Weeknotes #14

In which I lose my temper

May 09, 2025

Weeknotes (the triggered edition)

This week on LinkedIn I spotted a hot take comment that suggested that Engineering Management is a role that isn’t evolving and will be amongst the first to be entirely “automated out of relevance”. I’m not one for engaging in comment thread battles with the emotionally unintelligent, so I’m letting off some steam into the void here.

When you consider the visible tasks involved in squad leadership, there’s probably something AI could assist with assuming you can prompt it effectively. Fire off some environmentally-impacting query on ChatGPT and get a summary of that article you haven’t had time to read. Use it as your proofreader, or ask it to take your jumbled notes and give them some structure. Get it to find a meeting time across multiple calendars, or automate HR processes like expenses and other request approvals so you don’t have to fight Workday’s UI. Hell, tell it to prioritise next quarter’s list of “equally urgent” deliverables and spit out a tidy sequential roadmap on a PowerPoint slide for you to share (but not actually stick to once plans change 👀). If you’re an EM operating without EQ, it might just become your best friend.

The day that an AI agent can do more than generate an incorrect meeting transcript void of nuance, tone or humour and instead read body language, pick up on the fact that someone is quieter than usual, that there may be something happening at home that’s affecting how they show up today, that there’s friction brewing amongst engineers that’s about to derail the psychological safety in the room, that someone is quietly worried about how their performance is being perceived; the day it can coach individuals to shift from siloed tasks to teamwork without them fixating on metrics and optics, recognise the long-awaited glimmers of progress, navigate spectrums of opinion, understand the nuance of when to shift from enabling to directive, detect when conversations require tact and diplomacy versus when to cut through the bullshit; when it can build trust and respect, champion folks in calibrations and other rooms they’re not in, celebrate with them in the good moments and approach the tough ones with a balance of clarity and care, recognise someone’s vulnerability as they step outside their comfort zone, see the invisible and notice things before it’s explicitly told… that’ll be the day I’ll entertain the suggestion of it being my peer in leadership.

Until then, AI remains firmly a tool and I will not be threatened by it. It might be helpful in optimising process, but it can’t bake me a cake, take me aside for a quick heart-to-heart or give me a hug when I need it. It can’t celebrate my wins unprompted, just because. Humans are messy, complex, unpredictable, beautiful, emotional beings. AI can’t be that.

As engineering output becomes more and more augmented, there’s lots of talk about how humans must act as the last line of defence against shipping shitty code. But we mustn’t forget to be the custodians of empathy and respect, and keep showing up for the human parts of the role. They are more essential now than ever.