Matt Schouten
@cybadger.com
I like to build things up. People, systems, software, knowledge... | Leadership and team coach | I also like books! | https://www.cybadger.com/
📚The Frugal Wizard's Handbook for Surviving Medieval England by @brandonsanderson.com "White room" story, easy, fun, funny, and not part of a series. Modern-ish human, medieval England (ish), no memory. Now he needs to figure out what's going on, maybe who he is, and definitely survive. #booksky
The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval Eng…
A man awakes in a clearing in what appears to be mediev…
goodreads.com
📚 What I Ate in One Year (and Related Thoughts) by Stanley Tucci (November library reading challenge: "a culinary read") Daily-ish journal format, built around food but also happenings, feelings, and musings. A few recipes. Strong feelings on food, esp Italian! Interesting life for sure. #booksky
What I Ate in One Year (And Related Thoughts)
From Stanley Tucci, award-winning actor and New York Ti…
goodreads.com
New on my blog: "Why Study CS? Thoughts on LLM-assisted software engineering" kmicinski.com/claude-code-...
Why Study CS? Thoughts on LLM-assisted software engineering
Dear students of Computer Science,
kmicinski.com
My rate of finishing books has been way higher than my rate of posting about them. Realized I have a list of at least 12 books to post about. And a stack of books calling my name.
📚 Romeo and/or Juliet by @ryannorth.ca caught my eye at the library. Shakespeare meets Choose Your Own Adventure - hilarious, absurd, and very much understands The Bard. Great (guest) art, too. Play as Romeo, Juliet, Nurse. Enjoy Juliet's protein shakes. Live happily ever after, or not... #booksky
Romeo And/Or Juliet
Plays weren't meant to be read. They were meant... to be played.
romeoandorjuliet.com
📚Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee Mixed feelings. - It's not a polished, publish-ready book. - It's extremely perceptive about people and human nature. - The characters are flawed. - Some of the flaws make the characters more real. Worth a read. But I also need to re-read Mockingbird now. #booksky
Go Set a Watchman
From Harper Lee comes a landmark new novel set two deca…
goodreads.com
If your company seems to flail, spiral, oscillate, or just keeps doubling down on the same idea, maybe the problem is too much feedback, undamped, without systems to handle it. Credit to @another.rodeo for the nudge to write this in response to his excellent post at another.rodeo/feedback/.
You Can't Handle The Truth! - Matt Schouten
If your company can't respond to big red warning flags or to basic, clear feedback about the world, try building better feedback systems.
cybadger.com
📚The Psychology of Time Travel, by @katemascarenhas.bsky.social (random pickup). Four women invent time travel in the 60s, kicking off a multi-timeline closed-room murder mystery that's also somehow very linear. Oh, and one of the four was ostracized after a very public breakdown. #booksky
📚 The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle. Such beautifully crafted language, and a story told calmly but urgently, the words flowing off the page painting scenes and feelings on the reader's mind. And the characters so textured and full of surprises. Old, classic, but new to me. Great read! #booksky
The Last Unicorn (The Last Unicorn, #1)
Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780451450524 She was…
goodreads.com
📚Uprooted by @naominovik.bsky.social Well-crafted dark fairy tale, compelling setting, interesting magic system. The main character is irritatingly dense (and the Dragon irritatingly taciturn), but eventually figures things out. Felt novel, but comfortable. Enchanting, even. Loved it. #booksky
Uprooted
“Our Dragon doesn’t eat the girls he takes, no matter w…
goodreads.com
I wrote a post diving into Marketing Platform Engineering, which is the "craft of building the systems and workflows that enable marketing teams to work at their best", described by @aurooba.com. If you're an engineer working to support marketing (or a marketer supported by engineers), read it.
Marketing Platform Engineering - Matt Schouten
A dive into Marketing Platform Engineering, a specialty craft first described in a series of blog posts by Aurooba Ahmed.
cybadger.com
📚Spy School: Blackout by Stuart Gibbs If you liked the previous 12 Spy School books, you'll like this one. As usual, action and mystery with a lot of humor. I liked the Komodo dragons. (Excellent middle-grade series. Might be good for reluctant readers, especially boys.) #booksky
Spy School Blackout
In the thirteenth book in Stuart Gibbs’s New York Times…
goodreads.com
📚Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid Library reading challenge for September was "book set in the decade you were born". Fast, enjoyable read. Family history and how it impacts the present. Gossipy but raw, alternating celebrity glamour and real consequences of bad decisions. #booksky
Malibu Rising
Four famous siblings throw an epic party to celebrate t…
goodreads.com
📚Deep Dive by @ronwaltersbooks.bsky.social, random library pickup. Fast-paced, well-constructed sci-fi thriller. Much more interesting than I expected given the synopsis says the protagonist "find[s] himself trapped" in virtual reality. Fun read, clever premise, and just a little creepy. #booksky
Deep Dive
When your reality shatters, what will you do to put it …
goodreads.com
"Weeks of coding can save you minutes of thinking." It's true! I wrote an article exploring how the models you choose can make software easier—or harder to build and maintain. And yes, there's a case study of a bad model I chose. Also includes advice on picking better models.
Models Matter - Matt Schouten
The models you use to think about software and the world matter—a lot. This post explores a bad model, and ways to pick better models.
cybadger.com
This is a fun talk, with lots of good lessons on becoming a more effective engineer. I took away several good reminders and a few new thoughts, and I've been doing this for a couple decades. Ross is a really good engineer, and a kind and wise human as well. Worth watching!
Ross Wintle@rosswintle.uk · 9mo agoOh, yay! I didn’t think my LoopConf talk recording was going to be free to watch. But it’s out on YouTube. This was an epic labour of love. I’m so glad I can share it with you. My 25 Lessons from 25 years of software development in (a little over) 25 minutes. youtu.be/cyxQ82L298Y
📚The Engineering Executive's Primer by @lethain.com. A bit dry, but actionable and just as advertised. Good "start here" for lots of topics, and covers high-level mindset. Useful starter manual + handbook for those stepping into (or curious about) exec roles. #booksky
The Engineering Executive's Primer: Impactful Technical…
As an engineering manager, you almost always have someo…
goodreads.com
I learned something about sed today! I knew you could delete a range of line numbers: sed '2,5d' I didn't realize you could use patterns, too: sed '/#Start/,/#End/d' (If you don't know what sed is, and why this is cool, that's okay. In short, it edits text without user interaction.)
I wrote an article about an unreasonably useful question you can ask: "How do you know?" Not challenging, but examining. And ways to become more certain. “It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so.” - Mark Twain
How Do You Know? - Matt Schouten
I often ask a simple, unreasonably useful question: “how do you know?” I will ask that question of myself (“how […]
cybadger.com
It’s Fat Bear Week! 🐻 Go and “vote for the bear you believe best exemplifies fatness and success in brown bears.” #fatbearweek
Fat Bear Week 2025
Fat Bear Week 2025
explore.org
Yeah I can read about something but how can I _really_ learn what it is? This was the question that struck me during a morning walk and this piece is an attempt to answer it. ilonaborsos.com/en/posts/jak...
How to understand something intuitively? | Ilona Borsos
Working as a product manager means that I constantly come across new topics and concepts that I need to absorb. Sometimes it’s just about quickly acquiring the knowledge necessary to complete a specif...
ilonaborsos.com
Heard this arrangement of "The Times They Are A-Changin'" at a choir concert last spring. It's beautiful.
The Times They Are A-Changin' by Bob Dyland (SATB Choir + Solo) - Arranged by Adam Podd
YouTube video by Hal Leonard Choral
youtu.be
If you assign a deadline, give a reason. Deadlines drive behavior, and if you don't share the reason for a deadline, you might be driving the wrong behavior.
Why Deadlines? Why That Deadline? - Matt Schouten
It was about 10PM that Thursday night when I got back to my apartment. After a full day of work, […]
cybadger.com
📚 "This is Lean, Resolving the Efficiency Paradox" by Niklas Modig and Pär Åhlström. Slim book, concisely defines "Lean" beyond "what Toyota does". Encourages deliberate choices and ongoing improvement. Excellent read, despite some (translation?) clunkiness in wording. #booksky #lean #agile
This Is Lean: Resolving the Efficiency Paradox
This-is-Lean
goodreads.com
📚Radio Free Vermont by @billmckibben.bsky.social A craft beer tour of Vermont hidden inside a climate fiction tale of backwoods local government, community, potential (inadvertent) secession, and biathlon. Quirky, silly, fun to read, yet thought-provoking. Good for fans of Parks & Rec or NPR. 🎙️
Radio Free Vermont: A Fable of Resistance
"I hope no one secedes, but I also hope that Americans…
goodreads.com
Had way too many tabs. I still have way too many tabs, but now at least they're organized. Window 1: email, two current-but-small projects (~15) Window 2: to-read (~100) Window 3: job search (and a few related to marketing my manager coaching biz, ~10) Separating contexts to help my brain. 🧠
"If you're remote, ramble." Never tried having a personal ramblings channel for each team member like @stephango.com suggests. But I have noticed remote teams are more effective the more they share—and yes, ramble—in public. It avoids isolation and keeps the humans connected.
If you're remote, ramble
A lightweight way to add ambient social cohesion for remote teams.
stephango.com
Here's a great list of ideas if you feel like you're too engrossed in that little glass rectangle in your pocket (or...the one you're staring at RIGHT NOW 😜). Bonus idea: a friend of mine has started inviting people to have lunch at his house. "Come on over, let's make some sandwiches."
The Analog Life: 50 Ways to Unplug and Feel Human Again
A toolkit of habits, routines and products to help you live more intentionally
insidehook.com