Simple Makes [Life, Software, Everything] Better.
Simple Makes [Life, Software, Everything] Better.
CS Marketplace is a new initiative from the UW-Madison Department of Computer Sciences that connects campus organizations with skilled computer science students who can build the software solutions they need. The Summer & Fall 2026 cohorts begin soon. Find out more about this exciting new program!
To say we had a lot going on this week is an understatement. So yesterday, I did something that might sound counterintuitive when you’re drowning in life: I picked a drawer and got rid of everything in it I no longer wear. By the end of both sessions, I felt measurably better. This is not an accident. It turns out the science on this is pretty compelling. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, this is the article for you.
AI is giving engineers the gift of time. And most organizations are squandering it. Figuring out what to do with your organization’s newfound time is one of the most important strategic questions that engineering leaders and product teams need to be wrestling with right now. The answer, I’d argue, is discovery. Real, rigorous, customer-focused product discovery. And most teams are not doing nearly enough of it.
When three of our teenagers (ages 12, 13, and 15) first expressed interest in getting scuba certified, I was thrilled (and then a little nervous)! Could they handle the training? What actually happened was better than anything I could have planned. And then nature helped us out a little bit because we saw dolphins on their very first open water dive.
Anne-Laure Le Cunff, a neuroscientist, former Google executive, and founder of the Ness Labs newsletter has a new book, Tiny Experiments: How to Live Freely in a Goal-Obsessed World, and her ideas around ditching goals and focusing on experiments is really interesting. Could you do something like this in your life?
Nobody ever asks about the harder part of retirement: what do you do with yourself? The Minimalists have a five-value foundational framework that make a life feel full and meaningful and retirement needs these same things: health, relationships, creativity, growth, and contribution.
I’ve recently realized that all of the things I’ve found most worth doing, I’ve accomplished by showing up every, single day. My daily habits have led me to write a book, become fluent in new languages, and retire at 41. I blink and suddenly I hit huge life goals. You have to love the power of the daily habit.
I’m writing this on Sunday, March 8, 2026, when most of us woke up with that sinking feeling that only Daylight Saving Time (DST) can bring: we lost another hour of our lives. Let me walk you through the history of how we got here, what’s been done to try to fix it, and why ending this practice once and for all would be genuinely good for all of us.
Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration by Ed Catmull has been on my reading list for an embarrassingly long time. It’s one of those books that everyone in both the creative and tech worlds raves about, and I finally made time to read it. Despite its length and age, it is a refreshing view of management and the parallels between how Pixar works and how software is built are uncanny.
If you have five things on your to do list today, how do you ensure you are as productive as possible? The answer, which is my best suggestion for living the life you want is: delete four of them. That’s not the punchline to a joke, it’s a very effective strategy for getting more of your most important things done and I think of it as ruthless prioritization.