I wrote a longer thread on mastodon about this (against all expectations that is my 'sincere' place) but if you want more books like Psychology of Software Teams to exist: write a review for it (amazon/goodreads/storygraph/etc)! Any review at all (I won't read them haha). Reviews make books REAL

I'm supposed to be blogging about our most recent Deliver Sessions meetup, but as often happens I'm getting distracted by the "quick note" about the location. Built on the site of BBC's New Broadcasting House - its last days before demolition beautifully detailed by @skylinermcr.bsky.social:

The Demolition of New Broadcasting House — Skyliner: Alternative Tours of Manchester

An exploration of the partly-demolished New Broadcasting House on Oxford Road with Andrew Brooks

theskyliner.org

Actor: How would you rate my ability to take direction? Director: Below average. Actor: *bellows* AVERAGE!!!

Sat in my sunny garden and wanting to use my Bluetooth earbuds with my phone. But because I used them with my MacBook earlier, when I take them out of the case the MacBook (closed, sleeping, upstairs on the opposite side of the house) connects to them. Google suggests a time machine.

So how do you help the authors you want to help? - Preorder - Tell one specific person "you'd like this book" — this converts at a far higher rate than anything! - If you're on a team or in a reading group, suggest it there - Request it at your local library! www.drcathicks.com#book

Dr. Cat Hicks

Leading the science of software success

drcathicks.com

Can you, as one person, possibly make a difference in whether an unusual, creative, category-breaking book (a book without a marketing department or a budget behind it) succeeds? Yes you can, and I'm going to tell you why it's a hell of a lot more attainable than you think.

Through lockdown and a long stretch after when in-person meetups really weren’t happening, we used @ewebber.bsky.social's “in the Ether” format to turn into a remote-only meetup. This was before I was blogging about the meetup, so many good talks and helpful ideas were lost to history. Until now!

Deliver Sessions: The remote years - neil-vass.com

I’ve been a co-organiser of Deliver Sessions meetup (along with Chris Burns and Zoe Rigley) since 2018, and now I do a writeup after each event. Those posts started in 2022 with “an evening of lightni...

neil-vass.com

Went to put dinner in, through the open door heard a huge cheer from a beer garden. Nothing from our living room where the kids are watching football. I ran through and said "watch this!", kids impressed to see a goal 10s later. Is the pub using normal TV, and we get that delay on "live" iPlayer?

"Our adoption of the Advice Process opened up the space for anyone to make decisions, but it has also put conversations, the responsibility to seek out expertise, and think about impact at the core." Rereading a good article from Andrew Harmel-Law: martinfowler.com/articles/sca...

Scaling the Practice of Architecture, Conversationally

Scaling architecture through a structured series of conversations

martinfowler.com

Deliver Sessions meetup is next week in Manchester, featuring: Retros by design, not by habit It's not too late to be an apprentice! and When agile goes off script: a facilitator's toolkit for staying on track

Deliver Sessions: Going off script

A meetup for anyone interested in how software teams work well together. Hear talks, discuss them with other attendees.

eventbrite.co.uk

Interesting thread of organisational dysfunctions! "Permanent urgency" was the first post that caught my eye, lots of the others are relevant too. "Change agents of the status quo": "The energy that might have driven structural change is consumed in the process." mastodon.me.uk/@trondhjort@...

*Jumanji drumbeats in the distance* Psychology of Software Teams is ALMOST HERE www.drcathicks.com#book

I'll be at @agilecambridge.bsky.social in October, with an oversized puzzle cube, to help people learn how to solve these and share some ideas on how it relates to designing and evaluating all sorts of algorithms. It'll be fun! Mention my name (10Neil) for a discount on tickets. #AgileCam

The next Deliver Sessions meetup will be in Manchester on 7th July, at Autotrader's lovely new office in Circle Square! Lightning talks, a workshop on workshops, and a chance to meet lots of interesting people. Come along! More details:

Deliver Sessions: Going off script

A meetup for anyone interested in how software teams work well together. Hear talks, discuss them with other attendees.

eventbrite.co.uk

"Of course, the mighty Internet mostly runs on spit and hope" 😆

Terence Eden@edent.tel · 2mo ago

New blog post: How many consecutive hyphens can you have in a domain name? https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/06/how-many-consecutive-hyphens-can-you-have-in-a-domain-name/ A seemingly simple question which sent me down into the murky depths of standards. How many consecutive hyphens can you have in …

4th post in my series that is letting me 1. make sense out of my old coaching notes, and 2. have an excuse to share my holiday photos. neil-vass.com/coaching-whe...

Coaching: When you’re asked for your own expertise - neil-vass.com

One of the most useful early lessons I learned in coaching was: it’s not about me sharing or recommending what I’d do in a situation, it’s much more helpful to leave my advice out of it and help the c...

neil-vass.com

Well, here we are finally - the sound of one door closing and the end of a 17-year journey. codemanship.wordpress.com/2026/06/04/a...

A Car Crash In Slow Motion

Since I’m among friends, I hope I can be open with you. I started Codemanship 17 years ago in my late 30s, as a response to being asked by a recruiter for the gazillionth time “Why are …

codemanship.wordpress.com

More and more people I deeply respect and have learned a lot from over the years feel like they are speaking into a void, to the point where they are losing motivation to continue making content, which got me to write my first post on my site in over a year... www.kevinpowell.co/article/tell...

Meetup writeup! Notes from last week's Deliver Sessions in Manchester. neil-vass.com/deliver-sess...

Deliver Sessions: Why good teams get stuck - neil-vass.com

It’s been a relaxed start to the year: May’s Deliver Sessions meetup was the first one of 2026! This time we were at Forward Role‘s offices, just off Deansgate in Manchester city centre. Hannah Dell’A...

neil-vass.com

Last call! Sign up for Deliver Sessions meetup, come along for an interesting evening of talks this Tuesday: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/deliver-se...

Deliver Sessions: Why Good Teams Get Stuck

A meetup for anyone interested in how software teams work well together. Hear talks, discuss them with other attendees.

eventbrite.co.uk

Talking-head futurism is structurally a grift - you get paid to be confidently directional about an unknowable future, and being wrong has no consequences because nobody audits old predictions.

3rd post from my piles of handwritten coaching notes neil-vass.com/coaching-que...

Coaching: Questions? - neil-vass.com

Coaching can involve asking a lot of questions — I’ve mentioned several examples already in “A few things about coaching” (where I was surprised by how much people appreciated some wide-open questions...

neil-vass.com

I'm reading The Language of the Night, and loving it. You know when you happen across _exactly_ the kind of book you were thinking you'd like to read? I've read bits and pieces of Ursula K. Le Guin's thoughts on writing before, always interesting, so it's brilliant to have a whole book of them.

The Language of the Night - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Hi all. Here is a vanilla simple particle model simulator. Would welcome any constructive comments on it and how it could be improved if needed 🙂 #iTeachPhysics #Science 🧪 www.drjonesphysics.com/part-model

One week to go! Will you be in Manchester on 12 May? Come along and say hi. Details and sign up link:

Neil Vass@neil-vass.com · 3mo ago

Deliver Sessions meetup, now with twice as many speakers! www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/deliver-se...

From a good friend and very experienced engineer. He's cancelled his Claude subscription because he is finding open models now good enough for coding willemvandenende.com/blog/enginee...

Heard this years ago, found it again now: fab to read out anywhere you're planning to ask "any questions?" after a talk: "...Pay attention to your mental images as the question is occurring to you. When you picture yourself asking the question, are you mysteriously enormous? Are you made of gold?"

Deliver Sessions meetup, now with twice as many speakers! www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/deliver-se...

Deliver Sessions: Why Good Teams Get Stuck

A meetup for anyone interested in how software teams work well together. Hear talks, discuss them with other attendees.

eventbrite.co.uk

We need to show a chunky timetable on a webpage. The page is more popular on mobile than desktop. Does anybody know any better options than to overflow the page and hint that the user can swipe to view more? (... plus offering a pdf download)

This Man Was Told By His Doctor To Treat His Depression With A Trip To See Great Clown Pagliacci. His Reply Will Astound You