Swizec Teller is a software engineer, speaker, and educator sharing lessons from his journey from junior developer to Silicon Valley. He writes about engineering skills, career growth, mindset, and practical tactics for succeeding in tech.
47 articles from this blog
A critique of over-engineering and AI hype, emphasizing that real engineering value lies in shipping working code and delivering user outcomes.
A software engineer discusses managing chaos, interruptions, and operational fires while building long-term solutions and effective engineering habits.
Advice for tech professionals on emphasizing scope and impact over job titles on resumes to stand out in hiring.
A software engineer reflects on the importance of mentoring and delegating to avoid becoming trapped in a critical role, advocating to 'code yourself out of the job'.
Explains the three key growth curves—exponential, linear, and logarithmic—that define a scalable software business and an engineer's role in building long-term assets.
Explains how stacked pull requests can speed up development by enabling parallel work and avoiding large, hard-to-review PRs.
Explores the reality of managing legacy code and continuous migration in production software, emphasizing adaptability over perfect design.
Argues that the future of software engineering lies in Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) and operational excellence, not just writing code.
A developer shares advice on navigating a tough tech job market by building real projects, freelancing, or joining startups to create opportunities.
A developer reflects on missing the Shopify IPO and shares criteria for evaluating startup career bets, from market size to personal passion.
A software engineer discusses the benefits of clear project planning and scope definition to reduce stress and improve team productivity.
Introduces an open-source, agentic approach to end-to-end testing that records user interactions to reduce flakiness and maintenance.
A senior engineer explains what hiring managers look for in a tech resume: clear demonstration of increasing scope and impact over fancy titles.
Practical steps for successfully leading a software or tech project, focusing on scope, communication, and iterative delivery.
Explores how people and team ownership, not just technical patterns, are key to untangling and preventing messy 'ball of mud' software architecture.
A developer argues that AI tools, while feeling productive, actually create more low-priority busywork and reduce overall effectiveness.
Explains how stack ranking helps teams prioritize work effectively by forcing tough decisions on what to work on next.
Explores the deeper lesson of Chesterton's fence in software engineering: understanding why code exists, then deleting it if it's obsolete.
![The job behind the job [of a high level IC]](https://alldevblogs.blob.core.windows.net/thumbs/article-b03a8ce45619-full-305e340d.webp)
Tips for high-level individual contributors on balancing operational fires with strategic goals using business and industry awareness.
Explores how feedback works in tech careers, using regression to the mean and advice on focusing on strengths vs. weaknesses at different career stages.
