Etymology: The Origin of "Sabotage" and the Myth of the Wooden Shoe
The word "Sabotage" comes from the French "Sabot" (wooden shoe). Why the history of factory resistance explains the passive-aggressiveness in your engineering team today.
Culture
Voltaire: Perfect is the Enemy of Good (The Philosophy of Shipping)
"Le mieux est l'ennemi du bien." How Voltaire's philosophy defines the MVP (Minimum Viable Product) and why perfectionism is just procrastination in disguise.
The Genealogy of Doubt: Pyrrho, Anaxarchus, and the Cure for Dogmatism
Trace the origins of Skepticism from the atomic void of Democritus to the court of Alexander the Great. Discover how Pyrrho's "indifference" evolved into a medical cure for the anxiety of truth.
Concept: Moloch — The God of Bad Incentives
Why do good companies do bad things? It's not malice; it's Moloch. Understanding the Game Theory of "Bad Equilibria" and how to fix broken incentives.
Diogenes: The Art of Radical Candor
"I am looking for a human." Why the modern C-Suite needs to stop playing politics and start practicing the ancient virtue of Parrhesia (Fearless Speech).
Concept: The Lindy Effect — Why Old Technology Beats New Technology
Why does SQL outlive every trend? The Lindy Effect states that for ideas, life expectancy increases with age. A guide to choosing "Boring Technology."
History: The Luddites Were Right — AI and the Automation of Craft
The Luddites weren't anti-technology; they were anti-exploitation. What 19th-century weavers can teach us about Generative AI and the future of coding.
Concept: Cargo Cult Engineering (You Are Not Google)
Why startups mimic Google's tech stack and fail. The lesson of Richard Feynman's "Cargo Cult Science" applied to Kubernetes, Microservices, and Agile.
Sun Tzu: Winning Without Fighting (The Strategy of Asymmetry)
"The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting." How to apply Sun Tzu's concept of Asymmetry and positioning to beat larger competitors.
Dunbar’s Number: The Physics of Trust
Why do companies turn bureaucratic at 150 people? It’s not culture; it’s biology. How to apply Robin Dunbar's "Rule of 150" to organizational design.
The Peter Principle: Why Competence is Punished
"In a hierarchy, every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence." Why your best engineers make the worst managers, and how the Dual-Track ladder fixes it.
Concept: Chesterton’s Fence — The Dangers of "Cleaning Up"
"Don't remove a fence until you know why it was put there." A mental model for handling legacy code and organizational reform without causing disaster.
Ada Lovelace: Poetical Science (The Art of the Polymath)
She was the first programmer, 100 years before the computer. Why modern leaders need "Poetical Science" to bridge the gap between logic and creativity.