Software Engineering Leadership Handbook

“The most important thing is that you develop your own principles and ideally write them down, especially if you are working with others.” - Ray Dalio

“Everyone makes the mistake of looking at decisions like it’s the first problem of this sort… If you have principles, you can learn to think more clearly and communicate better the ‘Why’.” - Ray Dalio

I started writing down my principles in 2021 after reading Principles by Ray Dalio. These principles are based on a combination of professional experience and extensive reading and are intended to serve as a guide for how engineering leaders should act in common scenarios to optimize their organization. If you have any feedback, disagreement, or suggestions, please open a GitHub issue and help me refine these principles.

Since these began as personal notes on my computer, I was not disciplined about noting sources as I captured ideas. Over time, I will try to identify and cite sources.

Most of my thoughts here are related to software development, leadership, investing, and psychology. I also have dozens of book summaries that I will be sharing as time allows.

Work In Progress: Please note this is a very rough draft. I have hundreds of notes I will be organizing into this guide over time, so expect changes and check back often for additional content! As a perfectionist, I would prefer to keep this private until perfect, but done is better than perfect.