Social networks got very good at showing us strangers and strangely bad at helping us feel close to friends. https://williamviana.blog/2026/05/11/what-have-you-been-up-to-lately/?utm_source=bluesky&utm_medium=jetpack_social
@vianasw.bsky.social
We stick to familiar ways of working not because they're the best, but because they're ours. In a world moving this fast, that assumption is worth questioning.
Is Your Way the Best Way, or Just the Old Way?
We stick to familiar ways of working not because they're the best, but because they're ours. In a world moving this fast, that assumption is worth questioning.
williamviana.blog
10x Faster, Same Speed Software engineers are coding faster than ever with LLMs, but projects still ship at the same pace. The real bottleneck was never writing code.
10x Faster, Same Speed
Software engineers are coding faster than ever with LLMs, but projects still ship at the same pace. The real bottleneck was never writing code.
williamviana.blog
Books I read in 2025 I wrote about the 8 books I read in 2025. Mostly product strategy and leadership, plus one surprise favorite. https://williamviana.blog/2025/12/31/books-i-read-in-2025/?utm_source=bluesky&utm_medium=jetpack_social
Book Grid plugin I had to wait for the slower time of the year to find time to finally publish my first WordPress plugin in the WordPress.org plugin repository. I wrote about how I created it using Telex in my previous post. It's a Gutenberg block that allows you to showcase book covers in a grid…
Book Grid plugin
I had to wait for the slower time of the year to find time to finally publish my first WordPress plugin in the WordPress.org plugin repository. I wrote about how I created it using Telex in my previous post. It's a Gutenberg block that allows you to showcase book covers in a grid layout. Like this: AI Engineering Demand Side Sales Inspired If you have a WordPress blog and haven't published your "Books I read in 2025" post yet, give it a try. You can find it at
williamviana.blog
Generative AI keeps lowering the friction between idea and prototype. Telex, Automattic’s new AI block builder, might have just removed my last excuse not to build things.
Tsundoku, Telex, and the Art of Productive Procrastination
I love books. Specifically, I love the physical artifact, also known as a codex, for its role in passing on wisdom through the ages—as beautifully described in Ken Liu's short story "The Bookmaking Habits of Select Species." I don't read many books a year, as I prefer to practice slow reading and savour each one of them—I'm kidding, I'm just a slow reader. My love for books, combined with my slow reading ability, makes me a perfect practitioner of tsundoku—to reduce my pile, I started gifting my friends the books I want to read instead.
williamviana.blog
Engineering Management expectations have flipped—from people-first to code-first. But in the rush to move fast, are we forgetting how to lead well?
ZIRP era Engineering Managers
The expectations for Engineering Managers have violently shifted from people-first to code-first—and we risk losing the lessons of the former.
williamviana.blog
Taste is irrational. It’s rooted in feelings. Maybe that’s why AI can’t fake soul. How can you make a machine feel joy, peace, or sorrow when contemplating art?
The Soul Problem in AI
I’ve been thinking a lot about taste and creativity as the next frontier for LLMs. Those who have experimented enough with them know that the content they produce is generally pretty dull—it misses the spark of novelty and creativity. It’s difficult to explain, but one could say it lacks soul. But how could we infuse soul into LLMs? We could probably prompt them to be opinionated in a specific direction, but how can we train them to have taste? The kind of taste that’s difficult to explain in a prompt. The kind of taste that seems irrational, random, and rooted in feelings.
williamviana.blog
Me arrepentí un poco de no haber escrito algo sobre las otras catástrofes. Ahora que lo tengo fresco, voy a poner TODO lo que pasó el domingo (sí, el domingo) y el lunes para tenerlo por aquí para el futuro ⚡️ (1/N)
Managing High-Performance Engineering Teams: The Growth Conversation When you have a team of high-performing engineers with intrinsic motivations to grow in their craft, managing performance becomes more straightforward. The difficult conversations flow more naturally. Stretching them doesn’t feel…
Managing High-Performance Engineering Teams: The Growth Conversation
When you have a team of high-performing engineers with intrinsic motivations to grow in their craft, managing performance becomes more straightforward. The difficult conversations flow more naturally. Stretching them doesn’t feel forced. They’ll embrace your feedback and act on it when there is alignment, and alignment is the key here. Career growth conversations are only one aspect of managing high-performance teams, but they are a crucial one, not only for the individual’s career progress but also for team productivity, innovation, and retention. In this post, I’ll focus on a few tips and tactics that worked for me and improved the effectiveness of those conversations.
williamviana.blog
Navigating Tech Layoffs Layoffs suck. Losing your job in this economy is terrible, and dealing with the aftermath's low morale and high uncertainty is incredibly stressful. If you work in tech and haven't gone through it, consider yourself lucky. In this post, I want to share my perspective as…
Navigating Tech Layoffs
Layoffs suck. Losing your job in this economy is terrible, and dealing with the aftermath's low morale and high uncertainty is incredibly stressful. If you work in tech and haven't gone through it, consider yourself lucky. In this post, I want to share my perspective as someone who survived recent layoffs, offer some thoughts on preparing mentally for this reality in today's tech industry, and provide practical signs to watch for if you're concerned about your own company's stability. Automattic recently laid off 16% of its staff, mostly engineers. I was lucky not to have been affected by it.
williamviana.blog
AI is Coming for Your Job AI tools are slowly but gradually changing the Software Engineering profession. Although some might argue that the gains in productivity are overestimated, I think this is only the beginning. As those tools improve and evolve to become agentic, such as Devin AI, the…
AI is Coming for Your Job
AI tools are slowly but gradually changing the Software Engineering profession. Although some might argue that the gains in productivity are overestimated, I think this is only the beginning. As those tools improve and evolve to become agentic, such as Devin AI, the industry has started to wonder if there will be much demand for Software Engineers, or even if AI could replace engineers altogether. I have colleagues reaching out to me and being worried about their career in a 18-month horizon. I guess Mark Zuckerberg's recent statement…
williamviana.blog
Step into the world of noma, the iconic three-Michelin-star restaurant, where culinary magic happens every day. This visual journey takes you behind the scenes to explore their seasonal innovations - and shows how Automattic's products bring their digital presence to life. 🧵