The Balanced Engineer • Issue #26
Diving back into community learning, curating insightful engineering content and exploring mindsets in the tech industry, featuring writing from Sean Goedecke, Marc Brooker, and Jason Lengstorf.
The Balanced Engineer Newsletter
Week of June 30, 2025 • Issue # 26
Hey there! I'm thrilled you're here for what feels like a fresh start for The Balanced Engineer. After some reflection, I realized I was trying to force myself into a weekly content creation machine–and honestly, it wasn't working. More importantly, I found myself so focused on producing that I'd stepped back from one of my favorite things: learning from the brilliant people in our community.
So I've been diving back into what energizes me: curating insights from thoughtful engineers, saving the "aha moments" from articles that make me think differently, and discovering new voices that challenge how I approach problems. This new format lets me share those discoveries with you while giving myself space to write the deeper pieces I'm genuinely excited about.
I'd love to know what you think of this direction! And if you've come across writers, podcasters, or creators who've shaped how you think about engineering–whether that's you or someone else–please share them with me. Building this community of learning is so much better when it's collaborative.
🧠 Mental Models & Problem Solving
How we think about complex problems
Pure and impure software engineering by Sean Goedecke 12-minute read (Sean's blog)
Summary: This article distinguishes between "pure engineering" (focused on solving technical problems perfectly, like open-source projects or game engines) and "impure engineering" (focused on solving real-world problems efficiently within constraints, like most tech company work). Sean argues that pure engineers often underestimate how difficult impure work is - while pure engineering is like art or research where you can perfect solutions indefinitely, impure engineering is like construction where you're fighting legacy code, political constraints, deadlines, and countless compromises to ship features that actually work for users.
This explains why solo game developers clash with big tech engineers, why AI tools help some developers but not others (AI excels at helping with unfamiliar, non-novel problems typical of impure work), and why tech companies are willing to trade performance for other business values. Both types of engineering require different but equally valuable skills, and Sean makes a compelling case that impure engineering - despite being less technically "pure" - is incredibly difficult and deserves more respect than it typically receives from the engineering community.
Why this resonates: This is a novel way to look at two distinct areas of engineering that I hadn't really considered as separate previously. I often told myself that I wasn't "technical", because I have spent the vast majority of my career on the impure end of the spectrum, and have been holding pure engineering work on a pedestal of "how things should be done". This article has given me some words to think about this in a different, less self-deprecating way. I love all of Sean's work (he's a very cool guy and quite the blogger!), but this is one of my recent favorites!
Tags: Engineering
💬 Communication & Collaboration
Because the best code means nothing if you can't work with humans
Career advice, or something like it by Marc Brooker 3-minute read (Marc's blog)
Summary: This article argues that avoiding negativity echo chambers is crucial for career success and personal well-being. Marc warns against communities where complaining becomes the core identity, suggesting a personal limit of tolerating only about 20% negative content before disengaging.
Instead of spending energy in these toxic spaces, they recommend either focusing on positive change if you want to advance your career, or simply accepting your current situation and investing time in personal fulfillment outside work. The key insight is that successful people don't waste time in "#everything-sucks" channels - they either fix problems or accept them and move on. Marc advocates for seeking out "yes, and" communities where people are doing inspiring work, while also taking responsibility to protect the positive communities you care about from becoming negativity echo chambers themselves, even though this social moderation can be challenging.
Why this resonates: The past five years have been a trip, to say the least. Between COVID, the tech market downturn, and the AI hype/fear-mongering, these negative echo chambers feel increasingly easy to find. A general bit of advice I've heard in spaces I've participating in in the past is "you're responsible for the energy you bring into this space". Thinking like that, I try to avoid ever being overly negative. It's a lazy way to relate to others. Yes, sometimes everything just sucks. But if all you're going to do is complain about it, you're not exactly helping the situation. This was a really good reminder for me to just avoid these spaces instead of participating and trying to convince someone that things aren't all bad.
Tags: Mindset
🚀 Career & Growth
Intentional choices for long-term success
"40 things that made me who I am" thread by Jason Lengstorf 5-minute read (Bluesky)
Summary: Jason shares 40 life and career insights that span everything from professional growth to personal well-being. Key highlights include treating your career like a pie-eating contest where visibility leads to more of the same work (#3), prioritizing your ability to work with others as the skill that will matter most long-term (#26), and being unreasonable when chasing big dreams because all the reasonable arguments will tell you not to (#1). He emphasizes relationship-building fundamentals like being a friend first (#2), setting clear expectations (#22), and being kind rather than just nice (#24).
The thread also touches on practical life advice like seasoning food (#11), taking sleep seriously (#38), and rewiring your brain to default to seeing good things (#35). Throughout, Jason advocates for authenticity over persona (#10), patience with long-term goals (#30), and embracing the fact that nothing ultimately matters - which paradoxically makes everything more meaningful (#34).
Why this resonates: One of my favorite superpowers throughout my career is learning from other people's stories and mistakes. I love these types of lists so much, and Jason is an absolute treasure. He's one of the most genuine folks doing some of the most interesting things in this industry, and sharing it with others. If you haven't had the pleasure of being introduced to his content yet, please check out codetv.dev, and in particular check out this episode of the Web Dev Challenge that he created that I'm on!
Tags: Life
🎯 Try This
One small thing to practice this week
Audit your energy sources: Take inventory of the communities, Slack channels, and social media feeds you engage with regularly. Apply Marc's 20% rule - if more than one-fifth of the content is negative or complaining, consider stepping back. Replace one negative space with a "yes, and" community where people are building or solving problems.
What I've Been Building
A quick look at what I've been working on this week
- Overcommitted: Ep. 13 | AI 2027: Will AI take my job? - I loved discussing this article with the crew. AI 2027 is a trip of an article, and we discuss whether we agree with the authors that all humans will be dead due to AI by 2035.
- Blog post: My Honest Take on the BenQ RD280U Programming Monitor After Three Months of Daily Use - I've been using this as my daily monitor for three months now. Here are my thoughts on why I've been converted to programmer-specific monitors!
- Reading/Learning: A Philosophy of Software Design - This is our current book club book in the Tech Book Club at GitHub, and it has been very good! The overall theme is to reduce complexity in software, which is something that I can get behind!
Before You Go
As you start this week, remember that the skills that compound aren't always the flashiest ones. Sometimes it's just choosing to be the person who brings good energy to the room.
Have comments or questions about this newsletter? Or just want to be internet friends? Send me an email at brittany@balancedengineer.com or reach out on Bluesky or LinkedIn.