The Balanced Engineer • Issue #28
The Balanced Engineer Newsletter
Week of July 14, 2025 • Issue # 28
🔧 Technical Excellence
Building skills that last beyond any framework
Learnings from two years of using AI tools for software engineering by Birgitta Böckeler and Gergely Orosz (The Pragmatic Engineer Newsletter)
Summary: This piece from Birgitta Böckeler traces the rapid evolution of AI coding tools from simple autocomplete to sophisticated agents that can handle larger problem-solving workflows, while offering practical insights for teams navigating this transition. Birgitta emphasizes that working effectively with AI requires a fundamental mindset shift: treating these tools like enthusiastic but overconfident teammates who need constant supervision rather than deterministic software.
While AI can demonstrably increase coding speed (with potential 10-15% improvements in cycle time), the quality impact is more concerning, with evidence showing increased code churn, declining refactoring, and a tendency toward adding new code rather than improving existing systems. The key insight is that LLMs aren't just the next abstraction level like compilers were. They're a lateral innovation that introduces non-deterministic capabilities into programming, requiring teams to develop entirely new workflows around supervised collaboration, careful context management, and vigilant quality control to avoid accumulating technical debt while the industry figures out sustainable practices.
Why this resonates: I'm always down to share what Gergely Orosz is working on, but this guest article in particular stuck out to me recently. If you've been hiding from AI and want a quick summary of what has been going on the past few years in the software world, this is a great starting point. I really appreciate how Birgitta shared how so many articles are really focused on what the future of AI could be instead of what the reality is now. It's a great low-hype and honest read about where AI is currently delivering value (and where it just isn't there yet).
Tags: AI
🚀 Career & Growth
Intentional choices for long-term success
What layoffs teach us about technical leadership by Chelsea Troy (Chelsea's blog)
Summary: In this article, Chelsea examines what layoff patterns reveal about how companies actually evaluate technical talent. After analyzing countless layoff stories, she identifies four common categories of people who get cut: the "accidentally invisible" (doing great work that leadership doesn't know about), those with "faded glory" (past contributors who haven't found new impactful projects), people who "need auxiliary management" (require extra support from colleagues), and leaders with a "kingdom of none" (managing too few people).
Executives typically make these decisions behind closed doors, while everyone else gets public relations messaging instead of honest explanations. To survive, the author suggests focusing on work that clearly matters to leadership, delivering on all three pillars of success (good work, on time, pleasant to work with), and ensuring your contributions are visible to decision-makers.
Why this resonates: This analysis cuts through the usual career advice fluff to examine what actually happens when companies need to make tough decisions. While the author frames this around engineering leadership, these patterns apply to anyone navigating today's volatile tech landscape. We've all heard the generic layoff explanations about "market conditions" and "strategic realignment," but this article offers a rare glimpse into the actual criteria that might determine who stays and who goes. It's a reminder that doing good work isn't enough—that work needs to be visible, current, and require minimal management overhead! In an industry where job security feels increasingly fragile, understanding these unspoken evaluation criteria could be the difference between surviving the next round of cuts and becoming another layoff statistic.
Tags: Layoffs
🎯 Impact & Purpose
Making work meaningful
Thoughts on Motivation and My 40-Year Career by Charity Majors (Charity's blog)
Summary: Charity Majors shares her raw story of leaving home at 15, working her way through college, and eventually becoming a successful founder and CTO. What makes this essay special isn't just her personal journey from rural Idaho to Silicon Valley—it's how she connects her experiences to bigger questions about meaning and purpose in our careers.
She argues that work can be a source of liberation and that people who care about ethics shouldn't avoid positions of power but should actively seek them out. The key insight for me was her point that the most radical thing we can do right now is to be builders instead of tearing things down, creating institutions with integrity that people actually want to belong to.
Why this resonates: This piece hit me hard because it perfectly captures why I love working being a software engineer and why I believe so deeply in bringing engineers together. Majors writes about being "an institutionalist, someone who builds instead of performatively tearing it all down," and that's exactly how I feel about the work we do in tech.
Her vision of building "institutions with accountability and integrity, institutions with enduring value, that we can belong to and take pride in" describes exactly what I want to be part of. It's not naive to love your work or to believe that what we do as software engineers can make the world better. Sometimes the most radical thing you can do is refuse to be cynical and keep building something worth caring about.
Tags: Purpose
🎯 Try This
One small thing to practice this week
Audit your visibility at work
Take 15 minutes this week to audit your own visibility at work. Look back at the last month and ask yourself: What significant work have I done that only exists in my head or in private conversations? Pick one meaningful contribution, decision, or solution you've implemented and document it somewhere others can see. I do this by putting it in my 1-on-1 notes with my manager each week.
The goal isn't to brag, but to create a "paper trail" of what you're up to, in case someone isn't aware. As the AI article reminds us, the industry is changing rapidly, and as Chelsea Troy's layoff analysis shows, being "accidentally invisible" is a real career risk. This small practice of documenting your impact can make the difference between being overlooked and being recognized when it matters most.
What I've Been Building
A quick look at what I've been working on this week
- Overcommitted: Ep. 15 | Q2 Goals Retrospective - The crew goes over how we did on our Q2 goals and what we have ahead for Q3.
- Illustration: The Alt Text Spectrum
- Overcommitted Book Club: Check out the insights from participant's read of the first chapter of Looks Good To Me!
Before You Go
As you start this week, remember that building a sustainable career in tech isn't just about writing great code. It's about being intentional with your visibility, your growth, and your impact. Whether you're navigating AI tools, surviving industry volatility, or simply trying to find meaning in your work, the common thread is taking ownership of your professional story.
Don't wait for someone else to notice your contributions. Don't assume good work speaks for itself. And don't be afraid to care deeply about what you're building, even when cynicism feels safer.
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.