Writing
Thinking in public
Most of what I write is concerned with one recurring problem: why capable teams, with good intentions and enough information, still make poor decisions.
These essays are where I work through that question. The book is where I attempt an answer.
Rick's new book
The Architecture of Reasoning
Why smart teams make poor decisions — and how to fix it
Read more →Essays
- 20262026
How to Improve Decision-Making Without Slowing Your Team Down
You don't need to slow your team down to improve decision-making. You need to expand the reasoning pathway just enough to test whether the decision can hold.
The Most Dangerous Habit in Smart Teams Isn't Bad Thinking. It's Fast Thinking.
The decision took less than fifteen minutes. Six weeks later, the numbers declined further. No one lacked intelligence. No one acted recklessly. The team answered the question that had been asked.
Fluency Is Not Understanding
Fluency has always been persuasive. It just isn't the same thing as understanding.
What AI Actually Taught Us About Thinking
AI did not give us a new form of intelligence to imitate. It gave us a clearer view of something we already depended on, but rarely examined closely.
Every Meeting Is a Thinking System (Whether You Designed It or Not)
Most meetings are treated as containers for discussion. In practice, the meeting itself shapes the thinking far more than most teams realise.
The Hidden Cost of Fast Answers
Fast decisions feel good. They create momentum and signal decisiveness. But that efficiency is borrowed from somewhere — and it gets paid back later.
- 20252025
Why Smart Teams Still Make Bad Decisions
What looks like alignment is frequently something thinner: a shared conclusion sitting on top of different reasoning. The issue is structural.
Outsourcing vs in-house: finding the right balance
There's no universally correct answer to the build-vs-buy question. But there are better and worse ways to think about it.
Scaling engineering teams without breaking culture
Growing a team from 5 to 30 is a fundamentally different challenge than growing from 30 to 80. Here's what I've learned from doing both.
- 20232023
Pairing in Leadership
When I took my first real leadership position I found it quite isolating. This is where pairing can help.
- 20202020
Keeping our communities going through unusual times
How do we keep tech communities alive and thriving when we can no longer meet in person? Some thoughts on tools, formats, and practices.
Platform health is the key to high performing teams
So many large businesses almost imploded because they didn't address their technical debt. Here's how to measure platform health — and what to do about it.