is strategy made visible. A Good design aligns incentives, communication patterns, and ownership boundaries with your goals. It creates high-bandwidth communication where you need it and separation where you don't."

New newsletter: The Hidden Architecture of Engineering kevingoldsmith.substack.com/p/the-hidden...

Cc @nicolefv.bsky.social only because I most recently heard this metric in your interview on Lenny's podcast and you are literally the expert here.

This leads to a lot of refactoring. Which I think produces fewer hallucinations and overall code quality (at the cost of making each iteration a bit slower than letting the AI build a whole system at once). It also makes it easier for me to review the code in each iteration.

Am I alone here?

I've heard "Code Survivability Rate" come up as a useful metric for measuring AI-assisted developer productivity. I'm not sure it is a great metric as it highly depends on your workflow. I tend to use AI as a pair programming partner and follow XP processes of progressive improvement. ->

Interesting impact of Claude Code:

I dabble with frontend, but not a frontend expert. I always reached for etiher some templates or something like Webflow to put together some landing page.

Now I started to... ask Claude Code to build me as per my spec.

A big reason for it:

So used to seeing Meri Williams as a conference host, I forgot how good a speaker Meri is! #LeadDevNYC

Kudos to Pooja Varshneya for the prettiest slides so far. #LeadDevNYC

Really liked the talk from @addyosmani.bsky.social on leadership supporting AI coding. #LeadDevNYC

Hello #LeadDevNYC! @yee.camp starting things off!

new newsletter: Values->Culture->Everything
open.substack.com/pub/kevingol...

Values → Culture → Everything: Why Company Culture Actually Matters - It Depends Podcast Kevin Goldsmith revisits his influential 2013 keynote on engineering culture, expanding the conversation beyond just engineering teams to address anyone navigating workplace dynamics. This episode bre...

Most company "values" are BS. Real test: Can you tell your boss "no" when they ask you to violate a core value without getting fired?
Culture = what gets rewarded, not what's on the wall.
If you're constantly fighting your workplace culture find one that fits instead
itdependspod.com/episodes/val...

We need very strong norms for people taking responsibility for what they generate + share, with or without AI tools

It should be considered rude to ask for someone's attention or effort if you yourself outsourced your thinking to an AI tool and did not critically evaluate the output

A periodic reminder that leadership and management are two entirely different things. Calling a manager a "leader" is an appalling bit of doublespeak. You cannot appoint or assign a leader.
1/6

Making the most of an unplanned career break: strategies to stay competitive and interview-ready during extended job searches

New newsletter! kevingoldsmith.substack.com/p/making-the...

Talked with the Claude Code team on how they build Claude Code. It feels I get a peek into the future, and I get why Dario said 6 months ago that 90% of code will be written by AI.

This team works SO differently than any eng team I saw. Will share in-depth soon. One example:

OpenAI’s research on AI models deliberately lying is wild  | TechCrunch AI models don't just hallucinate. They also "scheme," meaning deliberately lie or hide their true intensions.

OpenAI researchers discovered that their AI models don’t just hallucinate (confident guesses) but also scheme (deliberate lies to the user).

Anyone who’s vibecoded for any decent amount of time has caught these sorts of lies. Luckily we aren’t putting these models in mission critical systems…right?

Back with a new podcast after my summer break! Let me know what topics you'd like me to cover in future episodes. This week's episode covers how to handle a gap in your resume (past or current) and answering the question "What does a CTO do with their day?"

pod.link/1724860326

AI Startup Founders Tout a Winning Formula—No Booze, No Sleep, No Fun To reach the dream of creating a trillion-dollar company, the 20-somethings flocking to San Francisco give up everything but their laptops.

Young people going to Silicon Valley to work long hours in the hopes of getting rich isn’t news. Microserfs was documented this back in 1995.

That Gen Z are consuming less alcohol and having less sex also isn’t news.

It is news that “no fun” is also a part of this culture. What a grim existence.

Study and Update on GenAI DevEx Internal GenAI developer tools, and learnings about vendors

Full article: techblog.cloudkitchens.com/p/study-and-...

This feels like a lot more grounded take on AI tools, and one that skips the usual hype

Also good to see real feeback on all these tools. Interesting eg how Devin considered expensive and not improving as fast as others

New article! "You should give that talk or write that blog"

kevingoldsmith.substack.com/p/you-should...

I cannot recommend the Problem-Solving Leadership course highly enough.

The nice thing about being the CTO is that your Pull Request reviews happen pretty quickly, even off hours.

I think it is mainly because the devs are either scared to see what I am about to break or hoping to catch me not following our coding guidelines 😜