Developer Tea
by Jonathan Cutrell
Latest episode
Three Default Thinking Modes That Can Screw Up Your Planning and…
Three Default Thinking Modes That Can Screw Up Your Planning and…
About this podcast
Developer Tea exists to help driven developers connect to their ultimate purpose and excel at their work so that they can positively impact the people they influence.
With over 17 million downloads to date, Developer Tea is a short podcast hosted by Jonathan Cutrell, engineering leader with over 15 years of industry experience. We hope you'll take the topics from this podcast and continue the conversation, either online or in person with your peers. Email: [email protected]
Episodes
The newest 50 of 1,317 episodes
- Three Default Thinking Modes That Can Screw Up Your Planning and Vision · 17 min · Episode 1315In this episode, I look at the default ways our brains make sense of the world: linear thinking, static thinking, and infinite (non-discrete) thinking. These shortcuts usually…
- Signs You May Have a Regressive Mindset · 17 min · Episode 1314Keeping up has always been part of the job for software engineers, and with AI it's harder than ever. In this episode, I talk about two signals that you, your coworkers, or the…
- How History Can Inform a Dynamic Understanding of Technological Revolutions Mirroring this Moment In Software Engineering · 17 min · Episode 1313You're tired of hearing that you need to pick up AI, so today I'm not going to add to that pile. Instead, we'll look back at two moments in history that look a lot like this one…
- Fundamentals Will Help You Survive the Constant Acceleration of Software Engineering · 13 min · Episode 1311Fundamentals get talked about constantly, but rarely defined. In this episode I dig into what a fundamental actually is — the building blocks, heuristics, and core…
- You Don't Learn Helplessness - You Learn Control · 16 min · Episode 1310A 1967 study gave us the concept of learned helplessness — but the same researchers later reversed it. Passivity is our default state; control is what we learn. In this episode…
- Why Reducing Complexity Is A Sign of Seniority · 15 min · Episode 1308As you grow as an engineer, something counterintuitive happens: the systems you build get simpler, not more complex. In this episode, I explore why senior engineers tend to…
- A Pragmatic Definition for Accountability · 23 min · Episode 1307Accountability is one of the most important concepts in your career—and one of the most frequently weaponized. In this episode, I unpack why so many of us have a visceral…
- Using Substition to Make Decisions Simpler · 19 min · Episode 1306The skills you've built for reading people, reviewing code, and making calls under uncertainty all rely on the same brain shortcut: substituting an easier question for a hard…
- Your Single Most Important Tool for Managing the Uneven Downsides of Risk · 25 min · Episode 1305The skills you build and the tools you master matter, but they aren't your most important asset when things go wrong — and something eventually will. In this episode, I work…
- Why Can't You Go Faster With AI? Focus on the Friction to Find Out · 19 min · Episode 1304The skills you spent years building are getting cheaper to replicate—but that's not where the friction lives. In this throwback episode, I unpack why agentic coding hasn't made…
- Software Engineering Principles That Still Hold Up in an Agentic World - Old Lessons Made New · 31 min · Episode 1303The skills problem isn't going anywhere — it's just wearing new clothes. In this episode, I unpack how the lessons we learned decades ago (limiting work in progress, the theory…
- Principles Oriented Thinking as a Durable Skill in an AI First World · 28 min · Episode 1302The skills that survive every industry shakeup aren't the ones you can Google — they're softer, harder to name, and far more durable. In this episode, Jonathan explores…
- What the Science Actually Says About Effective Feedback · 28 min · Episode 1301Feedback is one of the hardest skills in any career, and most of us have only experienced a handful of moments where it actually drove positive change. In this episode, Jonathan…
- Rebuilding Your Mental Models In the Midst Of an AI Tech Revolution · 27 min · Episode 1300If you're a software engineer right now, the questions you're asking about your career probably feel existential. We've been spending a lot of time on this show preparing for the…
- Practice Isn't Enough for Senior Engineers - Adaptation Is a Key Skill in an AI-First Industry · 20 min · Episode 1299If you're a software engineer right now, you likely feel like your world is changing overnight. We are writing half or less the amount of code that we wrote even a year ago…
- Senior Skills to Maintain Employment Through the AI Wave · 29 min · Episode 1298If you've heard that your job in the agentic coding era is to "become a manager of agents," you may have noticed something doesn't quite fit. Most of us never trained to be…
- You're Wrong All the Time, But All You Need Are Better Explanations · 26 min · Episode 1297What happens when you discover that a book that fundamentally changed how you think is built on a shaky foundation? In today's episode, I share my own struggle with the…
- AI-Proofing Your Skillset - High-Meaning, High-Specifity Vocabulary is the Path to Growth · 31 min · Episode 1296If you've felt like the show has leaned hard into agentic coding lately, today's episode opens with why: the realistic future of software engineering includes these tools, and…
- Building Real Skills During the AI Boom - No, Not That Kind of Skill · 30 min · Episode 1295Many engineers have built their careers on the belief that coding is their primary value — the flagship skill, the gate opener, the reason they get paid. But if AI can do a large…
- Chaos Doesn't Have to Win - Maintaining Order in the Midst of AI Change · 21 min · Episode 1294Your job is changing faster than ever, and it might be tempting to believe that chaos is simply the new norm. In today's episode, I want to push back on that idea. Part of your…
- Mourning the Loss of Coding, Senior Tooling Mindset, and Shaping Your Environment · 34 min · Episode 1293Your tool set isn't just a collection of utilities — it's the environment you live in every day, and it's shaping you whether you realize it or not. In today's episode, I explore…
- Useful Illusions and Exploiting Heuristics · 27 min · Episode 1292Most software engineers believe that having the best thinking — the most complete, most nuanced analysis — is what drives career success. Early on, that belief probably helped…
- Decision Making is Your New Core Skill, So it's Critical to Avoid These Two Traps of Collaborative Decision-Making · 39 min · Episode 1291As coding becomes cheaper and faster through agentic tools, the bottleneck in software development is shifting upstream — away from writing code and toward the decisions that…
- What's Brewing, Edition 1 - What Jonathan is Learning, Using, and Thinking · 1 h 5 min · Episode 1290If you're a software engineer right now, your feeds are probably overloaded with AI hot takes, tool announcements, and advice about how far behind you are. In today's episode, I…
- From Software Engineer to Agent Manager - How Work is Changing in A New Software Development Paradigm · 21 min · Episode 1289If you're a software engineer right now, you likely feel like your world is changing overnight. We are writing half or less the amount of code that we wrote even a year ago…
- AI Moves the Bottleneck - Are You Ready for What That Means For Your Career? · 30 min · Episode 1288AI is bringing massive changes to our industry, but it's not just about how fast you can write code or use agentic flows. In this episode, I explore how AI is fundamentally…
- Listener Question - Abdul Asks About How to Balance Career Strategy Between Money, Meaning, and Skill Transitions · 35 min · Episode 1287Today, we are tackling the natural tension between the desire to make more money—getting a raise, finding financial stability—and the desire to have meaningful, purpose-driven…
- AI-Era Employability and Job Security for Software Engineers - Mental Models for Finding a Competitive Advantage Without Selling Out · 41 min · Episode 1286I've been delaying this episode for a long time because the topic is genuinely difficult and, for many of us, scary. AI is threatening not just to our livelihood, but to our…
- Why Getting Paid Stole Your Drive and How to Get Into the Flow Again (Career Growth Accelerator) · 22 min · Episode 1285Do you remember the early days of your career? You likely spent hours coding late into the night, fueled not by a paycheck, but by the sheer joy of building. But somewhere along…
- The Meta-Habit of High Performers: How Outer Loops Unlock Growth (Career Growth Accelerator) · 26 min · Episode 1284In today's episode, we are discussing one of the most common habits I see in high-performing managers and senior engineers. It isn't a single trick, a morning routine, or a…
- Career Growth Accelerator - Promotion Roadblocks and Knocking it Out of the Park During Performance Review Season · 32 min · Episode 1283It is review season, and you might be finding yourself confused: you received high ratings and "exceeded expectations," yet the promotion you expected didn't happen. In this…
- Career Growth Roadmap - De-risking Your Career By Understanding Your Vulnerabilities · 15 min · Episode 1282Are your career choices truly yours, or are they being held hostage by hidden vulnerabilities? In this episode you'll perform a "career pre-mortem" to identify the people…
- Career Growth Accelerator - Assessing Yourself - Using a Nine-Block to Map Your Skill, Potential, and Energy Investment · 29 min · Episode 1281Evaluating what you are uniquely good at is more than just making a list of your current skills; it requires looking at your past, your future potential, and what actually…
- Career Growth Accelerator: Going from Autopilot to Purpose · 29 min · Episode 1280This episode marks the 11th anniversary of the show, and I want to celebrate by continuing our Career Growth Accelerator series. Today, we’re moving beyond the "autopilot" mode…
- Announcing - Career Growth Accelerator, Episode Zero - Getting Out of Your Own Way · 21 min · Episode 1279This episode kicks off the Career Growth Accelerator series, focused on the specific hurdles faced by mid-to-senior level engineers, managers, and leaders who are looking to move…
- Announcing: The Career Growth Accelerator Series · 3 minAre you a mid-to-senior level engineer or leader who has hit a career roadblock or found yourself stagnated? I'm launching the new Career Growth Accelerator series, focused on…
- Problem Definition As A Path for Career Growth · 15 min · Episode 1278When you hit a career roadblock, the methods that worked for you before often stop working. Today, I’m diving into why that happens, and why the first and most critical step in…
- You Know The Hard Thing You Need to Do Next - Here's Why It's Worth Doing Now · 13 min · Episode 1277We often look for ways to reduce the load on our brains, seeking shortcuts and optimizations to get ahead. Sometimes this works, reinforcing the belief that we can hack our way…
- Career Fundamentals - Avoid Career Traps by Focusing on Primary Paths of Improvement · 16 min · Episode 1276If you're looking to accelerate your career growth, this episode gives you what may feel like hard truths about the path forward. So many engineers fall into traps of…
- Getting to Senior - Taking Ownership Without Leading Projects · 16 min · Episode 1275If you're an engineer looking to move into a senior role, you have likely heard that you need to demonstrate "ownership". Unfortunately, this crucial term is often poorly defined…
- Part Two - Bryan McCann, CTO of You.com, on AI, Engineering, Art, and Everything In Between · 36 min · Episode 1274Hey everyone, welcome to today's episode of Developer Tea. This is the second part of my interview with Bryan McCann, the CTO at you.com. If you haven't listened to Part One, I'd…
- Part One - Bryan McCann, CTO of You.com, on AI, Engineering, Art, and Everything In Between · 35 min · Episode 1274Hey everyone and welcome to today's episode of Developer Tea. It's been quite a while since I've had a guest on the show. Today, I'm joined by Bryan McCann, CTO at you.com. We…
- Going to War with Burnout - Less Hours Isn't Your Only Option · 18 min · Episode 1273I'm tackling a massive challenge today: burnout. While the standard advice usually involves working less, I want to show you a practical dimension of burnout you have more…
- The Good and Bad of Choosing Measurements - Traps and Opportunities of Measuring What Matters · 15 min · Episode 1272In this episode, I dive into the management mantra that "what is measured is managed" and explain why this simple assertion often leads to a complex trap. We discuss why the act…
- Engage in Deliberate Practice to Level Up Your Engineering Leadership Skills · 18 min · Episode 1271I want to dive into the concept of Deliberate Practice, which sets the greatest apart in fields ranging from sports to writing to engineering. I’ll explain why it’s much more…
- Shift Your Locus of Control to Take Charge of Your Engineering Career · 21 min · Episode 1270This episode explores the concept of Locus of Control and why developing a more internal locus of control is beneficial for your career and life. You'll learn the difference…
- Resumé Driven Development - Your Career is In Your Hands · 12 min · Episode 1269In this episode we'll discuss why "Résumé Driven Development" is a powerful mental model for building a thriving career. Instead of seeing your résumé as just a job-hunting tool…
- Forced and Unforced Errors · 16 min · Episode 1268In this episode, we introduce a simple yet powerful mental model from the world of sports: forced vs. unforced errors. By understanding this concept, you can shift your focus…
- View Your Productivity Through the Lens of Values and Priorities · 14 min · Episode 1267In this episode, we introduce two fundamental thought experiments to help you uncover your true priorities and core values. By exploring scenarios of scarcity and abundance…
- This One Skill Signifies Seniority For Software Engineers · 14 min · Episode 1266This episode explains what is arguably the best career advice you'll hear this week: the one skill that signifies seniority in software engineers is the ability to synthesise and…
