Engineering

Brooks's Law: Adding People to a Late Project Makes It Later

The obvious response to a slipping deadline is more people. Output falls first, because the only people who can train them are the ones already behind — and coordination grows with the square of the team.

Every Shortcut Is a Loan, and Loans Come Due

Technical debt isn't inherently bad — taking on debt deliberately, with a plan to repay it, is often the right call. The danger is debt nobody remembers taking on.

Gall's Law: Complex Things That Work Were Never Built That Way

Every complex system that works turns out to have grown from a simple one that worked. Designing the finished version from scratch doesn't just take longer — it has a startlingly poor success rate.

Software Engineering: Code Is Read Far More Than It Is Written

Most engineering time goes on code that already exists. Once you accept that, the practices that look like fussiness turn out to be straightforward economics.

Your Org Chart Is Already Visible in Your Product

Software architecture doesn't just reflect a team's intentions. It reflects, almost involuntarily, how that team is organized.