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How first-principles engineering creates high-velocity organizations — Chris's complete blueprint, from Phase 0 Archaeology to the four-phase execution cadence.
Featured Perspective
Articles
AI & SystemsSeptember 2026
AI Removed Your Last Excuse to Be Unprincipled
Generative AI doesn't solve organizational dysfunction—it amplifies it. If you feed an AI an unprincipled codebase, it will signal-boost bad patterns at lightspeed. Here is how first-principles engineering and clean abstractions turn AI into an actual force multiplier.
Leadership & CultureSeptember 2026
Are We a Coding School or an Enterprise Company?
When an expert draws a system architecture and hears 'Did you expect us to understand this?', there is a hiring failure. It's time to set a higher baseline.
Strategy & DebtSeptember 2026
Executive Coin-Tossing and the Illusion of Urgency
When things are calm, everyone agrees with the slide deck on first principles and architectural discipline. But the moment deadline pressure hits, executives skip beside the team singing, 'Forget the process, just rush.' Heads, we do it right. Tails, we abandon ship and push broken code.
ArchitectureSeptember 2026
10,000 Screwdrivers: The Great Abstraction Contradiction
Teams loudly assert two beliefs at once: “Don't build abstractions for abstraction's sake” and “The best PRs delete code.” They are in direct, glaring contradiction—the only way to delete code without shrinking capability is to synthesize better abstractions.
StrategySeptember 2026
Organizing Genius: From a Hierarchy of Needs to a Tactical Roadmap
Executives speak in lofty abstractions while engineering leads speak in granular tactics—and neither side knows how to bridge the gap. Here is how to map a systemic hierarchy of needs directly into an org chart, concrete projects, and measurable outcomes.
Engineering VelocitySeptember 2026
Fire Lanes Are Red: Stop Bickering Over Solved Science
Bike-shedding is the wrong metaphor—choosing a bike shed color is subjective. What actually breaks software teams is bickering over what color to paint the fire lane. Fire lanes are red. The science is solved. There is zero reason to debate it.