Stuff I mention a lot

What I do

Art-o-Mat – I draw mysterious creatures for Art-o-Mat.
The Book Academy – I'm a graduate. Luvvie Ajayi Jones is wonderful.
bouncingleaf.com – My art site.
LeadDev LDX3 NYC – A conference for engineering leaders. I spoke here in 2025 and hosted a few discussion sessions in 2026.
Prison Book Program – I volunteer here. Reading transforms lives.
Rands Leadership Slack – A wonderful community for engineering leaders.

Books I've read that come up in conversations.

Accelerate: Building and Scaling High Performing Technology Organizations – by Dr. Nicole Forsgren, Jez Humble, and Gene Kim.
Brené Brown books – not sure you can go wrong with any of her books.
Observability Engineering – by Charity Majors, Liz Fong-Jones, and George Miranda.
The Phoenix Project – by Gene Kim, Kevin Behr, and George Spafford. A fictional account of a DevOps transformation.
Professional Troublemaker – (or really any book) by Luvvie Ajayi Jones. I'm a graduate of Luvvie's Book Academy.
The Staff Engineer's Path – by Tanya Reilly.
Today Was Fun: A Book About Work (Seriously) – by Bree Groff.
Turn the Ship Around! – by L. David Marquet. Why bottom-up leadership beats top-down, even on a nuclear submarine.
Wrong Fit, Right Fit – by Dr. André Martin. It's not always about good vs. bad company culture.
You Look Like a Thing and I Love You – by Janelle Shane. Super accessible book about machine learning and AI.

Support your indie bookstores (and public libraries)!

Blogs, podcasts, and other resources.

AI Weirdness – hilarity from researcher Janelle Shane.
Being Glue – by Tanya Reilly
Dear diary, today the user asked me if I'm alive – by Jesse Vincent
The five stages of losing our craft – by Andrew Murphy
LeadDev – articles and conference videos.
Own Your Impact – by Macy Robison
The LuvvLetter – by Luvvie Ajayi Jones. Rants, reflections, and recommendations. My favorite of the newsletters I receive.