In software engineering leadership, one of the trickiest balances to strike is between bold innovation and grounded execution. The best leaders often have “genius” ideas—those that challenge assumptions, break with convention, and offer transformational value. But when those ideas become immune to feedback or revision, genius can tip dangerously into hubris.
Continue ReadingNatural language to SQL (NL2SQL) systems are one of the most compelling applications of language models—but also among the hardest to get right in production. Turning messy human questions into precise, performant SQL queries touches nearly every challenge in AI: ambiguity, domain context, schema evolution, and validation. Here’s a breakdown of the core lessons learned from real-world implementations—and why building a robust NL2SQL stack requires more than just dropping an LLM behind an input box.
Continue ReadingTechnical debt is a concept familiar to many software developers: the idea that suboptimal solutions or shortcuts taken during development can result in challenges down the road. This metaphor likens it to financial debt, where the “interest” is paid over time through the cost of maintaining or updating substandard code. Managing this debt is crucial for maintaining long-term productivity and system health.
Continue ReadingIn an age where data is more accessible than ever, organizations that harness its power are setting themselves apart from the competition. Yet, the value of data doesn’t lie in its volume—it lies in how it’s used. Leading with data is about more than dashboards and reports; it’s a mindset shift that prioritizes evidence-based decisions over gut feeling or tradition.
Continue ReadingThe On-Call Dilemma Rolling out an on-call rotation is one of those leadership rites of passage that feels equal parts necessary and terrifying. Necessary, because someone has to be around when things inevitably go sideways. Terrifying, because done poorly, it can torpedo team morale, erode trust, and burn people out faster than a buggy deploy on a Friday afternoon.
Continue ReadingWhat is vision? It’s clearly defining who and what your organization is, where it’s going, and how it’s going to get there. It sounds simple. But many organizations struggle to articulate a clear vision—let alone rally their team around it. Without vision, you’re steering a ship without a map. With it, you align every person, project, and priority around a shared destination.
Continue ReadingIn today’s corporate landscape, companies proudly display their core values on walls, websites, and employee handbooks. Integrity. Innovation. Customer-first. Collaboration. These words are meant to inspire and guide teams, but too often, they become mere platitudes—statements that sound good but lack real impact. The danger arises when leadership fails to enforce, supervise, or embody these values.
Continue ReadingThis is a quick post to show how to clone all repositories in an Azure DevOps project. This is useful if you need to clone all repositories to your local machine and there are a lot of them or to run a script against all repositories. This script requires the Azure CLI and the Azure DevOps extension.
Continue ReadingCreating an Ubuntu VM using Hyper-V using the Quick Create feature is a quick and easy way to get a VM up and running. It also configures the VM with Integration Services so you can do cool things like resize the VM window and share your clipboard between the host and the VM.
Continue ReadingLeadership comes in many forms, but one of the most defining differences in leadership styles is whether a leader chooses to lead from the front or from the back. While some believe that staying behind and guiding from a distance fosters empowerment, history and experience show that leading from the front is often the most effective and inspiring approach.
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