Technology leader with engineering depth, systems thinking and a focus on people.
I build the conditions for people and technology to do their best work together.
After two decades across engineering, product and people leadership, I still work hands-on with the platform and team I lead.
Every essay here links myth, history, and leadership is part of my journey, I'm and engaged learner and problem solver. This page is an small insight into the things I consider
Three pillars
Myths
Interpretations of archetype, ritual, order, and the stories institutions tell about themselves.
Explore mythsHistory
Historical reading, turning points, and case studies that sharpen judgement about the present.
Explore historyLeadership
Working principles, decision frameworks, and reflections from leading teams and technology systems.
Explore leadership
Myths
Recurring stories, modern consequences.
Old stories read seriously, not as museum pieces: essays that connect symbol, ritual, and archetype to the language institutions still use to describe themselves.
From God to Man: Gilgamesh's Descent into Humanity
The Epic of Gilgamesh traces a semi-divine king's slow acceptance of mortality: from tyrannical excess through Enkidu's death to a truer, human idea of what endures.
Read the essayKlumpe-Dumpe and the Tragedy of Grantræet
Andersen gave Denmark's own Humpty Dumpty a happy ending borrowed from the untitled fragment that would become his Klods-Hans tale eleven years later, and The Fir Tree dies of mistaking that borrowed plot for how the world actually works.
Read the essayHistory
Case studies, long memory, and the cost of shallow timelines.
Events read in sequence, not as isolated anecdotes: turning points, comparisons across eras, and essays that make the present less narrow.
Heroic Greatness and the Corruption of the Soul: Beowulf and Gilgamesh
Beowulf begins as an admirable warrior and Gilgamesh as an oppressive king, yet both epics arrive at the same question: what happens when a society's highest virtues become insufficient for the world that society must preserve.
Read the essayThe Rod of Asclepius: From Divine Attribute to Medical Emblem
The single-serpent staff is the most historically authentic emblem of medicine, but not because of any one founding myth. Its survival rests on Roman institutional transmission, and the two-snake caduceus so often confused with it entered medicine only through nineteenth-century publishing and a 1902 US Army decision.
Read the essayLeadership
Principles that hold, and the writing that tests them.
How I think about leading teams: standing principles, a philosophy of autonomy, mastery, and purpose, and writing that puts those ideas to work.
The Myth of the Heroic Developer
Saving the day is sometimes necessary. Building an organisation that needs saving every month is a leadership failure, and the hero is usually the last person to blame for it.
Read the essayHuman-Directed Work in an AI-Accelerated Workplace
The question for leaders is no longer whether people work alongside AI, but who sets the direction for what it accelerates. Machines can supply the leverage, provided people keep authority over what is worth doing.
Read the essayHow I think
Principles that guide the work
The problem is usually the system, not the person
When delivery slips or quality drops, asking people to try harder rarely fixes it. I look first at ownership, handovers, incentives and the way the work is set up.
Make yourself less necessary
Good leadership should make a team less dependent on its leader. I invest in people, clear standards and shared context so that good decisions do not have to come through me.
Motion is not progress
A busy team can still be going nowhere. I keep the reason for the work connected to what we build and how we build it. Feedback and lessons from delivery are part of the work, not an afterthought.
Autonomy needs clarity to work
Ownership works when people understand the goal, the boundaries and how they will get feedback. They also need to be able to say when they are wrong. Without that clarity, autonomy is just ambiguity.
Leadership philosophy
Autonomy, mastery, and purpose
- Autonomy
- People take ownership when they know the goal and the limits. My job is to make those clear, give them room to work and make it safe to admit mistakes.
- Mastery
- Teams do not improve by accident. Clear standards, mentoring and honest feedback help people get better through the work they do every day.
- Purpose
- People make better decisions when they understand who the work is for and why it matters. Purpose gives autonomy and mastery a direction.
Put together, autonomy, mastery and purpose help a team do good work without needing me in the room.
About
Why this site exists, and where it meets practice.
This site is designed to hold long-form thinking without drifting away from real responsibility. It connects ideas about myth and history with the daily work of leading technology, teams, and institutions.
Random thoughts
Short, unfiled notes, posted as they come to mind rather than worked into a full essay.
See all random thoughts